Castle in the Sky (1986)

Japan 126m, Colour
Director: Hayao Miyazaki; Cast: Keiko Yokozawa, Mayumi Tanaka, Kotoe Hatsui, Minori Terada

Saved by the power of her family’s crystal amulet, an orphaned girl named Sheeta floats safely to the ground after falling from an airship. Pursued by the army and air pirates, Sheeta awakens the full power of the stone which points the way to Laputa, an ancient city in the sky which is essentially a massive grave tended to be a seemingly lonely robot. An imaginative and whimsical adventure fantasy inspired by Gulliver’s Travels, Miyazaki’s film is also a dark cautionary tale with ecological and anti-war themes and which venerates all living things through the eyes of its young characters (Klaus Ming April 2015).