On Thursday night the Asian Student Union (ASU) kicked off their Ghibli fest with kettle popcorn and the subbed version of the famed animated movie, Spirited Away, from studio Studio Ghibli. Yes, subbed not dubbed.
If you’ve never seen Spirted Away here’s a quick overview. The film follows a young Japanese girl, Chihiro, who is moving to a new house when she and her parents are suddenly transported into the spirit world. Her parents are turned into pigs by an evil witch and with some unlikely characters, Chihiro must try to get herself and them back home. The movie has amazing animation and really clever and whimsical elements. There is a very good reason it’s considered one of the best Studio Ghibli films.
For those who have never heard of Studio Ghibli, it’s an award-winning Japanese animation company known for its soothing music, cute plots and jaw-dropping animation. They produced Spirited Away which won a best-animated feature award in 2003. They have also produced work like My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Castle in the Sky.
The president of the ASU, Alexander Gao, shared that Studio Ghibli was an important and fun part of growing up in an Asian family and how childhood could bring everyone closer together.
“The Studio Ghibli movies are something a lot of Asian students here grew up watching and [the author’s] vision helps you appreciate the little things because he puts a lot of details in his animation. A lot of us grew up watching them and most of us are from a super super big country so most often time there’s not a lot of attention to detail in everyday life so it’s a breath of fresh air for a lot of us and we just want to share that. I think this is a really good way for the SOU community to get to know the Asian population at SOU,” Alexander Gao states.
Going off of that, Lianna Inthavong, the Media Officer, talks about bringing inclusivity to a more prominent light at SOU.
“At the beginning of the year we were all trying to come up with ideas for what kind of events ASU wants to hold so we came up with Ghibli Fest because a lot of us has seen the Ghibli movies. We just wanted more involvement and for students to know what ASU is all about it,” Lianna states.
On the flip side, sometimes it’s nice to just sit back and watch a really good movie. When asked if this worked as a stress relief for upcoming tests and projects Daphnis Metcalf, a freshman at SOU, explained, “Oh yeah it was really relaxing, really nice to just watch a movie.”
If students missed this event, don’t worry! There will be another film showing next week, November 21st, featuring the movie Ponyo at 6:30 pm in the Guanajuato room in Stevenson Union. If you’ve never seen Studio Ghibli or need relief from finals now is a perfect time.