Miyazaki Madness, Part 5: "Kiki's Delivery Service" and my Ghibli origin story
This is where it all started for me
On Thursdays, I’m publishing reviews of classic movies, including pieces that have never appeared online before taken from my book 200 Reviews, available now in Paperback or on Kindle (which you should really consider buying, because it’s an awesome collection!). In this series, we are examining the filmography of my all-time favorite movie director - and newly minted two-time Oscar winner with his win for The Boy and the Heron - Hayao Miyazaki! We will be looking at all of his theatrical feature films along with the movies he wrote but did not direct, for a total of 15 weeks of Miyazaki Madness! The series continues today with Miyazaki’s 1989 classic Kiki’s Delivery Service. Enjoy…
Kiki’s Delivery Service
1989, Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Originally published in 200 Reviews, combining writing from 2012, 2013, and 2023
The more I think about it, the more I realize that my first viewing of Kiki’s Delivery Service was a truly seminal moment in my filmgoing life. It was not just the first film by Hayao Miyazaki that I had seen, or even just my first anime, but very likely the first foreign film I ever watched. When my mother bought Disney’s dubbed VHS tape for me sometime in the late 1990s, she unknowingly opened a whole lot of doors that would lead to various cinematic obsessions later in life.
I was, of course, cognizant of none of this as a child. I do not think I even knew the film was Japanese. I probably thought it was just another Disney film, albeit one that was quite conspicuously better than its fairy tale fellows. It has, in fact, taken me well over a decade now to understand exactly what Kiki’s Delivery Service means to me, as I see something different every time I return to it.
The film is deceptively simple and lighthearted on the surface, a fun and creative children’s romp filled with visual splendor and lovely, goodhearted characters, but the amazing thing about Kiki is that it is the rare film – for children or adults – that can operate as deeply as the viewer is willing to venture. No matter what degree of thematic or emotional complexity the viewer seeks to find, Kiki’s Delivery Service rewards with intelligence and insight. It is as smart, savvy, and honest an exploration of the way we forge identity in a big, intimidating world as has ever been made, as well as a beautifully subtle and achingly tender deconstruction of the adolescent artistic process. In this way, it treads similar thematic ground as Spirited Away and the Miyazaki-written Whisper of the Heart, offering a meditation on adolescence, maturation, identity, and independence, while also exploring artistry and the nature of creative talent, all of it stemming from the director’s personal views on and observations of our modern world.
If one reads some of Miyazaki’s writings, such as those compiled in the Starting Point book, one will hear him speak of themes present in Kiki over and over and over again. Kiki is, to Miyazaki, a good template for what children must be if they wish to live and thrive in an increasingly demanding world. She accepts help when she most needs it, but is primarily independent, driven to better herself and find a useful, meaningful role in society. There are many difficulties along the way – some external, but many internal – and the power of Kiki’s Delivery Service comes in the deft hand Miyazaki displays when illustrating Kiki’s character arc and the way she interacts with a lively, three-dimensional world.
The film grows in power and poignancy alongside the viewer, sending different messages at different signposts of life. It is one of those rare films I can watch repeatedly and truly enjoy more every single time. Kiki’s Delivery Service is a staggeringly rich and wildly entertaining work of art, one bursting with great characters and driven by an intimate, profound story. It is one of my favorite films, and one of the chief masterpieces of the Studio Ghibli collection.
NEXT WEEK: Miyazaki takes to the skies for the delightful anti-fascist fable Porco Rosso…
All Miyazaki Madness Pieces:
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