7.8

Gake no ue no Ponyo

2007, Japan

• Actors: Yuria Nara, Hiroki Doi, Jôji Tokoro, Tomoko Yamaguchi, Yûki Amami, Kazushige Nagashima, Akiko Yano, Shinichi Hatori, Tokie Hidari, Eimi Hiraoka, Rumi Hîragi, Tomoko Naraoka, Nozomi Ôhashi, Kazuko Yoshiyuki, Akihiko Ishizumi, Eiko Kanazawa, Tomie Kataoka, Shiro Saito, Mutsumi Sasaki, Akiko Takeguchi, Yusuke Tezuka, Keiko Tsukamoto, Ikuko Yamamoto, Michiko Yamamoto, Yoshie Yamamoto, Cate Blanchett, Noah Lindsey Cyrus, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Frankie Jonas
• Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family, Fantasy
• Director(s): Hayao Miyazaki
• Available languages:
  • English English.

The son of a sailor, 5-year old Sosuke lives a quiet life on an oceanside cliff with his mother Lisa. One fateful day, he finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle on the beach and upon rescuing her, names her Ponyo. But she is no ordinary goldfish. The daughter of a masterful wizard and a sea goddess, Ponyo uses her father's magic to transform herself into a young girl and quickly falls in love with Sosuke, but the use of such powerful sorcery causes a dangerous imbalance in the world. As the moon steadily draws nearer to the earth and Ponyo's father sends the ocean's mighty waves to find his daughter, the two children embark on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world and fulfill Ponyo's dreams of becoming human.

  8.6

Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi

2001, Japan

• Actors: Rumi Hîragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tatsuya Gashûin, Ryûnosuke Kamiki, Yumi Tamai, Yô Ôizumi, Koba Hayashi, Tsunehiko Kamijô, Takehiko Ono, Bunta Sugawara, Noriko Kitou, Shiro Saito, Ken Yasuda, Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers, Lauren Holly, Michael Chiklis, John Ratzenberger, Tara Strong, Mickie McGowan, Jack Angel, Bob Bergen, Rodger Bumpass, Jennifer Darling
• Genre: Animation, Adventure, Family, Fantasy
• Director(s): Hayao Miyazaki
• Available languages:
  • Japanese Japanese.

Chihiro and her family are on their way to their new house in the suburbs when her father decides to take a shortcut along a lonely-looking dirt road. After getting out of the car and walking along a path for a while, they discover an open-air restaurant filled with food but with no workers or customers present. Mom and Dad don't hesitate to sit down and dig in, but Chihiro senses danger and refuses. As night falls, she is terrified to see the area fill with faceless spirits, but when she runs to find her parents, she discovers that they have been turned into pigs. She is found by a mysterious boy named Haku, who promises to help her. He gets her a job working in a nearby building, which turns out to be a bathhouse for the thousands of Japan's gods and spirits. Though the work is hard and the people strange, she does as well as she can. Her parents, however, are still waiting in the hotel's stockyard, and Chihiro must find a way to break the spell on them before they end up as the main course of some guest's dinner.