When I say sigh, I mean the good kind–usually made after a movie has overwhelmed you, or when you can’t believe that a movie has ended.
The number-one movie that gets such a reaction from me is Spirited Away. I remember when I first watched it, I thought it was a decent film, but not as good as I had hoped, as my expectations were set really high.
It was a rental, and a long time after that first viewing, I actually began to appreciate the movie. I don’t know how this happened after only one viewing several months back. I finally bought the DVD because I really wanted to see it again, and that time it really clicked with me. I cried for Chihiro and I felt her fear of being without her parents. I loved the way her character matured by the end of the story.
The whole time the movie plays, I feel as if I am Chihiro. At the end, I make that aforementioned sigh when [slightly spoilerish territory here…]
Chihiro finds her parents back to normal and with no recollection of what happened the past few days. It’s like waking up from an epic dream, except this time it was all real, and she can’t tell anyone. It’s her own secret.
Argh, this wasn’t meant to turn into a Spirited Away thread. I just felt like posting about it and didn’t want to resurrect an old thread.
Chinatown’s ending definitely overwhelmed me. I made a greater connection to the characters in the movie than those of pretty much any other film, so I actually felt like Nicholson’s character must have. Seven Samurai also left a similar impression.
Mrs. Dalloway. Orlando. I’m beginning to think movies based on Virginia Woolf novels just do this to me. I have yet to see The Hours, but we’re watching it for my Brit Lit II course this semester, so we’ll see.
OK, bad pun aside, I really do sigh in pleasure when “The Wizard of Oz” reaches its end, and that final chord plays. I’ve been sighing over this movie for more than fifty years, so part of the sigh is for my lost youth. But most of it is for the finest fantasy ever filmed.
I had that reaction to Grave of the Fireflies. It was so moving, and sad, and the story touched my heart.
Many Studio Ghibli’s films touch me in that “sighing” way. I think it has something to do with the unique and wonderful world that Miyazaki and his animators create for their films. It’s modern, and yet slower, and more magical, and with comfortable touches of nostalgia blended in. I remember at the end of Kiki’s Delivery Service how much I would have loved to live in the coastal city Kiki settled in.
Normally I am the “shallow” movie watcher among my circle of friends, I like action more than drama/serious flicks. I’m glad to be able to answer this question with:
Seven Samurai.
When they & the audience realize at the end that no one is the winner but the farmers. The samurai are still *ronin * and will forever more be so, and they have no home to rest their head and no one but other *ronin * to mourn them when they did.
Upon reflection, I automatically put that in a spoiler box. And the movie is older than me. So I guess my view on spoiler boxes is: every plot point, anytime. Strange.
I think it made it pretty, as if you were likening dying to “having a home to rest their head”; in a way, the movie was saying that was the only kind of “homecoming” they could have; into the land of the dead. See? You got it!
