Lately, I didn't have too much time to post. But I did catch on some reading, and after a while, after many months, I watched a full movie. I can read books, listen to audiobooks, but watching a movie is not an easy task for me. As, in my household, my kids control the livingroom TV. The bedroom TV, by the time I get to go to bed after tucking them in, I am mostly wasted and ready to lie down. So watching a movie, these days, are virtually impossible to me.
That said, based on a recommendation, I started watching Spirited Away. I said started, but I couldn't finish in one go. Not because the movie is uninteresting, its the opposite, its un-putdownable, but it is the phase of life I am in, where it is hard for me to find a continuous block of 2 hours of time. Anyways, back to the Movie!
I will try not to write a review of this movie, because many reviews are already out there, so I don't think I will add anything new. Rather I like to write about my personal experience. The reason, I started watching Sprited Away, is because my recent interest into magical realism, the type of genre popularized by Japanese author Haruki Murakami. But until Spirited Away, I was not introduced to filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, thank you 
Japanese myths are different from conventional myths from the west or even from the east (sub-continent). There are extensive uses of multiple realms, parallel dimensions, alternate realities. Characters can cross over to the 'other side' quite easily through a portal. Portals can be of many different types. Most times the transfer is temporary and typically there is a way to come back to your own reality. Murakami used this concept over and over again in many of his books. My understanding was mostly through his writings, which can often be difficult, and it has been proven over and over again that it is not easy to translate Murakami. What Miyazaki's Sprited Away does, is it provides a spectacular visual of perhaps a version of Alice in Wonderland through Japanese myths. I am sorry, what am I even talking about! Japanese myths are far older than Alice in Wonderland. So it is likely the other way around.
In the movie, Ten-year-old girl Chihiro follows his parents into an old looking building, which appears at first as a doorway to perhaps an old theme-park (which turned out to a bath house for the spirits). Chihiro's dad said, they were building them everywhere in the 90s, and then the economy tanked and they became abandoned! Sounds familiar? For the people from the United States, this is such a reality right now. Shopping Mall after Shopping Mall empty and abandoned!
Also 10 year old is such an interesting age! I am re-living it currently through my older daughter who is ten. At this age they are only begining to shape their world in their own way. They begin to have an opinion. They don't necessarily listen to the parents anymore. They begin of have a loyal friend circle, and spend more and more time with them outside, than at home. I was like that, and thankfully my older daughter is also like that. Her opinions have began to diverge from mine, which swells!
I see Chihiro and I think about my daughter. How she was reluctant to go through the portal at first. The doorway of the 'theme park' was the portal in the movie. It is interesting how her parent told her, why don't we explore a bit, it will be fun. I have said that a hundred times to my daughter, who was often reluctant to do or go whatever I was doing or going. Interesting thing is when reality changes, kids are often much of reselient than the adults. They adapt to the new reality, however, scary and different it might be, rather quickly.
Soon Chihiro had no problem realizing that his parents have turned into pigs, she is alone in this strage realm, and soon she had no problem dealing with monsters, spirits or all shapes and sizes, and making friends, finding love and respect and even taking the next step beyond into the complete unknown and rescuing her parents!
That's the spirit!
That is what I expect from my daughters! I hope they will travel into the unknown, make friends even with monsters if needed, and explore beyond their horizons! I really wish they do that!
