It’s been ten years since Hayao Miyazaki — the world’s greatest animator — released his last film, The Wind is Rising, and announced his retirement. Happily he changed his mind, and will unveil (the provisionally titled) How Do You Live? later this year. There is no better time to revisit the spellbinding fairy tales which have enchanted audiences for four decades and made Studio Ghibli the most revered animation studio in the world.
In the second installment of our complete Ghibli retrospective we focus on the years 2000-2011, years of peak accomplishment, beginning with the masterpiece Spirited Away, and also including such gems as Ponyo and Howl’s Moving Castle, as well as charming smaller movies like The Secret World of Arrietty and The Cat Returns.
Spirited Away will screen four times on 35mm film. This is the original Japanese language version, with English subtitles. The other titles in the series will play every other Sunday afternoon on DCP, first in the English language dub, then again, on Monday nights, in the subtitled version.
All ages are welcome at any of our Studio Ghibli screenings!
Fans will need no encouragement to dive back into these lovely movies on the big screen. Newcomers should expect a fantastical cinema imbued with a palpable sense of the sublime, featuring plucky, curious heroines, fabulous contraptions, endearing, mythical creatures, and a living, breathing world which is both familiar and thrillingly unexpected.
The third and final installment in our Studio Ghibli Forever! series will be unveiled in the fall.
— Tom Charity, VIFF Year-Round Programmer
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Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Miyazaki's first film as writer-director (based on his own successful manga) is an extraordinarily rich fantasy film, an eco-allegory set in a feudal, toxic future and a spirited adventure movie.
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Castle in the Sky
An island in the sky? The story of a young boy who sees a girl floating down from the sky. He comes to her aid in her flight from sky pirates, the army and secret agents. Dynamic, imaginative family entertainment in a classic vein of fantasy adventure.
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Kiki's Delivery Service
In keeping with tradition, 13-year-old witch Kiki dusts off her broom and flies away from home for a year of independence and self-discovery in the big city. Her only companion is her beloved black cat, Jiji...
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Only Yesterday
A wistful, lyrical film about a young woman escaping the city and taking stock of her life at 27. Visiting relatives in the countryside, Taeko is enthusiastic about helping out on the farm, but she's also preoccupied with memories of her childhood.
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Grave of the Fireflies
After their mother is killed in an air raid, and with their father serving Japan during WWII, Seita and his little sister Setsuko are forced to fight for survival in the devastated countryside. Rated PG for violence; frightening scenes.
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My Neighbor Totoro
Two little girls and their father move into a beautiful old house in the countryside. Largely left to fend for themselves, Mei and her big sister Satsuki encounter a strange and beautiful world of forest sprites. Miyazaki's most beloved film.
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Porco Rosso
Pigs will fly! This spirited adventure yarn features an anti-fascist flier (who happens to look like a pig) tracking sky pirates over the Adriatic in the 1930s. An exhilarating romp with a melancholy undertow - and amazing flying machines!
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Ocean Waves
Taku and his best friend Yutaka are headed back to school for what looks like another uneventful year. But they soon find their friendship tested by the arrival of Rikako, a beautiful new transfer student from Tokyo...
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My Neighbours the Yamadas
Takashi Yamada and his wacky wife Matsuko navigate their way through the ups and downs of work, marriage, and family life with a sharp-tongued grandmother who lives with them, a teen son who wishes he had cooler parents, and a pesky daughter.
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Whisper of the Heart
A lovely change of pace from Studio Ghibli, this is a teenage first-love story, set in a realistically observed modern day Tokyo. Bookish schoolgirl Shizuku meets her soul mate with a little help from a portly cat. "A beautiful film." Time Out
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Princess Mononoke
A mystical fight between humans and the Animal Gods of the forest. Ashitaka, the last prince of a dying race, struggles to find a way for both sides to co-exist. But the fighting only becomes more and more bloody and all hope seems to be lost…
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Spirited Away
Chihiro and her parents are en route to a new home when they drive through a mysterious tunnel and enter a deserted town. When her folks start gorging on food and transform into a pair of pigs, Chihiro discovers a place of spirits, gods and monsters.
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The Cat Returns
Schoolgirl Haru bravely saves a cat's life - and finds herself summoned to the Kingdom of the Cats for her pains, where she is to become the wife of the Cat Prince! When she refuses, she starts sprouting whiskers and furry ears. What's a girl to do?
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Howl's Moving Castle
Teenager Sophie is cursed by the Witch of Waste and finds herself trapped in the body of an old woman, and is unable to tell anyone what has happened. She finds help of sorts with the wizard Howl, living as a servant in his astonishing walking castle.
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Tales from Earthsea
From the legendary Studio Ghibli, creators of Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, and the director of From Up on Poppy Hill, comes an animated fantasy epic based on the classic book series by Ursula K. Le Guin.
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The Secret World of Arrietty
In this enchanting adaptation of Mary Norton's The Borrowers, co-scripted by Hayao Miyazaki himself, Arrietty, a tiny teenager, lives with her parents in the recesses of a suburban home, unbeknown to the homeowner. Then she meets 12-yr-old Shawn...
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From Up on Poppy Hill
Set in Yokohama in 1963, this is a poignant teen love story. Written by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by his son Goro, the movie tells the story of a lonely high school girl who becomes involved in the fight to save a boys' club house.
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