The Secret World of Arrietty

[bobover3 (imported)]

Just saw "The Secret World of Arrietty" and thought it a brilliant addition to Miyazaki's body of work.

The story is about a family of people only a few inches tall who live secretly inside the walls of a normal human home. The altered scale makes things noticeable that we take for granted. (I thought of Swift's Gulliver, who enjoyed the same heightened perceptiveness.) The little people - called Borrowers - must work very hard to survive. Their lives are full of danger and hardship, which they overcome through effort, will, prudence, and solidarity with one another. Their world is shaken when a sick boy, staying in the house before an operation, sees Arrietty, the daughter of the little family. The intervention of big people, even if well meaning, threatens the Borrowers.

The story and imagery convey a powerful sense of the beauty, fragility, and preciousness of life. The Borrowers are just like us at our best - struggling to survive, armed mainly with love and courage, trying to avoid being capsized by events and "big people" outside our control. Their plight is our plight, and this film overflows with compassion for our brief lives.

I read a newspaper review that said this film has no "soul." In its slow moving, gentle way, it had me near tears. Another Miyazaki masterpiece. This time, an old man's (Miyazaki is 71) bittersweet retrospective on the business of living.

[Charrett]

Actually I could not agree more! Soul is EXACTLY what this film has. IT is both touching, and to a great degree fatalistic. The real heroism is that of leaving along what needs to be left. You will laugh and cry in equal measures at this one. That's not to mention the extraordinary graphics work by the Studio Ghibli artists!