I haven’t had time to see many of the Studio Ghibli Season films from Film4 yet; they’re all on the PVR waiting to be watched. However, there was one where the first sixty seconds really caught my eye, and that was The Castle of Cagliostro.

The film was released in 1979, and has a really goofy old-school anime feel to it. Fabulously overdone characters, a fun feel and great action sequences make up a brilliant bit of entertainment. The protaganists’ car has to be seen to be believed – an old Fiat 500, I believe.

The story isn’t particularly complicated, but the one-liners and fight scenes almost have a Jackie Chan feel to them.

If you only watch one of the films from the season, you could do much worse than picking this one. And if you missed it, it’s available on DVD from the Japan Club Anime Store.

Japanese Learners

If you’re learning Japanese, some of the speech is pretty quick or informal, but there should still be plenty of phrases you can pick out.