Beauty and Greed

Rating: 9/10 (31 May 2007)

Spirited Away is a great foreign film that represents the filth and corruption of society. Hayao Miyazaki, the director of this film, represented throughout his movie the problems of the modern society compared to the ideas and vies of the traditional society. The bathhouse in this movie is seen as a symbol of purity, which is a more traditional view that covers many Buddhist ideas. The two demon beings that were incorporated by the director represented the bad and evil of modern society. The first one represented the pollution that is constantly around us and the second one represented greed.
The movie's picture and color was very unique and different from today's animation, where every scene was hand painted, which made the movie seem more real. Another aspect of the movie that made it seem very real was the fact that the characters lips matched there words. These beautiful paintings and close attention to detail made for a very out of the ordinary animated movie.
Miyazaki presented the older ignorant generations as pigs of society because they were being greedy and would not stop eating the food. He also pointed out that they were unwilling to change from there corrupt ways and adjust to make society a better place to live. However, the younger generation did not seem to have as big a problem changing. Through symbolism, Miyazaki showed how the younger generations have the ability to change their views and take on society from one that is corrupt, dishonest, and modern to that of a more traditional society. Miyazaki used Chihiro in the movie as a symbol of this younger generation's ability to change more so than the older generation like her parents. Spirited Away portrays this generational change to show the arrogance of the Western more modern world and the idea that they will be able to clean up society.
I would recommend this movie to someone who does not have a problem with anime but also someone that can appreciate the beauty of art since each scene was hand painted. There were also a lot of underlying factors in this movie that made you think about society and the way that we live today, so if you like to ponder and dig deeper into things this movie will make you happy. And I would not recommend it to an American audience considering there are a lot of Buddhist and Taoist views that are represented and can give a negative connotation to Western society.