Dept. of Health

[kaffy_r]

Ghibli Cleanses the Spiritual Palate

I suggested to Bob that we might get rid of some of our stress by turning to something that never fails to do us good; watch a Ghibli movie. Now all I have to do is decide which one to watch. 

In the "Get a couple of things done each day" department, I vacuumed the bedroom, made a choclate-peanut butter cake and some sweet and sour red cabbage, and continued to enjoy a potato scallop dish with cheese that I made a day or so ago.  (June Allyson must be smiling somewhere. Probably with Senator Hruska. I'd say "Look It Up, Children," but my Google-fu can't find the National Lampoon piece that, well, lampooned the two of them. NatLamp was generally as cruel as a bunch of snide, rich kids who were certain they were the smartest kids in the the room could be. But I digress. A lot. Never mind). 

Back to Ghibli. We're going with "When Marnie was There."

Comments

[jesse_the_k]

In a similar mood I popped in the bluray of Spirited Away and I had to stop 40 minutes in because it was so scary!

[kaffy_r]

Fear is so amazingly subjective, isn't it? I have a fear of insects and zombies, for reasons that have to do with lack of brain/lack of mind - it's far too confusing, even to me, to explain, but it's amazingly personal.

I mentioned to Bob that a member of my f'list had indicated they were affected that way by Spirited away, and he immediately agreed with the idea that the movie is frightening. For some reason, I don't find it frightening (except for the scene where Chihiro finds her parents just after they've been turned into pigs.) Everything else appeals to me in terms of dream logic. I don't know whether that's because of the stories I absorbed when I was very young or not; it's as likely a reason as any other, I suppose.

Toward the end of Spirited Away, there's a very calm and exceedingly dreamlike set of scenes on the train you see occasionally going through the water below the bathhouse. After all the crazy action with angry, out-of-control No Face, Chihiro/Sen and a much smaller, much calmer No Face, and couple of other fellow travellers take a trip that never fails to raise my spirit and lower my blood pressure.