Wednesday, 18 April 2007

Spirited Away

The Miyazaki Hayao film became Japan's biggest grossing film ever (later to be replaced by Titanic) on its release in 2001. Miyazaki Hayao and his anime studio, Studio Ghibli, are flagshipping the transfer of Japanese film to mainstream from a very niche market. The film won the oscar for best animated film in 2003 and as such, is clearly making an impact on the western market. The total gross takings in the USA has reached $10m alone, taking almost half a million in its opening weekend. For a non-western film this is a staggering achievement.

Violence in this film is limited to being very cartoon and barely noticeable as the film is aimed at a family audience. With films like this becoming mainstream however, other films that are more strongly violent may be thought of as not going to present this kind of violence. Cartoons are not directly linked to aggressive violence even if comic violence is common i.e. Tom and Jerry.

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