This is the perfect movie to watch the day after Halloween. When you still have decorations up, candy wrappers on the floor and the trashed jack-o-lantern from last night looking at you. It’s witchy, but not scary or even spooky. It also takes place in Midsummer, which reminds us that although the dark days of Winter are ahead, we shouldn’t lose sight of the Spring that will soon come after.
This has always been one of my favorite Miyazaki movies and I didn’t know how I would respond upon revisiting it. Needless to say, I was so overcome with emotions watching it and think I like it even more now. This movie makes my eyes water, not at scenes of any huge emotional climax, but of just being. My body just naturally responding to the overwhelming amount of joy that seeing these images move brings me.
This is a film about the quiet moments. The spaces in-between. The film takes time to show us Kiki staring at dust and sighing. It’s also a film about quaintness. Kiki uses an icepack to reduce her fever and the prospect of popping a couple Tylenol is never mentioned. The architecture of the town and the lines on the bread are not just tertiary background noise, but central to what gives Kiki’s Delivery Service its magic.
Kiki’s journey is universal regardless of age. As we grow into adulthood, we learn that the cycle of putting yourself out there, being shot down, getting discouraged and then lifted up again is never-ending. Same with losing your inspiration and needing to find it again. Kiki’s age is merely the first time we encounter this experience. (Actually 13 is pretty young to be living on your own for the first time!) Her story speaks to both the allure of independence, and the unrealistic expectations we have of it as kids.
The movie portrays the realities of how we have to navigate the world
through a market economy that, like it or not, we do live in. However,
it shows us a view of work that is different from the one most of us
find. The village bakery and delivery service both provide types of work that the characters like doing. They speak to a time before industrialism, when the work-play binary was not so rigidly defined. The film's quaintness offers a glimpse into a more idyllic world where industrial capitalism, while still present, maybe hasn't run so rampant. All of this is emphasized by the use and aesthetic of witchcraft, pop-cultural though it may be.
This is my favorite “girl goes down the rabbit hole” movie from Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke being my favorite of his “fantasy epics”) and one of my favorite movies overall. And that opening credits sequence, how can that not bring a smile to your face? :)
