Kiki's Delivery Service
Sep. 14th, 2008 07:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
khiemtranLiem's first Miyazaki film. I'd thought he might have got bored during the slower sequences, but he sat riveted through the whole thing, not once but twice (over multiple sittings).
This is a charming little film. We watched the Disney-dubbed version, which was quite good apart from the rather annoying voice of the cat. Fortunately, he was struck dumb halfway through.
From a writing perspective, Miyazaki films are always fascinating. One thing (of many) to take away is the way the settings are always utterly convincing. They are worlds that you can not only believe in, but also that you could imagine yourself visiting. I have no doubt at all that I could find my way around the coastal city that Kiki's Delivery Service was set in, and that I could look for the signs of damage on the clock tower and buildings from the climax of the plot, and see the bakery where Kiki worked.
Part of it is in the degree of detail in the background - all the small, utterly consistent touches that add up quickly. Part of it is also the apparent freedom of movement the "camera" has - there's never the sense that it's constrained to showing just the part of the city that was built for the story. If any, the daring sweeps of the camera seem to almost bluff the viewer into believing that the rest of the city must all be there too, just as detailed, just as vivid.
I'm not sure how well this translates into writing, but I think it is useful to demonstrate early that there's more to your world than just the scenes your characters will visit. What else will they see or hear of? What will be seen in the background, just over the rooftops, and what else behind it? When the action takes place, what other viewpoints can it be witnessed from? And if you yourself were to explore your story world, what other things would you happen to see, on your walking tour to see the scars your characters left behind?
This is a charming little film. We watched the Disney-dubbed version, which was quite good apart from the rather annoying voice of the cat. Fortunately, he was struck dumb halfway through.
From a writing perspective, Miyazaki films are always fascinating. One thing (of many) to take away is the way the settings are always utterly convincing. They are worlds that you can not only believe in, but also that you could imagine yourself visiting. I have no doubt at all that I could find my way around the coastal city that Kiki's Delivery Service was set in, and that I could look for the signs of damage on the clock tower and buildings from the climax of the plot, and see the bakery where Kiki worked.
Part of it is in the degree of detail in the background - all the small, utterly consistent touches that add up quickly. Part of it is also the apparent freedom of movement the "camera" has - there's never the sense that it's constrained to showing just the part of the city that was built for the story. If any, the daring sweeps of the camera seem to almost bluff the viewer into believing that the rest of the city must all be there too, just as detailed, just as vivid.
I'm not sure how well this translates into writing, but I think it is useful to demonstrate early that there's more to your world than just the scenes your characters will visit. What else will they see or hear of? What will be seen in the background, just over the rooftops, and what else behind it? When the action takes place, what other viewpoints can it be witnessed from? And if you yourself were to explore your story world, what other things would you happen to see, on your walking tour to see the scars your characters left behind?
