KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (2014)

Genre: Fantasy
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Cast: Fuka Koshiba, Rie Miyazawa, Mitchitaka Tsutsui
RunTime: 1 hr 48 mins
Rating: TBA
Released By: GV
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 17 April 2014

Synopsis: Kiki (Fuka Koshiba) is the daughter of Koriki (Rie Miyazawa), a witch, and Okino (Michitaka Tsutsui), a 'normal' human being. Following an ancient law of witchery, once Kiki turns 13 she must leave her home and travel to another place, where she must live on her own for one year. With Jiji, her black cat (Minako Kotobuki), she climbs on her broom and flies off until she finds the town of Koriko, set in a group of islands far over the sea.

Flying over the town, she spies a windwill. Landing, she smells bread and comes into the Buy Bye Bakery, where she meets Osono (Machiko Ono), the kind-hearted owner. Bearing in mind her mother's admonition to always keep smiling, she decides to start a broom-based delivery service.

Her first job, however, is a disaster. The youth Tombo (Ryohei Hirota) asks her to deliver a book for him, but his interest is in how she manages to fly. Kiki is not impressed, and their relationship gets off to a bad start.

She is disappointed at how her first job has turned out, but manages to demonstrate her flying ability to many in the town, and soon has lots of work. Jiji doesn't share her enthusiasm, but Kiki ignores this and is thoroughly enjoying herself. However Maruko, the baby hippo at the Koriko Zoo, is ill, and her keeper Nazuru (Hirofumi Arai) announces over the radio that this is because Kiki has put a curse on the animal. Kiki is hurt by this heartless outburst, and she begins to have doubts.

Word of the 'curse' spreads, and soon Kiki has no more work. Everything she has delivered is returned to her. In shock, she loses her ability to fly, and resolves to abandon her hopes of becoming a full-fledged witch. Osono and her husband are worried, but then a request comes from the zoo. There is a storm approaching, no boats can sail from the island, and Maruko needs to be taken to Dr Ishi (Tadanobu Asano), a veterinarian on another island.

But Kiki cannot fly, and a powerful storm is coming. What will she do? Will she recover both her magic and her smile?

Movie Review:

Kiki’s Delivery Service is an original story from a children novel series that is made famous by Hayao Miyazaki’s animated film released in 1989. It was a much acclaimed animated film back then, bagging 4 film award wins and having widespread popularity. Many would not have known that Kiki’s Delivery Service original story consists of 6 volumes, which depicts the journey of Kiki, the half witch half human, from when she was 13 to 34 years old. Both the animated and real-life adaptation of the story focused on the beginning of her journey of a witch, when Kiki set off to a new place where she lived away from her family for a year.

Without a doubt, Kiki is the anchoring character of the movie. Embarking on her year-long learning journey, she had to overcome fears, diversities and challenges, to eventually gain independence. Contrary to what most people think witches do – casting spells and performing all sorts of magic at will – Kiki’s only magic ability is to fly. Eventually she settled down in the town of Koriko, which consists of many small islands. She was taken in by a kind baker, and also began to offering her unique delivery service on flying broomstick in that little town.

Although the actors and actresses in the cast are not the typical A-listers, they have supported this movie together well. Special mention has to be made to actress Fuka Koshiba, who played the role of Kiki. She handled it very well, and carried Kiki’s honest and frank character. Her characterization of Kiki through her learning of overcoming difficulties and regaining trust in people gave the character good depth and dimension. This young actress certainly studied her character well.

However, one great pity of the film is its use of (or lack thereof) CGI. It was too raw and even jarring to the eyes at times. Whilst it might be unreasonable to expect the CGI standards in The Story of Pi or the elaborate broomstick flying sequences in Harry Potter’s quidditch races, Kiki’s Delivery Service failed to even convince. The flaw was even accentuated because of Kiki’s important companion – Jiji the talking black cat. The cat wasn’t as slick and suave as you would expect. On a separate note, there was also a scene in the movie which looked like it was cut out of a music video that gone wrong - slightly clichéd and unnecessary.

Nonetheless, this uplifting and light-hearted story Kiki's journey to maturity was enjoyable. Putting aside the success of the anime adaptation, the intricacy in terms of its wardrobe, props and artwork are still commendable. Fuka Koshiba also gave Kiki a new breath of life, a performance that even the original novel writer will appreciate. Even though the movie is not as visually captivating as one would wish, it's still satisfactory and serves as a simple reminder to all: keep the smile on even when facing adversities; learn to dance in the rain, for the good will always prevail somehow.

Movie Rating:

(Satisfactory movie, though nothing remarkable or groundbreaking; decent storytelling at least made it an enjoyable watch)

Review by Tho Shu Ling