I forgot where I read/saw it but the guy saw it as the girl imagining the whole thing as her way to deal with working/living in a brothel. I'd have to find it but it was a rather interesting point of view. Kind of make me want to check it out just to see what he meant by it.
Miyazaki doesn't do things like those in his films at all. I'm not sure how your friend got the impression that was a brothel in the first place but i think we can be sure that was not Miyazaki's intention. Making the place seedy brothel a girl mentally transforms into magical place kind of severely undermine a lot of the perceived messages and values of the film and would be, to say the least, pretty distasteful dedicatory film to make for his friend's daughter*
*Don't know how much of common knowledge this is, but basically Spirited Away was originally conceived because some years after Mononoke Hime, Miyazaki pondered on how there were no films that spoke to the 10-year-old daughter of a good friend of his, and then decided to "make a movie for her".
On-topic:
Well, some time ago i have finally watched
Q. Also known as "Rebuild of Evangelion 3.33 You can (not) redo"
So many things to say, and i'm so moved, i have difficulty finding words. I'll try to keep this brief.
On a skype conversation long ago, a skype friend of mine. told me to "Prepare for a direction you won't expect". And it's true, i certainly didn't expect any of the directions that Q took throughout the entire film. It completely changed all of Rebuild for me, and Q took the themes and directions of rebuild in such a way, that i feel "spiritual" is the best way to describe the film.
It was just amazing, not only the film itself, but many elements of it, are things i didn't even think were possible. Narratively and aesthethically, it was more than beautiful, something better than perfect.
But above all, and the thing i loved the most out of my experience with the film, is that i can honestly say i'm really, really, really happy about the film. I found it the most hopeful and inspiring/uplifting film of the rebuilds so far, and probably one of the most hopeful movies i've ever seen. I found this to be the best rebuild film so far, and it really elevates the other two films to an entirely new dimension.
As a side note, i must admit i'm surprised, with all the talks about how dark and deppressing Q was, how apparently common it was for people to be in an angry or deppressed funk for weeks after watching it, i admit i was surprised that i eventually realized i couldn't honestly feel upset at people's treatment of Shinji in Q, the ostensibly hopeless setting and plot, and the general feeling of desolation and uncertainty that pervaded the film.
I have many more things i want to say about Q, but i don't want to bother the forum too much at a time and i'm still pretty moved/ecstatic, so it'll have to wait until a re-watch which will probably take place in a couple of days. It's funny, but now i feel that Sakura Nagashi has the same effect for me as Beautiful World once had. A song i listen to cheer me up and inspired connected to a film that does the same thing for me.
I loved Q so much, such a great film.
