Episode 140: That Ain't Plot: On Hayao Miyazaki's 'Spirited Away'

Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is one of those rare films that is both super popular and super weird. Rife with cinematic non sequiturs, unforgettable imagery, and moments of horror, it is an outstanding example of a story form that goes all the way back to the myth of Psyche and Eros from Apuleius's Golden Ass, if not earlier. In this type of story, a girl on the cusp of maturity steps into a magical realm where people and things from waking life reappear, draped in the gossamer of dream and nightmare. Musicologist and WS assistant Meredith Michael joins JF and Phil to discuss a strange jewel of Japanese animated cinema.

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REFERENCES

Hayao Miyazaki, Spirited Away

Kyle Gann, Robert Ashley

Robert Ashely, Perfect Lives

Apuleius, “Psyche and Eros” from The Golden Ass

Henri Bergson, Time and Free Will

Kentucky Route Zero, video game

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild, video game

Jean Sibelius, 5th Symphony

Quentin Tarantino, film maker

Mark Rothko, American painter

Giles Deleuze, “What is the Creative Act?”

GK Chesterton, Orthdoxy

Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

Andrew Osmond, BFI Guide to Spirited Away Special Guest: Meredith Michael.