Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Miyazaki Does "The Borrowers"


CULTURAL CONUNDRUMS / The challenge of companionable silence
Kate Elwood /

Mary Norton's novel The Borrowers was published in 1952 and won the prestigious Carnegie Medal awarded for outstanding children's literature. Karigurashi no Arrietty (The Borrower Arrietty), a Japanese film released this summer, is based on the novel, with a few tweaks here and there. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi with a screenplay written by Hayao Miyazaki, the setting has been shifted to Japan, but retains many elements of the original. Like many Studio Ghibli films, it is a lovely, well-crafted cinematic work featuring a strong and spirited girl as the central character.

What is perhaps most striking from a cross-cultural point of view is a rather significant transformation in the character of the Arrietty's father . . .


More in The Daily Yomiuri
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/features/language/T100922004814.htm

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