Spirited Away (2001)
Directed and Written by Hayao Miyazaki
Spirited Away tells the story of young Chihiro travelling with her parents to a new home in a new city. Her father takes a wrong turn and ends up driving down a narrow forest road. He stops the car to explore on foot and discovers what he thinks is an abandoned amusement park.
Chihro senses things are not right but her protests are ignored. They discover unmanned food stalls stocked with piles of piping hot delicious food and her parents start eating! Chihiro tells them to stop but they again ignore her.
Chihiro wonders off alone to explore and meets a boy called Haku, He tells her to get her parents and leave as fast as they can but when Chihiro returns to her parents they have been transformed into pigs and the way they had entered is now blocked by an ocean-sized expanse of water. She discovers a large illuminated bathhouse as the sun sets Chihiro realises she has wandered into a spirit world.
With help from the boy Haku, Chihiro travels towards the bathhouse interacting with numerous animals and creatures including the spirit “No-Face”. Haku tells Chihiro she must find the “Boiler-man” and ask him for a job in the bathhouse so she can stay and have a chance to rescue her parents. When she finds the “Boiler-man” he has no need for more help but she tries to help, fails and makes a mess she also loses her socks and shoes in the process.
The “Boiler-man” instructs a bathhouse worker to take Chihiro to Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse.
Yubaba tries to frighten Chihiro away, but Chihiro is persistent. Yubaba tells her she took an oath to give work to anyone who asks for it, and gives Chihiro a job but she must sign a contract. By signing the contract Yubaba takes her name away and she renames Chihiro as Sen.
Sen now works in the bathhouse and is bullied by management. Later that night, when Yubaba leaves, Haku finds Sen and takes her to her parents, who are being held in a pigpen. Haku explains that Yubaba controls people by taking their names, if Sen forgets her real name is Chihiro she will never be able to leave the spirit world. Haku then confesses he is Yubaba’s slave and has no memories of who he was before.
A massive oozing mud blob stink spirit arrives in the bathhouse and management is quick to assign Sen to assist this smelly customer. Sen rises to the challenge and does her best she discovers a bicycle handle sticking out of him, and the workers help her to dislodge the bicycle and vast amount of garbage flows out of him freeing the spirit. The customer was actually an anciant river spirit who had just become so polluted he had turned into a stinky blob. He gives sen a magic dumpling as a token of his gratitude.
The spirit “No-Face” has made its way into the bathhouse and is causing a massive scene by dispensing gold and demanding VIP treatment and generally distracting everyone in the bathhouse staff and customers alike. Meanwhile, Sen sees a swarm of paper origami dragonflies chasing and attacking a dragon that is flying towards the bathhouse. She suddenly recognizes the dragon to be the boy Haku metamorphosed into a dragon. He crashes into Yubaba's penthouse and he looks wounded, Sen runs upstairs to help him. One of the paper dragonflies stows away on her back.
No-Face is given large amounts of food but soon begins eating the staff. Up In the penthouse, the stowaway paper dragonfly shapeshifts into Yubaba's sister, Zeniba.
Zeniba then turns Yubaba's son, Boh, into a mouse. Sen, Haku (still a dragon), and Boh (now a mouse) fall into the boiler room. Sen feeds Haku part of the magic dumpling, causing him to vomit up a seal he stole from Zeniba following orders from Yubaba, saving him from dying from the curse Zeniba put on him.
Sen decides to return the seal and apologize to Zeniba, taking Boh with her. She confronts an engorged No-Face, who reveals he is not evil just very very lonely.
Sen feeds No-Face the rest of the dumpling, and he follows Sen out of the bathhouse, he regurgitates everything and everyone he has been eating. Sen is given a train tickets by the “Boiler Man” and she retrieves her shoes and socks, she leaves the bathhouse and goes to the railway station to travel to see Zeniba. Meanwhile, Yubaba orders that Sen's parents be slaughtered, but Haku (now back to being a boy) reveals that Boh (Yubaba’s son) is missing.
Haku offers to retrieve Boh if Yubaba releases Sen and her parents. Yubaba agrees, but only if Sen can pass a final test.
Sen meets with Zeniba, who makes her a magic hairband. Haku appears in dragon form, and Sen, Boh, and Haku leave flying on his back to return to the bathhouse. They leave No-Face with Zeniba so he is no longer lonely.
Mid-flight back Sen has an epiphany and realises Haku's lost identity he the spirit of the Kohaku River. When she was little she almost drowned in that river but somehow she was saved and she realised it was Haku in his dragon form who had saved her.
When they arrive back at the bathhouse, Sen passes Yubaba's test to identify her parents, and she is allowed to leave. Haku vows he will see her again, but she leaves the spirit world with her parents, who do not remember anything after finding the food stalls. After returning to find their car covered with leaves and dust, as the forest around looked overgrown. They then exit the forest and continue their journey to their new home. Or something like that!
This film is a beautiful fairy tale with “the fairy” aspect being a mix of Kami spirits and Yokai creatures from Japanese folklore.
Miyazaki 's recurring themes are very much present in this masterpiece. His protagonist is a young girl his work stands out in the world of Japanese anime due to “Boy Stories” kinda being the default Miyazaki is praised for basing his tales around strong smart females providing great role models for young women. What Miyazaki is doing is continuing a tradition from Western literature where a young girl finds themselves in a fantasy realm and has to overcome challenges and obstacles in her path to be able to return home. Think Alice in Wonderland, Wendy in neverland or Dorothy in OZ. His work also regularly features young people relocating or moving to a new place. Tapping into that fear young people must have to leave friends behind and the thought of starting in a new school perhaps the upheaval in their lives and facing the unknown almost opens them up to the type of adventures they seem to go on.
Miyazaki loves to highlight the traditional Japanese way of life that fell out of favor during the economic boom post World War two. It is obvious in his work he has great affection for a simpler serene rural way of life before modern city living took over and centering this story around a traditional communal bathhouse is very Miyazaki.
This film also has a strong story point of human's relationship with nature. The family are moving into a city and gets lost in nature and the dad is arrogant and disrespectful about the forest. The river spirit is sick because he has become so polluted he needs to be rescued. The whole experience lifts the veil on the spirit world for Chihiro and she is now aware of the balance between the earth, the spirit world and the human world.
It is a beautiful and deeply moving film with truly iconic characters and imagery.
The easiest way to see all of Miyazaki’s films is to watch them on Netflix.
It was Hayao Miyazaki’s 83rd birthday this week!
Now with the release of “The Boy and the Heron” he has retired from filmmaking.
I hope he has a long and happy retirement. We are so lucky that this man has given us such a genuinely beautiful filmography for us now and for future generations to enjoy.
It should be no surprise that “Spirited Away” was the first Miyazaki film I saw. I think it was the first for the majority of film fans in the West. It was just so engrossing and magical, I must have been 23 when I saw it but I hadn't felt so captivated by an animated fantasy film since I was a kid.
I am hoping when “The Boy and the Heron” comes out on physical media they release a Miyazaki box set (Fingers crossed)
