A beautifully composed film

Rating: 10/10 (11 October 2018)

Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away is the perfect film for anyone who loves adventure. This movie follows Chihiro Ogino, a young girl who enters a mysterious spirit world after her family wanders into a bathhouse village. Terrified but determined to get back to her own world, Chihiro risks everything, even if it means becoming a servant to spirits. This beautifully composed movie is a work of art by Miyazaki, who is well known around the world for producing similarly breath-taking movies such as My Neighbor, Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle. Miyazaki's Spirited Away is a beautifully animated film full of Japanese culture, explores the mysteries of the Japanese kamikakushi, and shows its audience the character development of the protagonist, Chihiro, who goes from grateful in a matter of 125 minutes.
To the western eye, many might think that the characters that appear in Spirited Away are bizarre and monster-like. This is only true, however, if you don't have a deep understanding of Japanese culture. The bathhouse portrayed in the movie is something that might have been found during the Taisho period (1912-1926), and it creates a parallel to the modern world that Chihiro comes form. In addition to traditional architecture, Japanese folklore serves as a key aspect to the film. The bathhouse is for gods, or kami, of the Shinto religion. An example of a prominent god is the stink spirit, an enormous, smelly brown pile of runny mud-like substance. Determined to satisfy her first customer, Chihiro scrubs the spirit with all her might, until it reveals itself as the god of a polluted river. By watching this movie, you will find yourself enchanted by the wondrous artwork portraying traditional Japanese buildings and folklore, as well as diving deeper into Japanese beliefs.
Many may not be familiar with the Japanese term, "kamikakushi". Kamikakushi means "hidden by god", or in this movie's case, "Spirited Away". It refers to the mysterious disappearance or death that occurs when an angered god snatches a person away. These people's who disappear are usually not found again, but there are some instances where these people show up against out of the blue with no memory of ever being gone. Chihiro, a spoiled girl who acts out against her parents during their move, somehow finds herself in a spirit world, as if she is being punished by gods for disrespecting her parents and therefore taken away. The concept kamikakushi is thrilling as it might remind westerners of Alice in Wonderland, and keeps you on the edge of your seat as you wonder the fate of Chihiro and her parents until the very end. One of the most rewarding parts of the movie, however, is not that Chihiro and her parents manage to get back to their own world; it is that Chihiro finds her identity.
Chihiro is portrayed as a normal, spoiled ten-year-old girl who is bitter and bratty towards her parents for making her leave behind a comfortable life in a town full of friends. The way she whines and grumbles certainly makes her someone the audience doesn't sympathize with. However, when her parents turn into pigs and Chihiro is left alone in the spirit world to fend for herself, there is a noticeable change in her character. As a slave, Yubaba, the witch who runs the spirit world's bathhouse, renames Chihiro as Sen, stripping Sen of the person she used to be. Although Yubaba's intent was to weaken Sen to enslave her forever, Sen, in reality, actually becomes stronger. Sen is perhaps the only character entrapped in the spirit world to not fall under the world's spell and become greedy. Additionally, Sen becomes willing to sacrifice herself for the new friends she makes, such as Haku, the mysterious man who first helps her adjust to the spirit world. By the time you realize Chihiro/Sen's development in the movie, you will find that you are emotionally invested in her character. There is a particular scene in the movie where Sen visits her transformed parents in a pig pen behind the bathhouse. The tears that spill out as this lost child cries for her parents will make you feel like your heart is being stabbed a million times by a hot dagger. Although bratty at the beginning of the movie, her good intentions and determination helps Chihiro/Sen grow on you.
Spirited Away is a masterpiece full of Japanese culture, explores the mysteries of the Japanese kamikakushi, and shows the audience the character development of the protagonist, Chihiro, who goes from bratty to grateful. It is no wonder that this film won awards such as the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film and the Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year. Spirited Away is one of those movies that is just entertaining to watch the first time. But the more you watch it, the message of the movie gets deeper.With his film's arrival overseas, the rest of the world received a taste of the potential that foreign films have to offer.