A few days ago, Anime News Network reported that two rare Studio Ghibli films will be making their debut in America. The two films, Yado-Sagashi (House Hunting) and Mizugumo Monmon (Mon Mon the Water Spider) will have a one-night run at New York’s Carnegie Hall. The films will run from 6:30PM to 8:30PM on March 26. Tickets will be $15 each.
The ticket price may cause a bit of sticker shock for some – the films are 12 and 14 minutes, respectively. However, the opportunity alone is one that will attract a diverse set of viewers. The films are only screened during certain times of the year at Tokyo’s Studio Ghibli museum. There are six other films in the series of shorts that are shown at the museum in rotation, under strict rules – namely, that visitors are only allowed to see a film once per visit. None of the films were released on a home video format, and it seems like things are going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
I do hope that this does well enough to encourage future screenings in other locations. Ghibli’s pieces have a particular magic to them that, like Disney’s older titles, cannot be accurately captured or explained. It’s the type of feature that could benefit from a wider audience.
The absolute best scenario from this experience though, would be that the two films do well enough to at least prompt screenings of the rest of the series. This is a bit of a pipe dream, I’ll admit, though, that this is a bit of a distant hope. More realistically, I expect the screening to do well, but nowhere near enough to prompt more than this “one-time” run.
