Movie Review: ‘Spirited Away’ - One of The Gems of Studio Ghibli

Source: IMDb

“Nothing that happens is ever forgotten, even if you can’t remember it.”

Introduction

Movie Name - Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi)

Directed by - Hayao Miyazaki

Genre - Animation, Fantasy, Adventure

Original Language - Japanese

Running Time - 2hr 5min

Plot Synopsis

Spirited Away follows the story of Chihiro Ogino, a 10-year old girl who moves to a new home in the Japanese countryside with her parents. While exploring the area, they take a shortcut through the woods and end up in what looks like an amusement park with stalls filled with food but no vendor in sight.

Chihiro’s parents, enticed by the delicious smelling food, start eating while Chihiro goes ahead and discovers a huge bathhouse for spirits.

There she meets a boy named Haku who tells her to return to her home before sunset. But when she comes back to tell her parents, she sees that they’ve already turned into pigs. In this supernatural realm, Chihiro starts working in the bathhouse and meets a host of characters in order to turn her parents back to normal and go home.

About the Movie

Spirited Away was released on 20th July 2001 in Japan. Upon its release, it immediately became universally popular. It is generally regarded as one of the best films of the 21st century as well as one of the greatest animated films ever made, and it is included in the top 30 most popular films on IMDb.

As a result, it became Japan's most successful and highest-grossing picture with a total of 31.68 billion yen ($305 million) and held this spot for 19 years until Demon Slayer- The Movie: Mugen Train surpassed it in 2020.

Spirited Away also won an award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards. It is the first and only hand-drawn, non-English-language animated picture to receive the award. BBC voted it as the 4th-best film of the 21st century in 2016 and was also named as the 2nd “Best Film...of the 21st century so far” by The New York Times in 2017.

Movie Review

Hayao Miyazaki definitely deserves to be called the godfather of Japanese animation. He always brings forth such amazing stories that always have a deeper, profound meaning to them. And this when he never even makes a script for his films. He directly starts drawing the storyboard and the production goes on as the storyboard develops naturally on its own.

“It is not me who makes the film, the film makes itself and I have no choice but to follow.”

Spirited Away starts with a realistic situation, just a normal family moving to a new place, but soon the movie swan dives into the bizarre world of spirits. No one can deny the visual magnificence and depth of creativity that went into the creation of this film's aesthetic. The animators have developed a whole realm full of not-so-easy to describe Japanese folklore creatures.

The term 'Kamikakushi' used in the original title literally means “hidden by god”. It is a term used in Japanese folklore to describe the mysterious disappearance or death of someone who has upset the gods (kami). There are various legends of kami abducting humans and transporting them to the spirit world. 

Chihiro's archetypal journey into another realm marks the beginning of her transition from child to adult. In the supernatural setting, Chihiro likewise stands outside of societal limits. And using kamikakushi in the title reinforces this liminal phase because it is the verdict of social death and returning from kamikakushi meant social resurrection. 

Chihiro enters the supernatural realm as a whiny brat but when she returns, she has learned the value of courtesy, diligence and camaraderie- the adulthood’s bonding agents. 

Spirited Away captures many social messages through its characters. For example, when Chihiro deals with the stinky spirit, it turns out to be a river spirit that was corrupted with filth. She pulls out all sorts of trash out of the spirit, alluding to how humans pollute their environment.

Haku also lost his identity and home because of humans. He used to be the spirit of the Kohaku River but this small part of nature was destroyed and replaced with humans’ need for development. This implies deforestation and how animals’ homes are destroyed without a single thought. 

The film also alludes to the impact of greed and Western consumerism on traditional Japanese culture. In contrast to the minimalist Japanese design of her employees' quarters, Yubaba is stylistically unique within the bathhouse, wearing a Western dress and living among European décor and furnishings.

The abandoned theme park's Meiji architecture serves as the backdrop for Chihiro's parents' transformation– the family arrives in an imported Audi and the father wears a European-styled polo shirt, before metamorphosing into literal consumerist pigs. This particular instance also symbolises greed.

Chihiro’s name means “a thousand” and “asking questions” or “seeking/searching”. Yubaba’s act of changing Chihiro’s name to Sen (an alternate reading of chi, the initial character in Chihiro's name which just means “a thousand”) strips Chihiro of the complete meaning and is left with only half of it, a piece of her whole being is taken away. 

One thing that I like a lot about the movie is that the camera shoots at a child’s eye level. The grownups tower over us. The camera is set at hip-height, which is quite rare in anime. Children in anime are typically placed in universes where everything is on their level, but Miyazaki has gone the further mile by considering what it's like to be four feet tall and has included that into the way he shoots his world.

Miyazaki has made it so that we have time to breathe and absorb all that’s going on. He doesn’t bombard us with a lot of noise and action and has a gratuitous motion in his films; rather than having the tale dictate every movement, people will occasionally just sit for a while, sigh, gaze at a rushing stream, or do something additional, not to advance the narrative but to provide the sense of time and location and who they are.

He said in an interview that, “We have a word for that in Japanese. It's called ‘ma’- emptiness. It’s there intentionally.” After clapping his hands three or four times, he said, “The time in between my clapping is ‘ma’. If you just have non-stop action with no breathing space at all, it’s just busyness.” Profound words, right?

The Bottom Line

This movie isn’t just for kids because there’s a far more deeper meaning that’s beyond young children’s comprehension. It shows the importance of balance and that nothing ever good comes out of its opposite- excess. Finally, Spirited Away demonstrates how beautiful, sincere, and serious animation can be; its lessons are yet to be learned by Pixar, Disney, and other popular animators twenty years later.

IMDb ratings - 8.6 on 10

Written By - Sanjana Chaudhary