The American Cinematheque Presents
Castles in the Sky: Miyazaki, Takahata and The Masters Of Studio Ghibli
A 14-Film Retrospective Featuring New 35MM Prints
of Studio Ghibli Classics including SPIRITED AWAY and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
January 26 – February 12, 2012 at the Egyptian & Aero Theatres
Studio Ghibli, founded in Tokyo in 1985 by animation directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, is one of the most successful and well-respected animation studios in the world. Cultivating a creative force of talented directors, animators and storytellers under the revered brilliance of Miyazaki and Takahata, Studio Ghibli’s films have been praised for their originality, dazzling animation and epic storytelling. Hayao Miyazaki’s SPIRITED AWAY won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2002, and in 2005 Miyazaki was named one of “the most influential people” by TIME magazine.
The American Cinematheque is thrilled to present a comprehensive retrospective of Studio Ghibli’s films, including new 35mm prints of several films that have never been released in North America. Half of the films will be presented in the original Japanese language versions with English subtitles, and half will be dubbed in English for a more family-friendly experience.
Egyptian Theatre · 6712 Hollywood Blvd · Los Angeles, CA · 90028
Aero Theatre · 1328 Montana Ave at 14th St · Santa Monica, CA · 90043
The series is listed below in chronological order, so please be sure to
note whether the film is playing at the Egyptian Theatre or Aero Theatre.
Thursday, January 26 at 7:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre
PORCO ROSSO
New 35mm Print! 20th Anniversary!
1992, 94 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended Ages: 8+ to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
Set in a mid WWII-Italy swept by fascism, this unsung treasure from Hayao Miyazaki follows Marco, a world-weary flying ace-turned-bounty hunter who plies his trade above the waters of the Adriatic. Somewhere along the way a curse has transformed Marco’s head into that of a pig, reflecting his loss of faith in humanity. Marco meets his polar opposite in innocent 17-year-old aspiring plane designer Fio, and the two are catapulted into an airborne adventure pursued by air pirates, the Italian army and an egotistical American flying ace. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Friday, January 27 at 7:30 PM – Aero Theatre
SPIRITED AWAY
New 35mm Print!
SEN TO CHIHIRO NO KAMIKAKUSHI
2001, 125 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended Ages: 8 to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
Combining Japanese mythology with Through The Looking Glass-type whimsy, Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning masterpiece was the biggest box office hit of all time in Japan and a film that helped redefine the possibilities of animation. Wandering through an abandoned carnival site, 10-year-old Chichiro stumbles into a dream-like spirit world where she is put to work in a bathhouse for the gods. Here she encounters a vast menagerie of impossibly inventive characters – including shape-shifting phantoms – and must find the inner strength to outsmart her captors and return to her family. “Prepare to be astonished” – Los Angeles Times “Epic and marvelous! Phantasmagoric!” – New York Times “One of the year’s best films!” – Roger Ebert. Dubbed in English from Japanese.
Saturday, January 28 at 7:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre
NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND
New 35mm Print!
KAZE NO TANI NO NAUSHIKA
1984, 116 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended Ages: 8+ to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
Based on the manga of the same name, this first of many triumphs for Hayao Miyazaki is set a thousand years after a nuclear holocaust has gutted the globe. After the death of her father and an attack from the hostile Tormekia, Princess Nausicaä must use her uncanny ability to communicate with the giant crustacean Ohmu to unite her people against the threat of annihilation. With music by Miyazaki collaborator Joe Hisaishi. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Sunday, January 29 at 4:00 PM – Aero Theatre
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
New 35mm Print! Family Matinee!
TONARI NO TOTORO
1988, 86 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended Ages: All Ages. More Info
The third Studio Ghibli feature from Miyazaki tells the story of two young sisters, Satsuki and Mei Kusakabe, who move into a new house with their father near a vast forest to be closer to their ailing, hospitalized mother. Discovering wondrous forest spirits and dust bunnies, they also encounter Totoro, a giant lumbering bunny-esque creature. “Here is a children’s film made for the world we should live in, rather than the one we occupy. A film with no villains. No fight scenes. No evil adults. No fighting between the two kids. No scary monsters. No darkness before the dawn. A world that is benign. A world where if you meet a strange towering creature in the forest, you curl up on its tummy and have a nap. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO has become one of the most beloved of all family films without ever having been much promoted or advertised.” – Roger Ebert, The Chicago Sun-Times. Dubbed in English from Japanese.
Sunday, January 29 at 7:30 PM – Aero Theatre
WHISPER OF THE HEART
New 35mm Print!
MIMI WO SUMASEBA
1995, 111 min. Dir: Yoshifumi Kondo. Recommended Ages: 9 to Adult. More Info
In the mid-’90s, Miyazaki wanted to mentor a new generation of animation artists in Japan. This was the result – a gentle coming-of-age drama scripted, produced and storyboarded by Miyazaki and directed by Yoshifumi Kondo. Shizuku, a shy student with high school entrance exam worries and inchoate aspirations, meets a magical cat on a commuter bus and follows it to a boutique where significant objects abound, each with a story of its own. “Miyazaki’s script suggests that a sense of magic can exist, even in everyday Tokyo,” – animation historian Charles Solomon. The story of a young girl finding her voice both literally and figuratively, WHISPER OF THE HEART is a film tinged by tragedy: Yoshifumi Kondo died of a brain aneurysm in 1998. His only feature attests to his talent, and Miyazaki has yet to find an equally talented protégé. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Thursday, February 2 at 7:30 PM – Aero Theatre
OCEAN WAVES
Los Angeles Premiere! Not available in any North American home viewing formats.
UMI GA KIKOERU
1993, 72 min. Dir: Tomomi Mochizuki. Recommended ages: 8+ to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
Full of shots bathed in a palette of pastel colors and rich in the unexpected visual details typical of the studio’s most revered works, this was the first Studio Ghibli film directed by someone other than founders Miyazaki and Takahata; director Tomomi Mochizuki led a talented staff of younger employees in an adaptation of Saeko Himuro’s best-selling novel. Taku and his best friend Yutaka are headed back to school when they find their friendship tested by the arrival of Rikako, a beautiful new transfer student from Tokyo whose attitude vacillates wildly from flirty and flippant to melancholic. When Taku joins Rikako on a trip to Tokyo, the school erupts with rumors, and the three friends are forced to come to terms with their changing relationships. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Friday, February 3 at 7:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre
PRINCESS MONONOKE
New 35mm Print!
MONONOKE-HIME
1997, 134 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended ages: 10+ to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
A landmark of animation and film of unsurpassed power and beauty, Miyazaki’s epic story of conflict and balance between humans, god, and nature has been universally acclaimed by critics and broke the box office record on its original release in Japan. While defending his village from a demonic boar-god, young warrior Ashitaka becomes afflicted with a deadly curse that grants him super-human power in battle – but will eventually take his life. To find a cure, he journeys deep into sacred depths of the Great Forest where he meets San (Princess Mononoke), a girl raised by wolf-gods who is a force of nature, terrorizing the human outpost of Iron Town on the edge of the Forest. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Saturday, February 4 at 4:00 PM – Aero Theatre
THE CAT RETURNS
New 35mm Print! Family Matinee!
NEKO NO ONGAESHI
2002, 75 min. Dir: Hiroyuki Morita. Recommended ages: 6+ to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
In this sequel to WHISPER OF THE HEART, quiet suburban schoolgirl Haru spots a cat with a small gift box in its mouth attempting to cross a busy street. The cat fumbles the package in the middle of the road as a truck is rapidly bearing down, and Haru manages to scoop the cat away to safety. To her amazement, the cat then gets up on its hind legs, brushes itself off, and thanks her very politely. Later, the King of Cats arrives to greet Haru in a feline motorcade replete with maidens and Secret Service cats. In a show of gratitude for saving his son’s life, the king cat showers Haru with gifts and decrees that she shall marry the cat prince and come to live as a princess in the secret Kingdom of Cats. Dubbed in English from Japanese.
Saturday, February 4 at 7:30 PM – Aero Theatre
CASTLE IN THE SKY
New 35mm Print!
TENKU NO SHIRO RAPYUTA
1986, 124 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended ages: 7 to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
Don’t miss this rare opportunity to see one of Miyazaki’s most stunningly beautiful, exciting, and infrequently screened earlier films. A young girl with a mysterious crystal pendant falls out of the sky and into the arms of young Pazu. Together they search for a floating island in the sky, site of a long-dead civilization promising enormous wealth and power to those who can unlock its secrets. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Tuesday, February 7 – 7:30PM – Egyptian Theatre
SPIRITED AWAY
New 35mm Print! Encore screening in original Japanese.
SEN TO CHIHIRO NO KAMIKAKUSHI
2001, 125 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended Ages: 8 to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
See film summary above, 1/27. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Wednesday, February 8 at 7:30 PM – Aero Theatre
MY NEIGHBORS THE YAMADAS
New 35mm Print!
HOHOKEKYO TONARI NO YAMADA-KUN
1999, 104 min. Dir: Isao Takahata. Recommended ages: 8+ to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
In a break from the frequently mythical storytelling of Studio Ghibli, director Isao Takahata wryly tweaks the everyday activities of family life with his depiction of the irresponsible, slovenly, and lazy Yamada family and their unassuming way of life. With cartoon-like characters and visual design unlike anything else in the Ghibli canon, the film is illustrated in a series of rough sketches and outlines, which are then filled with soft colors that evoke watercolor painting. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Thursday, February 9 – 7:30 PM – Aero Theatre
ONLY YESTERDAY
New 35mm Print! Los Angeles Premiere!
Not available in any North American home viewing formats.
OMOHIDE PORO PORO
1991, 118 min. Dir: Isao Takahata. Recommended ages: 9+ to adult. More Info | TRAILER
At a crossroads in her life, bored twentysomething Taeko heads on a trip to the countryside, which dredges up flashbacks of forgotten adolescent memories – the first stirrings of romance, the onset of puberty, the frustrations of math and boys – in this double period piece that beautifully evokes both the 1960s and 1980s. Studio Ghibli is known for its female heroines, from Princesses Nausicaä and Mononoke to Kiki – but this quintessential drama of Japanese school-day nostalgia delves deeper into the real emotional experiences of girls and women than perhaps any animated film before or since. In Japanese with English subtitles.
Friday, February 10 at 7:30 PM – Aero Theatre
POM POKO
New 35mm Print!
1994, 119 min. Dir: Isao Takahata. Recommended ages: 7 to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
In this brilliant and often overlooked Studio Ghibli masterpiece, the forests are filled with groups of magical tanuki, mischievous raccoon-like animals from Japanese folklore that are capable of shape-shifting to practically any object. The tanuki spend their days playing idly in the hillsides and squabbling over food – until the construction of a huge new Tokyo suburb threatens their way of life. The tanuki learn to transform into humans and trick the workers into thinking the construction site is haunted, resulting in a spectacular spirit parade with thousands of ghosts, dragons and other creatures descending on the city at night – in an abundance of fantastical characters that would not be matched on screen until SPIRITED AWAY. Dubbed in English from Japanese.
Saturday, February 11 – 4:00 PM – Aero Theatre
KIKI’S DELIVERY SERVICE
Family Matinee!
MAJO NO TAKKYUBIN
1989,102 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended for all ages. More Info | TRAILER
Rarely has Miyazaki’s art been so brilliantly rendered as in this delightfully imaginative film – the beloved story of a young witch who uses her broom to create a delivery service. It is tradition for all young witches to leave their families on the night of a full moon and set out into the wide world to learn their craft. When that night comes for Kiki, she embarks on her life journey with her chatty black cat, landing the next morning in a seaside village, where a bakery owner hires her to make deliveries. Miyazaki described the film as an observation of the gulf that exists between independence and reliance in Japanese teenage girls. Dubbed in English from Japanese.
Sunday, February 12 at 4:00 PM – Egyptian Theatre
HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE
Family Matinee!
HAURU NO UGOKU SHIRO
2004, 119 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended ages: 8+ to Adult. More Info | TRAILER
Sophie, an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. But after this chance meeting, the young girl is turned into a 90-year old woman by the vain and conniving Witch of the Waste. Embarking on an incredible adventure to lift the curse, she finds refuge in Howl’s magical moving castle. As the true power of Howl’s wizardry is revealed, and his relationship with Sophie deepens, our young grey heroine finds herself fighting to protect them both from a dangerous war of sorcery that threatens their world. This was the second Studio Ghibli film to be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Academy Awards. Dubbed in English from Japanese.
Sunday, February 12 at 7:30 PM – Egyptian Theatre
MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO
New 35mm Print! Encore screening in original Japanese.
TONARI NO TOTORO
1988, 86 min. Dir: Hayao Miyazaki. Recommended ages: 10+ to Adult. More Info
See film summary above, 1/29. In Japanese with English subtitles.
American Cinematheque at the Egyptian and Aero Theatres
www.americancinematheque.com | More Information on the Studio Ghibli Series
Egyptian Theatre · 6712 Hollywood Blvd · Los Angeles, CA · 90028
Aero Theatre · 1328 Montana Ave at 14th St · Santa Monica, CA · 90043
Tickets To Each Film: $11 General Admission, $9 Student/Senior, $7 American Cinematheque Member
Buy Tickets: Egyptian Theatre | Buy Tickets: Aero Theatre
