Spirited Away: Live on Stage (2023)
Director: John Caird Run Time: 170 min. Release Year: 2023
Starring: Hiroki Miura, Kanna Hashimoto, Kotaro Daigo, Miyu Sakihi, Mone Kamishiraishi
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
About the film:
Hayao Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning animated feature film comes to life in this first-ever stage adaptation, full of dazzling sets, captivating musical numbers, and wondrous puppets of beloved characters. Adapted and directed by Tony Award-winner John Caird, two unique casts and performances were filmed during the show’s acclaimed 2022 run at Tokyo’s historic Imperial Theatre. The Film Center will present Kanna Hashimoto as Chihiro on April 23 and Mone Kamishiraishi as Chihiro on April 27.
After her parents are turned into pigs, a young girl named Chihiro finds herself trapped in a mysterious world inhabited by spirits. Put to work in a magical bathhouse for spirits and demons, Chihiro must use all her wits to survive in this strange new place, find a way to free her parents, and return to the normal world.
About the filmmaker:
John Caird is an English stage director and writer of plays, musicals and operas. He is an Honorary Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company, long time Principal Guest Director of the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm (Dramaten), and was for many years a regular director with the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain. Internationally renowned, Caird has directed and adapted countless productions of plays, operas, and musicals. Among his accolades, he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Director in 1980 and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Play in 1982 for The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. He also won a Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical in 1987 for Les Misérables.
One of Japan’s most distinctive filmmakers, Hayao Miyazaki’s stories consider the conflict between human progress and nature with the existence of the spirit world alongside the mundane. With animation Studio Ghibli, he has produced some of most iconic hand-drawn animated films of all time, including My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). In 2015, Miyazaki received an honorary Academy Award for his impact on animation and cinema.
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