Planning to watch a film with your children tonight?
In “Family Films," we offer film recommendations that are suitable for the family, and are fun for all ages. Each film recommendation is accompanied by discussion prompts as well as some fun activities you can do with your children in the comfort of your own house.
Spirited Away (2001) directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The film takes us on a breathtaking journey with the little girl Chihiro to save her parents from the evil witch Yubaba.
Discussion prompts:
- Environmental pollution (in reference to the story of the river).
- Is there such a thing as “good” characters and “bad” characters in life?
Suggested activity:
- Choose a random object (pencil, toy, box, piece of cloth…etc).
- Pretend you found the object lying on your doorsteps. Ask your children: Who do you think threw it away? Did they intentionally do it or did it fall by mistake? How did they originally obtain it? Did they ever value it? What did they use it for?
- With your children, try to recycle the object into something useful. Remember, we should try our best not to harm the environment so that this object does not end up in the river, like what happened in the film.
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Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989) directed by Hayao Miyazaki
The film narrates the story of a little girl names Kiki, who moves along with her talking cat, to a seaside village as part of her training to become a witch.
How is Kiki going to spend that year away from her family? How will she provide for herself and her cat?
Discussion prompts:
- What does self-reliance mean?
- Should we help strangers?
- Ask your children to think about their dream job. What are the required skills to do it? Do they have any of them? (Focus on personal traits such as honesty, commitment, in addition to practical skills such as problem-solving, language-acquisition and cooking).
- Ask your children to pay attention to the color black. What do they think it stands for in the film?
Suggested Activity:
- Imagine with your children that they were given an empty store in the market to start their own project.
- You can proceed with these activities depending on your child’s age: What would be the name of the store? What kind of project do you want to start? Who would join the work team from your friends? What would their roles be?
- Design the storefront and draw a store plan showing the layout of store’s furniture.
Where did your imagination take you?