My Neighbor Totoro makes a bold wager: a child's fear needs no villain. Hayao Miyazaki gives sisters Satsuki and Mei a countryside full of wonders, but the source of their anxiety is painfully ordinary. Their mother is in hospital, and no forest spirit can simply wish her home.The film's pleasures sharpen that unease rather than cancel it. Soot sprites scatter through the family's new house; Mei d...More