The Supernatural and Ambiguous Journey of Chihiro

Rating: 7/10 (17 September 2012)

The spoiled and whiny girl Chihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside and Chihiro is missing her old house. Chihiro's father makes a wrong turn and drives through a lonely land road with dead end in a tunnel. Her parents decide to stop the car and explore the area. They cross the tunnel and find an abandoned cultural theme park on the other side with a ghost town.
When her parents sees a restaurant with smelling food but no staff, they decide to eat to pay later; however Chihiro refuses to eat and decides to visit the place. She meets the boy Haku that tells her that her parents and she are in danger and they must leave the place. She runs to the restaurant and finds that her parents have turned into pigs. Further, the place is a bathhouse of spirits, monsters, gods and ghosts owned by the witch Yubaba. Now Chihiro counts on Haku to save her parents and return to their world.
"Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" is an entertaining and original Japanese fable with the supernatural and ambiguous journey of a girl named Chihiro to a world of witches, gods and ghosts the same way that Alice meets the Wonderland in Lewis Carroll's tale. Even the villains are lovable and the conclusion is open to the interpretation of the viewer. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "A Viagem de Chihiro" ("The Travel of Chihiro")