Arrietty
Directed By: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
Starring: Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Shinobu Otake, Keiko Takeshita, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Tomokazu Miura, Kirin Kiki
Cinematography By: Atsushi Okui
Edited By: Keiko Kadokawa, Rie Matsubara, Hiromi Sasaki, Takeshi Seyama
Music By: Cécile Corbel
Production: company Studio Ghibli
Release Date: 17 July 2010Plot: A boy named Sho remembers the week in summer he spent at his mother's home with his maternal great aunt, Sadako, and the housemaid, Haru. When Sho arrives, he gets a glimpse of Arrietty, a Borrower girl, returning to her home through an underground air vent. At night, Arrietty's father, Pod, takes her on her first "borrowing" mission, to get sugar and tissue paper. After obtaining a sugar cube from the kitchen, they travel to a bedroom which they enter through a dollhouse. It is Sho's bedroom; he sees Arrietty when she tries to take a tissue from his table. Startled, she drops the sugar cube. Sho tries to comfort her but Pod and Arrietty leave.
The next day, Sho puts the sugar cube and a little note beside the air vent. Pod warns her not to take it because their existence must be kept secret from humans. Nevertheless, she sneaks out to visit Sho in his bedroom. Without showing herself, she tells him to leave her family alone but they soon have a conversation, which is interrupted by the crow. The crow attacks Arrietty but Sho saves her. On her return home, Arrietty is intercepted by her father. Realizing they have been detected, Pod and his wife Homily decide they must move out. Sho learns from Sadako that some of his ancestors had noticed the presence of Borrowers in the house and had the dollhouse built for them. The Borrowers had not been seen since.
Pod returns injured from a borrowing mission and is helped home by Spiller, a Survivalist boy he met. Sho removes the floorboard concealing the Borrower household and replaces their kitchen with the kitchen from the dollhouse to show he hopes them to stay. However, the Borrowers are frightened by this and speed up their moving process. Pod recovers and Arrietty bids farewell to Sho. Sho apologises that he has forced them to move out and reveals he has had a heart condition since birth and will have an operation in a few days. The operation does not have a good chance of success. He is accepting, saying that every living thing dies. Haru notices the floorboards have been disturbed. She unearths the Borrowers' house and captures Homily. Alerted by her mother's screams, Arrietty goes to investigate. Saddened by her departure, Sho returns to his room. Haru locks him in and calls a pest control company to capture the other Borrowers alive. Arrietty comes to Sho for help; they rescue Homily and he destroys all traces of the Borrowers’ presence.
Review: This is a fun filled adaptation of the film entitled "The Borrowers". Arrietty is an adventurous young girl who enjoys explring the world around here. While Sho is the human boy who remembers a week in summerhe spent at his mother's home with his maternal great aunt, Sadako, and the housemaid, Haru. When Sho arrives he gets a glimps of Arriety as she returns to her home through an underground airvent. Later that night Arriety's father takes her on her first "borrowing" mission to get sugar and tissue paper. After obtaining the sugar from the kitchen table, they go to a bedroom which they neter through a dollhouse. It is Sho's bedroom. Waking up Sho see's Arriety who drops the sugar cube and escapes with her father.
Later on Sho and Arriety have a conversation where Arriety asks Sho to forget her and her family. As they prefer to live in secret from the larger world. This is also the time when the two talk about life and other things and a firendship is formed. Many family secrets are revealed. Such as the dollhouse being made for the 'borrowers' to live in.
To tell any more would be to spil the story and the precious ending. So i'll stop now and encourage you to watch Arriety.
M J Flack