Tag: Minami Takayama

Kiki’s Delivery Service
(Majo no Takkyubin,
魔女の宅急便)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date August 28 2026
No Comments on Kiki’s Delivery Service
(Majo no Takkyubin,
魔女の宅急便)

Kiki’s Delivery Service (Majo no Takkyubin, 魔女の宅急便)

Director – Hayao Miyazaki – 1989 – Japan – Cert. U – 103m

*****

A young witch sets up her own small business and must learn to make her way in the world – out in a 4K remaster in regular UK and Ireland cinemas from Friday, August 28th following last week’s exclusive presentation in IMAX cinemas

Having reached the age of 13, young Kiki (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Minami Takiyama; 1998 Disney dub: Kirsten Dunst) must leave home to do a year’s apprenticeship as a witch in a location where there isn’t one already. Loaned at the insistence of her mother (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Mieko Nobusawa; 1998 Disney dub: Cath Soucie) the latter’s tried and tested broomstick, and accompanied by her talking black cat Jiji (voice/1989 Japanese dub: Rei Sakuma; 1998 Disney dub: Phil Hartman), she flies out on a night of the full moon. An encounter with a somewhat snooty witch who has just completed her year out reminds Kiki that she needs to develop her own special skill: at this stage, she has no idea as to exactly what this skill might be.

Resting overnight in an in transit railway cattle truck, she takes off again and arrives in Koriko, a bustling city much bigger than the tiny, provincial town where she grew up.… Read the rest

Tags 13 year old, 4K, aerodynamics, airship, apprenticeship, artist, attic room, aviation, baker, bakery, bicycle, black cat, broomstick, cabin, Cath Souci, cattle truck, children of all ages, city and provincial town, crash, crow, delivery, Eiko Kodono, fading ability, feminine intuition, flight trial, flying machine, from girlhood into adulthood, full moon, geese flying in formation, Hayao Miyazaki, IMAX, industrial component, Janeane Garofalo, Japan, Joe Hisaishi, Julia Fletcher, Kappei Yamaguchi; Matthew Lawrence, Keiko Toda; Tress MacNeille, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Kikuo Inoue, Kirsten Dunst, landscape, losing her powers, make her way in the world, miaow, Mieko Nobusawa, Minami Takayama, Minami Takiyama, motivation, near-accident, neighbour, nerd, orders, Pamela Adlon, Phil Hartman), powers of flight, propeller, railway, recovery, Rei Sakuma, rescue, responsibility, romance, sky, small business, soul mates, special skill, Studio Ghibli, stuffed cat, technology, time out, traffic, traffic cop, vertical take off, wind current, witch, Yuriko Fuchizaki

Animation Features Movies

Detective Conan
The Million-Dollar Pentagram
(Meitantei Konan
Hyakuman Doru
no Michishirube,
名探偵コナン
100万ドルの五稜星)

Director – Chika Nagaoka – 2024 – Japan – Cert. 15 – 111m

****

Spin-off from a hugely populardetective mystery manga and anime franchise – and Japan’s biggest box office success of 2024 – impresses on the level of eye-candy provided you don’t attempt to follow the overly convoluted plot – out on UK digital from Monday, March 3rd 2025

Japanese property Detective Conan is huge, running as a serialised manga in Weekly Shonen Sunday for 30 years, and turned into an anime series two years after that. By 2024, the manga has been collected into over a hundred volumes, while the franchise has spawn both animated and live action features among other things. The current film is the 27th animated feature, and at the time of writing is the biggest film at this year’s Japanese box office.

It may not be a good place to start with the franchise. Unlike Spy x Family Code: White (Kazuhiro Fusuhashu, Takashi Karagiri, 2023), which does a surprisingly effective job at getting the newcomer up to speed on a well-established anime franchise, Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram doesn’t bother to explain its characters and their complex network of relationships, so you may find yourself completely lost before it starts throwing its increasingly convoluted plot developments at the viewer (as it does almost immediately with disorienting speed).… Read the rest

Animation Features Movies

Lonely Castle
in the Mirror
(Kagami no Kojo,
かがみの孤城)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date March 1 2024
No Comments on Lonely Castle
in the Mirror
(Kagami no Kojo,
かがみの孤城)

Director – Keiichi Hara – 2022 – Japan – Cert. – 116m

*****

Seven children are sucked via mirrors in their homes into a mysterious castle perched high above a sea, presided over by a wolf queen, and prowled by a hungry wolf at night – plays UK cinemas in the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2024 between Friday, 2nd February and Sunday, 31st March

Teenager Kokoro Anzai (voice: Ami Touma) can’t face going to school. Her understanding mother (voice: Kumiko Aso) takes her instead to the Classroom of the Heart at an alternative school for a session with friendly teacher Mrs. Kitajima (voice: Aoi Miyazaki). This is to be Kokoro’s new school, but in the end, she can’t face going to that one either, so her mum phones her in as sick.

Moping in her bedroom, she is attracted to lights glowing around the tall mirror there before touching its surface which, like the mirrors in Orphée (Jean Cocteau, 1950) dissolve to allow her to pass through them into another world. On the other side, she finds herself in a castle perched high on a rock above a sea along with six other kids – tall Aki (voice: Sakura Kiryu), soccer player Rion (voice: Takumi Kitamura), computer geek Subaru (voice: Rihito Itagaki), piano player Fuka (voice: Naho Yokomizo), enigmatic Masamune (voice: Minami Takayama), and dumpy Ureshiro (voice: Yuki Kaji).… Read the rest

Tags #JFTFP24, 2D animation, Ami Touma, animation, anime, bereavement, bullying, castle, child sex abuse, children, children's story, children’s book, cinema of enchantment, computer geek, confidence, corridor, deadline, emotional damage, enchantment, escape, fantasy, Ireland's Japanese Film Festival, Ireland's Japanese Film Festival 2024, isolation, Japan, Japan Foundation, Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2024, Japanese Film Festival Ireland, Japanese Film Festival Ireland 2024, JFF, JFF Ireland, JFF Ireland 2024, JPF, JPF 2024, JPF Touring Programme, Keiichi Hara, Kumiko Aso, labyrinth, lack, Mana Ashida, Minami Takayama, mirror, Naho Yokomizo, other world, parallel world, piano player, Rihito Itagaki), safe space, Sakura Kiryu, school, self-esteem, Takumi Kitamura, teen, teenage, the clock strikes, trauma, wolf, Yuki Kaji