Saturday Feb 2, 2008 (7:30pm)
Spirited Away is Hayao Miyazaki's inimitable masterpiece. Traveling with her parents (soon to be transformed into pigs), premonitory and morose ten-year-old Chihiro chances upon an abandoned amusement park that fronts a sorceress-run holiday resort for Japanese spirits. After her parents' unfortunate transformations, Chihiro works at a spirit bathhouse and must confront scores of magical creatures in order to find a way to save her parents — and herself. In this beautifully ethereal universe, the Self is kaleidoscopically examined through splinters of Shinto, hints of Lewis Carroll, and Miyazaki's surrealist notion of spiritual pilgrimage.
– Jason Jude Chan