Title: Kiki

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Starring: Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Kappei Yamaguchi.

Watching Miyazachi’s fabulistic animation movies are always a feast for the eyes and the heart. So spectators will definitely “have a KiKi” watching the ultimate work of the Studio Ghibli anime film.

‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ is a children’s fantasy novel written by Elio Kadono and illustrated by Akiko Hayashi and was first published in the year 1985. Miyazaki’s creative team has adapted for the silver screen an exquisite all time fairytale, of the thirteen year old witch Kiki spending a year on her own in a small town, using her magical abilities to earn her living as flying delivery girl.

According to director Miyazaki, the movie touches on the gulf that exists between independence and reliance in Japanese teenage girls, and this undoubtedly extends to all cultures. The gentle coming-of-age story deals with the nature of creativity and talent, as well as the central difficulty every person faces in becoming themselves, whether through luck, hard work or confidence. Once again Studio Ghibli, through a sweet old fashion enchantment, delivers a lovely fable garnished with epic adventures and a universal parable for children and adults.

Technical: B+

Acting: B+

Story: A-

Overall: A-

Written by: Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Kiki Movie Review

By Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi

Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi, is a film critic, culture and foreign affairs reporter, screenwriter, film-maker and visual artist. She studied in a British school in Milan, graduated in Political Sciences, got her Masters in screenwriting and film production and studied at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in New York and Los Angeles. Chiara’s “Material Puns” use wordplay to weld the title of the painting with the materials placed on canvas, through an ironic reinterpretation of Pop-Art, Dadaism and Ready Made. She exhibited her artwork in Milan, Rome, Venice, London, Oxford, Paris and Manhattan. Chiara works as a reporter for online, print, radio and television and also as a film festival PR/publicist. As a bi-lingual journalist (English and Italian), who is also fluent in French and Spanish, she is a member of the Foreign Press Association in New York, the Women Film Critics Circle in New York, the Italian Association of Journalists in Milan and the Federation of Film Critics of Europe and the Mediterranean. Chiara is also a Professor of Phenomenology of Contemporary Arts at IED University in Milan.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *