Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Spirited Away (English language dub)

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Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-15-2002, 02:37 AM:

Sun 13 Oct 02 (day #3 of the run), 4:50pm; Century Suncoast 16; Las Vegas, NV; theatre #5. THX stadium house, approx. 150 seats, common width slightly curved screen, Christie package, Dolby Digital sound through a Sony processor. Attendance about 25 including five of us from CCSN's anime club Meijin Kenryoku.

Good presentation--Show started on time (my watch is hacked to UTC), in frame, 1.85 aperture filed correctly, lamp output and focus looked good, trailers and snipes assembled well and in good shape, no rolling stock (Yes!), no scratches, clean print, satisfying sound level. The theatre was clean, had no burned out house lights, and no sound leaks from next door. Minor quibbles: High booth angle so keystone and somewhat soft focus was noticable. Maybe a bit too much image cropping at that keystone angle, the Ghibli logo card looked tight, but would need to see some 35-IQ to be sure. No weave, but picture wandered a bit vertically (maybe the print?). Some reel splices could have been made less visible. Automation cues visible in black (aligned along the center of the print as opposed to along the frame lines, or better yet, outside the picture area). At end of show, the sound switched to non-sync just fine, but the picture tailed out until the failsafe killed the lamp. Ah well, poo poo occurs. At least we didn't get blasted out of our seats by it.

As for the film, what can I say? I'm a big fan of all of Studio Ghibli's pictures, so I'm hardly one to be objective about this. Spirited Away was a record-setting hit last year in Japan, a country where movie-going is still not a particularly popular leisure activity. Here, the critics sure sound like they love it too (bandwagon effect?)--as of this writing Rotten Tomatoes is 100% fresh with 90 reviews, and MetaCritic is at 98%. So I think I'm in pretty good company. Obviously I loved being able to finally see it on film and on a big screen as Miyazaki intended, albeit in English. And the dub, for those accustomed to the awful dubs usually accorded to anime films, was superb. I do have heartburn over the consistent mispronunciation of the Japanese names--a couple of hours with a dialog coach could have corrected this prior to committing the dialog tracks to tape (as a former teacher of the language at CCSN, I'm a bit sensitive to that ol' macaroni accent). But overall this is a fine English language localization for the North American audience. John Lasseter's cast and crew done Disney good on this one.

The music is unaltered from the original with Joe Hisaishi conducting his seventh score for Miyazaki, this time with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded not on a sound stage, but at the orchestra's new home in Tokyo's Triphony Concert Hall. The ending theme plays untranslated over the credits as in the original. Too bad there are no subtitles for singer/songwriter Yumi Kimura's lyrics which are quite beautiful and fit the film very well, despite the fact they were not specifically written for this film. One can go to Kristin Olson's fan site to see a translation of those lyrics.

Some viewers will note (as Ian did in his screening report) that the animation isn't as smooth as the best of Disney's, and they would be right. For budget reasons, Ghibli usually animates on 3's, reserving 2's and 1's only for sequences that really need the extra frames. Also, it may take a bit for western viewers to get used to Ghibli's house style when it comes to drawing faces. Miyazaki (along with his long time studio partner Takahata) developed this simple yet expressive style in order to streamline the animation process. Those faces, along with the gorgeous backgrounds, and the subtle control of lighting, cloud, and especially water effects, are all Ghibli hallmarks. Another more recent Ghibli hallmark has become the almost seamless integration of CG and the use of computers to create drawings that still look like cels. Miyazaki constantly reminded his staff that in spite of the computers, SA is a 2D project, and 2D is what Ghibli does best. As he has told interviewers "I'm not giving up my pencil."

Even with the limited animation, and computer implemented cleanup, ink & paint, and compositing, SA still came in with a production budget of $19.2 million US, the largest so far in feature-length anime history. As for boxoffice, SA is the first foreign film to gross over $200 million US prior to a release in the US, and is Japan's all time boxoffice champ, domestic or foreign, live-action or animated. As for awards, on display at the Ghibli museum in the suburbs of western Tokyo is a stack of SA's key frame drawings--all 150,000 of them. On top of that stack sits a Golden Bear statuette, direct from Berlin. Somewhere else sits the 2001 Japanese Academy Award for Best Picture.

Miyazaki says this film is "For people who used to be 10 years old, and people who are going to be 10 years old." Miyazaki apparently has high standards for his young audience. Many of the reviews point up the sheer levels of imagination apparent in the concocting of this original story, but I'm not so sure. To a western audience, the matter-of-fact presentation of the animism aspects of Shinto beliefs, by way of the hundreds of gods shown visiting a bathhouse in the spirit world which is the film's setting, must surely appear bizzare, leading western critics to ask "how did he think up all these weird images?" One critic went so far as to say that viewing this film was "like watching someone else's drug trip." But to the intended Japanese audience this is familiar stuff--stuff so familiar that no one thinks much about it--it simply is what one grows up with. But Miyazaki's handling and lyrical pacing of the story (he wrote the original story and the screenplay) combined with his fanciful designs for the numerous spirit characters (including an homage to Pixar's mascot Luxo Jr.), give the film a very dream-like or stream-of-consciousness quality. Especially noteworthy is the haunting and surreal train ride across the sea sequence. I felt quite a bit of "dump shock" effect upon re-entering the real world after spending two hours immersed in this story.

To me, the character designs stem not so much from pure imagination as from the almost free-form combining of disparate east-west influences, much like the early-Showa era architecture Miyazaki venerates in the backgrounds of this film. The same goes for the story itself. From the west come influences from stories such as "Alice in Wonderland", "The Wizard of Oz", and "The Chronicles of Narnia", combined with influences from Japan's own rich cultural heritage, a heritage that Miyazaki fears is being lost with the younger generations. The film was targeted at 10-year-old girls for reasons beyond the merely profitable.

* * * Minor set-up spoilers ahead next paragraph * * *

Miyazaki's previous Princess Mononoke was aimed at an older crowd. Another fantasy story, PM was epic in scope and much darker in tone than the rest of his films. SA's tone is about half-way back towards his lighter signature children's stories. The story can be read at several different levels, but at the surface it is about a girl named Chihiro Ogino, and begins on a summer's day where Chihiro and her parents are moving to their new house, far away from Chihiro's old school and friends. She's not happy--sulking, whining, and acting every bit the crabby over-protected 10-year-old in the back seat of Dad's Audi. Then Dad takes a wrong turn and ends up in front of what he assumes is an abandoned theme park. The parents decide to get out and explore a bit, against Chihiro's about-to-be-proven better judgement. They come upon a street of open-air stalls, one of them piled high with food. With no one else in sight the parents decide to help themselves to a meal, figuring they can pay later with their ready cash and credit cards. Chihiro's parents, which one reviewer described as having not read their Homer, proceed to make pigs of themselves, first figuratively, and moments later literally in the first of several sequences that earn the film its PG rating for some scary moments. It turns out that they have stumbled into the spirit world, and have commited an unforgiveable act of rudeness by eating food reserved for the gods. That's the first reel, which admittedly takes its time to get going. But over the next seven (for a total running time of 2+05) it's up to Chihiro to figure out how to get her parents restored to human form, and to escape back to the human world. Along the way she is befriended by Haku, a boy/dragon/river spirit with troubles of his own. Together they eventually go up against Yubaba, the sorceress that rules this part of the spirit world. Simple enough right? Of course we know how it's going to end and of course that's not the point. There's a lot more to the story for those that wish to see with eyes unclouded...
(Josh, slap me please!

)

* * * End of spoiler area * * *

Sadly, with this picture Miyazaki at age 61 has retired as a director (he says his eyes and back can't take the strain of his hands-on directing/animating style anymore), but he's not finished telling us his stories just yet. As fantastic as SA is, it is but a warm-up for his current project--as executive producer for Howl's Moving Castle. Based on the novel by British fantasy author Diana Wynne Jones, Howl is scheduled for Summer 2004 release in Japan.

SA makes demands of its viewers that many western audiences will find bothersome (indeed, an older couple walked out of our showing about 20 minutes into it), but for those that can get into it, SA is well worth the trouble of finding a theatre that's playing it (apparently the Mouse' suits aren't as enthusiastic about SA as the Mouse' creative folks). Heck, maybe SA isn't all that culturally alienating after all, as the reviewer for the San Francisco Chronicle noted:

quote:
The other concern, that a Japanese perspective may not translate, is no factor. Take Chihiro's dad. He's got a pot belly, drives a German import and refuses to ask directions. We know that guy.

I encourage anyone to catch Spirited Away during its predicted short stay on our screens and see why Miyazaki is considered by many to be, not the Disney of Japan, but the Kurosawa of feature animation.

Whew! I'll shutup now.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 10-15-2002, 11:33 AM:

Paul Mayer said:

quote:
A lot of stuff, and mentioned that he didn't like American pronunciation of Japanese words.

That's cool. But when are the Japanese going to be able to pronounce OUR words correctly as well? They still mix up the L's and the R's. It's hilarious! Though I do find it intriguing that the Japanese demand perfection when it comes to others in their culture or they consider it disrespectful (they are always very nice about it, though), but are not willing to achieve that same perfection when they immitate other cultures themselves.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 10-22-2002, 02:42 PM:

Caught another screening of SA, this time:
Sat 19 Oct 02 (day #8 of the run), 12:15pm; Regal Colonnade 14; Las Vegas, NV; theatre #12. Wide stadium house, approx. 250 seats, flat screen, looks like common height (Yes!), Dolby Digital sound. Attendance about 25.

Hit and miss presentation (and TAP review)--got there late so missed trailer package and most of the first reel.

Good things: in focus, in frame, clean print with no scratches, satisfying sound level. Theatre was clean, no sound leaks from next door. No automation cues visible, end of show cues worked fine.

Middling nitpicky things: aperture showing some soft edges and corners, some reel splices could have been made better. This theatre isn't as steep as the Century Suncoast #5, so keystone was better but still visible. The house light down cans stayed on at a low level for the show (don't know why, sconces are installed in this theatre). Combined with the very bright amber color rope lights in the floor, this caused high ambient light level, swamping dark scenes in the film. Screen looked underlit (obviously can't be sure without an open gate and spot meter) and the lamp gasball wandered (high time lamp?).

Major thing: no sound from the left screen channel. Oops. Had to rush off to work afterward so didn't get to talk to a manager at the time. Later sent an email to the theatre's GM reporting this, and he responded, saying they would look into it. Turned out that the hi-driver was blown and has since been replaced.

Posted by Brad Haven (Member # 954) on 12-06-2002, 06:33 AM:

I'm not a big fan of anime, but this is a must see!
I had no intention of seeing this, but i had just come out of seeing SPIDER and noticed that the next screening was SPIRITED AWAY so i thought if i like the first ten mins i'll stay, well i was hooked after five!
I found this very entertaining, it's a film for all ages and the dubbing was one of the better attempts that i've heard.

[thumbsup]

Posted by Gerard S. Cohen (Member # 994) on 12-07-2002, 03:12 PM:

Joe:
You wrote
<< They still mix up the L's and the R's.>>
Still funny after all these years...
Actually, there is no "L" in Japanese, so not only have their speakers not learned how to produce it, using the tongue, cheek muscles, and throat, but they cannot really hear the difference.
I gave up trying to learn to speak Mandarin Chinese, because there are degrees of pitch (five, I think) that are essential to hear and produce in speech, and I could not only not reproduce them, but could not discriminate the tones--perhaps as a result of military exposure to gunfire.
Japanese pronunciation on the other hand is a cinch for anyone exposed
to Italian or Spanish, yet rising or falling pitch determines whether you mean "bridge" or "chopsticks" when you say HASHII, for example. (Of course, the context makes it clear as well.)

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 01-16-2003, 02:26 PM:

Disney is expected to release "SPIRITED AWAY" on DVD in the middle of April according to Digital Bits but no detail on the content is available at the present time. I am sure it will include both the original Japanese as well as the star studded English dubbed track. I wanted to see the Japanese version when it was shown at the Varsity Theatre here in Honolulu during it's national release not too long ago but it played there only in Dolby SR and I preferred to see this one in Digital sound. I passed on the opportunity and will wait for the DVD in April so I can watch it with digital sound at home..

-Claude

Posted by Chris Markiewicz (Member # 1415) on 01-16-2003, 07:06 PM:

We just played this January 3-5. It looked fine onscreen and sounded OK, but I noticed on buildup that reels 4 and 5 were printed slightly out of frame. Good thing we can't play SRD! Print was no. 148.

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 04-04-2003, 12:01 PM:

Much to my surprise, Regal is opening "Spirited Away" here today. I plan to see it this weekend, will append a review to this post. Am looking forward to it. Just hoping that the print isn't trashed...

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 04-04-2003, 09:31 PM:

04/04/2003, Regal Valley River Cinema World 8, Eugene OR, 4:30PM, #8,

. Attendance about 45. Not a new print. Not trashed, but definitely not new. There were vertical scratches (roller scratches?) running along the extreme right edge start to finish. Infrequent scratches in the center, minor dirt in some sections, and reel 1 had 3 consecutive splices where the SRD dropped out. Other than that the print didn't look that bad -- I've seen a lot worse. Unfortunately it was not framed properly -- shifted high (and overshooting the masking at the top too) so that a few inches of the hard matte at the bottom of the frame was projected onto the screen. Interestingly, there was one brief scene where the image seemed to go full-frame for a few seconds, and the top of the picture appeared at the bottom of the screen where the hard matte was projected the rest of the time.

I enjoyed the film very much. It's beautiful to look at, the story is interesting, at times fantasy, whimsical (can we say that here?) and occasionally humorous. There were a lot of young kids in the audience and they seemed to like it. I would say it's probably about 15-20 mins. too long but that's just me. Some of the stuff going on will be a bit of a culture shock for western audiences, but nothing most people can't handle. The symphonic score seems very well-recorded and sounded "musical" on their good sound system. The English translation and dubbing is *very* nicely done too.

[thumbsup]

to the filmmakers, [thumbsup]

to Disney for bringing it to American audiences, and [thumbsup]

to Regal for giving it a shot here in Eugene where it can be seen in a good theatre, more-or-less the way it's meant to be seen. For adults, you might want to catch a late-evening show when there are few if any noisy kids in attendance. [Wink]

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 04-13-2003, 01:50 PM:

More 'Vegas screen TAP-style reviews...

Regal Boulder Station 11
W 4/9/03; 12:30pm; Theater #2
Stadium 78 seats; flat common width screen

Video for slides, 1.78 image didn't quite fill the 1.85 screen in any direction.
[Editorial comment] Why would any theater run TV ads (in this case for NBC and USA Network shows) or DVD ads (for Harry Potter)?!?
Regal policy snipe on video, Dolby train snipe and trailers on 35mm.
Adjusted framing at start, then left it framed too high showing almost a foot of bottom hard matte.
Booth work lights show port window pattern on screen during the first part of the show.
Somewhat dim picture, but good lamp focus and steady arc.
C/O splices showed--misaligned zebra tape on non-soundtrack side.
Several momentary Dolby Digital dropouts.
Voice timbre changed as dialog panned across screen speakers.
Subs sounded punched up.

* * * * *
UA Green Valley 8
W 4/9/03; 3:30pm; theater #3
Traditional auditorium of approx. 400 seats, flat common height screen

Rolling stock, trailers, NBC and USA Network ads, all on 35mm.
SR sound only (advertised DTS on hallway marquee).
Clean print with good splices, but...
Lots of technical problems:
House lights: Stayed on at half until manually punched down.
Focus: Show ran very out of focus. I notified a manager; she looked at me like I was a jerk for mentioning it. A few moments later the house lights went down to show level, but focus never changed.
Optical ghosts: Bright objects at bottom of frame showed blurred and inverted at the top of the frame. Bright objects at the top showed blurred and inverted at the bottom.
Flicker: Very noticable shutter-rate flicker.
Since the focus didn't improve after 30 minutes I decided to leave.
Visiting this UA location is a waste of the customer's time and money--film done very very wrong.

* * * * *

Century Orleans 18
W 4/9/03; 5:00pm; theater #14
Stadium 150 seats; curved common width screen; THX house
Good screen light level.
Tack sharp focus!
Framed too low showing a few inches of top hard matte on some reels.
Clean print, but with minor backing side scratches.
One c/o splice showed a few frames of "brown black."
Could hear splices go through in Dolby Digital.
The subs sounded punched up.
Best screen in 'Vegas for seeing this title.

* * * * *
Century Suncoast 16
Th 4/10/03; 11:45am; theater #14
Stadium 133 seats, slightly curved common width screen
Scratched print--minor backing scratches throughout
Good focus.
Framed too high--hard matte showed at lower corners.
Splices sounded good (silent).
Cue for house lights placed one fadeout too early (about a minute before credits).

* * * * *
Regal Colonnade 14
Th 4/10/03; 4:00pm; theater #5
Stadium 120 seats, flat off-center screen, probably common width
Screen had four patched holes in it along the left half of the bottom edge.
Video for slides, rolling stock, NBC ads, USA Network ads, and the Regal policy snipe.
Dolby train snipe and trailers on film.
Clean print.
Good framing and focus.
Aperture plate didn't slide over quite far enough--soft right edge.
Very bad buzz in audio for video.
Port noise--could hear the projector running.
Automation switched to n/s sound at end but picture tailed out on screen.

* * * * *
Century Sam's Town
F 4/11/03; 2:25pm; theater # 9
Stadium approx. 150 seats, slightly curved common width screen
Somewhat dirty and scratched print with several splices not at reel joins.
Good framing, adequate focus.
Aperture filed and positioned correctly.
Zebra tape splices showed at right-hand edge.
Sound would not stay in Dolby Digital--kept reverting to and remaining in SR on every splice.
Extra cue on the print brought up the house lights at the start of the main feature--had to go out and find a manager.
The manager told me this location is looking for a projectionist--any takers? [Smile]

[ 04-14-2003, 02:53 PM: Message edited by: Paul Mayer ]

Posted by System Notices (Member # 2357) on 06-09-2012, 03:32 PM:

It has been 3345 days since the last post.