Sunday, July 20th, 2003

Anthems For A Seventeen-Year Old Girl

Two movies today – Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Bend It Like Beckham – both coming-of-age tales for teenage girls. And while I am not a teenage girl, I still found them both tremendously fun and enjoyable.

Beckham was pretty standard stuff, story-wise, but done with lots of warmth and humour. What was most surprising to me was that lead actress Parminder Nagra is a full decade older than her co-star, Keira Knightley, not that you could tell. And Ms Knightley… well, I’ll be going to see Pirates Of The Carribean sooner than later, that’s for certain. Anyone who looks like a cross between Natalie Portman and Winona Ryder with an English accent has my attention. Though she could use a cookie. Or a roast chicken.

Kiki’s was another Miyazaki film and was just as terrific as Castle In The Sky, but for totally different reasons. Where Castle was amazing in its adventurousness and epic scope, Kiki’s, the story of a 13-year old witch setting up her own delivery business in the big city, was just flat-out charming. I didn’t even bother with the dubbed version this time – went straight to the Japanese with subtitles. I hope Disney or whoever has plans to release the rest of Miyazaki’s catalog on DVD soon. I want to see them all! I want to live in a Miyzazki film.

np – Radiohead / Hail To The Thief

By : Frank Yang at 10:06 pm
Category: Uncategorized
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  1. jules says:

    your right, Kiki’s is so very charming… you should have checked out the dub, this coming from a staunch anti-dubster, but they surprisingly work really well here. Phil Hartman is the voice of the cat, and his sarcastic deadpan is terrific.

    may i recommend My Neighbor Totoro, if you haven’t seen it already. one of my faves.