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Postcard: Tokyo

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Fuka Koshiba is Kiki in Takashi Shimizu's remake of Kiki's Delivery Service.

Remakes of classic films may serve a purpose, if only to steer the younger generation towards the original, but they don't often get good press.

A recent example is Takashi Shimizu's , a live-action film about a young witch's eventful year in a strange city. Only 13 when she leaves her witch mother (Rie Miyazawa) and ordinary human father for her traditional witch "apprenticeship", Kiki (Fuka Koshiba) is a spunky sort, flying high and free on her broom, with only her talking black cat, Jiji, for company. But when she finally picks Koriko, a charmingly retro port, as "her city", she has to solve the mundane problems of existence, from finding a place to live to financing her year-long stay.

Fortunately, she encounters a friendly, very pregnant baker (Machiko Ono), who not only puts her up in a spare room in her shop, but suggests she start a delivery service, using her flying broom to beat the traffic. Kiki jumps at this idea and has some initial success, but she is still a stranger in a town not sure what to make of this witch in its midst. An aviation-obsessed boy, Tombo (Ryohei Hirota), takes an interest in her, but is also jealous of her power of flight. What would she do without it? And what will happen if the locals turn on her?

Based on Eiko Kadono's 1985 fantasy novel of the same title, Shimizu's film was preceded by Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 animated feature. The first major hit of Studio Ghibli, the animation house Miyazaki co-founded, the original is now a beloved classic.

When I interviewed Shimizu before his film's release in Japan, the director admitted that fans and critics were going to compare his work to Miyazaki's. "His film is famous, it came first and a lot of people don't know the novel."

And every review I've seen so far, in English or Japanese, mentions Miyazaki's film, but few say Shimizu's is an improvement.

Shimizu is best known for his horror films, beginning with , a 2002 hit shocker he later remade in Hollywood. His take on Kiki's story is also dark. Whereas Miyazaki's film treats Kiki's powers as an unusual gift - her artist friend Ursula compares them to a talent for painting - in Shimizu's version, Kiki becomes feared and ostracised for her witchcraft.

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