While Pixar films tend to touch the heart, Studio Ghibli films touch the soul
Produced by Studio Ghibli, Spirited Away is one of the finest animated films ever put to screen. Its animation style is gorgeous, characters are memorable and its story is magical. Even though it came out in 2001, people still struggle to grasp the true philosophy behind the film. This is gonna be my attempt in explaining the true meaning behind ‘Spirited Away’.
Synopsis:
Chihiro is moving with her family to a new house but doesn’t seem too thrilled about it. Her friends gifted her a farewell bouquet, a sad look on her face appears when she looks at it. While on a car drive with her mom and dad to check out their new house, they get lost and end up at the entrance to an old tunnel. They decide to follow up on it because it has piqued their curiosity, Chihiro seems apprehensive about this move. The tunnel leads them to an open grassland which they assume to be an abandoned and derelict theme park. Her parents feel like exploring this discovery. After roaming around for a while they find a store counter with a feast neatly lined up on it, almost inviting to help themselves to it. Chihiro is still unsure and finds everything around too strange to comprehend, her father tells her not to worry because he has the cash to pay for the food. She goes off on her own, looking for any sign of life around. To her surprise when dusk sets in, all the shops and streets start to liven up, not by people, but spirits and creatures from another world.
Frightened by what she has witnessed, Chihiro runs back to her parents, both of them are still feasting on the food they found, but their size has exponentially increased, they are not even human anymore, they have turned into pigs, gorging on whatever they can find. Dazed and confused she starts running around, scared, looking for a safe place to hide. She encounters Haku, a boy around the same age as her. He saves her from being noticed by any other spirit, as humans are not allowed to enter their world. All the spirits seem to be crossing a bridge that leads into a floating Onsen (bathhouse). It is a gigantic structure with thousand of shojis (Japanese sliding doors) and windows on the outside. Its occupants peering out from the windows and frog-like creatures coercing potential customers into the bathhouse.
The spirit world is controlled by the witch Yubaba, who runs the bathhouse and all the spirits there work for her. She aims to kill Chihiro as humans are not allowed in this world. But Chihiro finds Haku to be her guardian angel. He tells her to go and look for work in the bathhouse, It will be difficult but necessary in order to survive and save her parents. So she takes his advice and her quest for work leads her to Yubaba. Chihiro enters into a contract of servitude which makes her forget her real name, the new name provided to her is Sen. Now she has to find a way out and get back to her world along with her parents
Explained(SPOILERS!)
This film doesn’t pretend to be a “film for all ages”. It instead is an unapologetic film made for 10-year-old girls, which makes it stand out from the rest. When you have a film which is meant for everyone, it becomes a film for no one in particular. This movie has a heart and a certain charm that can only be found in a Kid’s film.
Spirited away is very imaginative, to say the least. Especially considering the simplistic theme it tries to portray. The film seems too overwhelming with the talk of spirits and dragons but has an honest and sweet lesson behind it all.
Sen is shown to be sullen, almost a bratty kid who pouts whenever things don’t go her way. She is whiny and slightly irritating in the beginning, but as she encounters difficulties in the spirit realm and overcomes them with her good intentions and an honest heart, she develops and grows into a person adored by the people she befriends on her journey.
Instead of resenting her fate and crying about it, Sen decides to do her best and works hard to earn her way out of there. She is the type of person who treats others with kindness and respect, no matter if they return the same or not. With her innocence and determination, she wins our admiration.
The film deals with themes of greed and excess, serving as a critique of modern capitalism. Especially in post world war Japan which went through an economic boom and started adopting capitalistic greed; according to the director, Hayao Miyazaki. This is portrayed through Sen’s parents who ate the food that did not belong to them, they felt entitled to it just because they had money. The Faceless Spirit is also shown to be a symbol of excess, consuming all the resources of the bathhouse offering gold in return.
The bathhouse workers line up to serve him and one-up each other, just so that the spirit showers some gold into their pockets. Sen does not turn into a pig nor does she fall for the gold trap, becoming the savior for people much older than her.
Idintentiy is also held in great regard and is a big talking point in this film. Yubaba takes Chihiro's name and gives her a new identity. Her life gets turned around in an instant, the film cleverly dismisses the use of her original name as it moves along. Even I found it difficult to remember, after an hour into the film. But, Sen perseveres and keeps her feet rooted to the ground with the help of her friends to become Chihiro again. This film is a wake-up call for the people of Japan. Just like how Chihiro stayed true to her self even after going through life-altering events, the film expects the same from the Japanese people to not let go of the traditions and culture that defined them in favor of capitalism.
Shapeshifting is a big part of Japanese folktales, represented here with Chihiro's parents turning into pigs and Haku being able to transform into a river dragon.
The film has a very gradual pace and builds it up slowly. The characters perform certain actions which have no meaning and serve no purpose to the story but are just there to serve themselves. The entire train ride with Chihiro and the faceless spirit is both of them just sitting quietly on the bench, not uttering a single word for a whole minute. Just some beautiful shots of the day train coursing through the river are shown. Ine minute seems trivial in the grand scheme of things, but in a film's duration, it is a significant chunk.
There is a term for such actions in Japanese; “ma” which means emptiness. All these scenes are in the film to space the scenes, giving the characters, the story, and especially the audience some much-needed breathing room from the usual shenanigans. As told by Miyazaki himself, a lot of American films fill their scenes with nonstop action. They are afraid that the audience will get bored if they are not constantly being introduced with new things to progress the story. Making sure that the plot is in constant motion is a good thing, but more important is the underlying emotion. If you have them emotionally engaged in the story and characters, then you have their attention. Miyazaki knows this all too well.
How's the animation?
Now I can’t talk about the film without dedicating one section to the animation. The animation here is stunning, with the backgrounds as detailed as I’ve ever seen. Being a 19-year-old film, it has aged gracefully and still looks better than most of the modern animated features. The backgrounds feel like an extremely detailed oil painting, while the characters are all 2d animated. That is deliberately done to make a clear distinction between the two. Sounds a bit jarring but it is executed so well, that you don’t even pay attention to it. It just becomes a part of the world.
Thousands of frames have been hand-drawn by the maker of the film Hayao Miyazaki. There is a tendency to simplify and cut corners while animating due to its painstaking nature. But Miyazaki refuses to let up on quality and delivers a film chock-full of detail, even in the most insignificant of frames or background characters. Each character model is creatively inspired and unique in its own right.
The team of animators poured their heart and soul into this. Often we find that animators create motion for the sake of motion, and character movements can appear to be a bit clunky. Despite most of it being hand drawn the movements in this film are so fluid and life-like. Even the most unnoticeable character has a specific meaningful action to perform and is not just flailing his arms aimlessly. More than half the people that watch this film will never notice such fine detail and yet, it is there for the keen eyes to see and appreciate.
The world feels rich with personality in the creatures that inhabit it, as well as the environment. Only in Japanese animation can you find creativity let loose like this, with weird but awesome character designs and sceneries. In the scene where Chihiro visits Yubaba’s sister Zenba, she gets off the train with the faceless spirit and, is greeted by a light approaching in the distance. The light turns out to be an old fashioned light pole hopping around on one foot, coming to greet the visitors. When they arrive at their destination, it quietly jumps back and assumes his place on an arch. Madness!
How's the score?
The score is magical, much like everything else in the film. It invites us on an adventure and makes the ride that much better. It gets faint during the emotionally vulnerable scenes and knows to swell up during a pivotal set piece, like Chihiro discovering her name while riding across the sky on top of a dragon (Haku).
All the elements work so well together that it becomes difficult to appreciate them individually. They all work seamlessly and create an immersive experience. The whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts.
The Ending and my final thoughts
In the end, Chihiro manages to free her parents from Yubaba’s control by remembering her name and answering a trick question. All the creatures are cheering her on, happy that she prevailed. Her honesty and determination won their hearts. Yubaba gives her a snarky look, but deep down she was rooting for her as well.
Haku takes her hand and guides her to the exit, he assures her that they will meet again. As both friends are parting ways I couldn’t help but get emotional, witnessing what was happening here. Chihiro has worked so hard to get back to her world, but at the end when she is conflicted about her choice and is leaving Haku, you feel that conflict within you too (the damned score swells up at the right moment as well). A bittersweet ending to a story so beautifully told.
Spirited Away is hands down one of the best-animated films of all time. Also, the first and only Japanese film to win the best-animated feature film award at the Oscars.
It is a mythic coming of age story filled with complex animation techniques which makes it stand out from the crowd.
The visuals and the soundtrack created a very soothing experience. When I finished the film I felt as if my soul has been detoxified. The story is simple yet, endearing and so are the characters. Filled to the brim with creativity and imagination, I won’t be remiss in calling it a film for the ages.
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