Haikugirl's Japan

This weekend sees the release of the Studio Ghibli film “Arrietty” in the UK. I actually saw the film a year ago in Japan, but it was so good that I decided to go and see it again.

When it comes to watching Studio Ghibli films, I always prefer to watch them in Japanese with English subtitles, but Arrietty was only showing in English around here. It was strange to watch the movie not only in English, but with British accents. I don’t know why, but I had expected the voices to be American. When I looked into this on Wikipedia, it seems that three versions of the film have been made – Japanese, British and American. Arrietty herself is voiced by Mirai Shida (Japanese), Saoirse Ronan (English) and Bridgit Mendler (American). I had no idea they did this, and I can’t really see the point to be honest.

Anyway, the film was just as lovely as the first time (even though I was a little distracted by the very British voices). Arrietty is high up there in my top three Ghibli movies (along with “My Neighbour Totoro” and “Kiki’s Delivery Service“), and I highly recommend it to everyone! You don’t have to be a Ghibli fan, or even a fan of Japanese animation to enjoy the movie. In fact, I went to see it with my mum and she said she thought it was good. She said she liked the look and feel of it, and also really enjoyed the music. We went to see an Arrietty exhibition together in Tokyo last year, and she said seeing the movie brought that exhibition to life for her.

Arrietty is showing at selected cinemas throughout the UK now. For those of you in Japan, it’s already available on DVD (the Japanese title is “Karigurashi no Arrietty” / 借りぐらしのアリエッティ). Check it out! 🙂

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