Kiki’s Delivery Service

A young, overeager witch—tasked with a mandatory year of independent life—relocates to a port city with her cat, where she starts a flying courier service. The wind rustles through grass against a pale blue sky, steamed buns perspire in hot bakeries, and Kiki soars to new heights as the master of Japanese animation invokes an otherworldly protagonist to exalt the minutiae of this world’s ordinary life. Nestled amid the high-flying antics and witchy witticisms is the film’s beating heart: a meditation on the mischief of youth, the daunting summit of finding one’s purpose, and the delicious possibility offered by nascent curiosity.