Spirited Away and Ju-On: The Grudge

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1 Spirited Away and Ju-On: The Grudge Age: year olds are fans of Spirited Away but I believe that the age ranges from 14 and over because this has been done by Studio Ghibli, where their films have morals and other meanings in their stories. This makes it mature but at the same time it appeals to the younger audience due to its colour and strange but creative and mysterious world. When it comes to the story, it reflects people s emotional attachments to their family; Yubaba wishes to take care of her child and Chihiro is trying to find her way in life after losing her parents (who turned into pigs, which may have represented selfishness or them being swallowed up by society). As for the original Grudge, the age would be around years old since the age of this film is quite old and young adults now wouldn t want to be looking back at classic horror films. Also, the younger audience would be too terrified to watch the whole film as well as not being able to read the English subs unless it was dubbed over in English. In comparison to Spirited Away, both media can be seen by the older audience but as for the younger audience, it can only be Studio Ghibli s well-known film. Gender: The Grudge would be for both genders because the story doesn t have any one sided gender appeal; it s based on its scary points. There isn t much to think about when it comes to complex messages for this horror film because all you see are jump scares, mystery and maybe some deaths; there is no moral to the story as it is complete fiction. Spirited Away is the same, but the way it can somewhat relate to real life situations, particularly towards individual children, can impact both genders due to it s dark yet light-heartedness. The colours displayed could possibly put people off guard, making them think it is not masculine or dark enough to fit their action and adventure tastes. The other

2 chance is that it can attract the audience and that might be why many females watch it although It is highly likely that males watch this too, but with a smaller percentage than the females. Sexual Orientation: Spirited Away would be for any sexual orientation because there is no sex appeal to it; it has animals, spirits and other human beings but you won t fully know what their sex is, because it doesn t matter. What matters in the film is the story instead. People may see this for cisgendered people as it is possible that they could portray Chihiro falling in love with Haku (although I do believe this is just friendship, where Chihiro only yearns for comfort and happiness). This movie shows the hardships that she faces e.g. loneliness and casted out in fear. Because of that, part of the audience who are possibly facing homophobia might see that her problems (despite the fact that it s nothing to do with sexuality), feels similar to their problems in real life. This also applies to The Grudge since they are basically focusing on the horror genre; they have no time to be in relationships at that time. The situation would be different if it were to be a romantic film. Social Class: There is a complex but simple looking artstyle when it comes to Hayao Miyazaki s works and that may be why the social class is high. The detail for the scenery, the characters and even little things that are hard to notice have unbelievably well drawn. I believe the social class for this film is every class because it is known worldwide and his animation is unique at this modern day and age. It is highly likely that everyone is well educated, so people may seem to understand more of the film s morals and purpose as a whole. Compared to The Grudge, it can vary because it really depends on the individual s preferences but I do think that it would be the lower classes that would watch it because of it s lack of deep meanings and different story style, where it can be seen as unprofessional or unoriginal. Also, the costumes that they have in the film are quite casual or simple; the ones haunting the protagonist in the Grudge are only wearing baggy, dark clothes. Some people at a higher class may think it wouldn t be that great and this is because the quality back then wasn t that top notch nor was it very eye-catching but with Studio Ghibli, their animation was always high quality.

3 Location: People who are fond of Spirited Away can be found all over the world and this is because the film has been done by Studio Ghibli, a successful Japanese company which has also done Ponyo, Howl s Moving Castle and The Wind Rises where English subs and dubs are available. Because of the company s success, there has been a large amount of international translations (other than English) for their films. Ju-On: The Grudge (left image below) has also been filmed in Japan but there have been spin-offs made by US (right image below), making it more worldwide in the film community than Spirited Away, where some may think animated films are for children. So, both media have an audience all around the world.

4 Mainstream and niche: People who have enjoyed Spirited Away have also enjoyed Studio Ghibli s other films such as Howl s Moving Castle and My Neighbour Totoro, whereas people who enjoy the Grudge are into the American adaptations of Japanese horror movies as well as original American horror films like Final Destination. For example, The Ring and the Grudge itself have Western adaptations or have been released with English subtitles because of the lack of originality that the Western side has when it comes to the plot. Psychographics: I believe that for both films, people are individualists and the fact that both films are foreign, but are both well known, gives me a reason to think that they are fond of media that stands out from the normal Westernised things that they see on TV or in cinemas. However, there could also be mainstreamers when looking at Spirited Away; Hayao Miyazaki s works have been known for more than several years, so the anime, animation and the Internet community have been growing along with it. Codes and conventions: The lighting in Spirited Away varies from time to time because of the themes it portrays throughout the film. For example, you can see that Chihiro is running around the area in confusion after her parents became pigs, spirits were roaming around, and realised that she was now stuck in that world, making her a lost child. In addition to that, the camera angles move around a lot when it comes to Studio Ghibli because of how much activity is going on in one frame.

5 In contrast to that, the conventions are pretty predictable for this scary film, mainly because horror genres are consistently the same no matter how many times they re shown to public. The way the camera moves is completely different to the animated film since it gives tension by making a still shot with horrific background music.