Don't forget what you strive for originally...-What I have learned through this profound animated movie.

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2020)

Every time I watch this movie, it reminds me of a story, a story that someone loses him or herself because of greediness:
Ogino' parents become hogs because they can't leave the so-called feast;
Boh is attracted by food and sensory feast in the bathhouse and finally becomes a monster after wasting excessively;
Haku enters the bathhouse to learn magic while becomes a thief controlled by Yubaba;
Almost everyone in the bathhouse works hard to get the gold, even if they know they will be swallowed....
What does the bathhouse mean there?
There exist a variety of food, sensory feast, which attracts people to come eagerly while leave satisfactorily. -This is more like a microcosm of our world, which is filled with and blotted by materialism.
But what happen after Ogino' s come?
01
Lost
When Ogino comes to this world, it feels like an innocent kid entering a la La Land. She witnesses her parents becoming hogs which represent the greedy men who only care how to cater for their appetite and never be satisfied.
She is pretty scared and doesn't want to eat any food in this world to cut her own appetite. However, without food people will disappear. So Haku brings food for her and tells her to work-only in this way she can survive, which means no pain no gain.
To avoid becoming a hog, the neophyte asks Yubaba for a job. Admitted Yubaba gives her a job, but she also stripes of her original name-Chihiro Ogino.
Ogino is her original name, original appearance and original identity.
While ''Sen'' is what Yubaba call her-this is a new identity meaning that she is working here.
If a man forgot his or her original name or appearance, he or she can't go back to the original world. Thanks to Haku giving Ogino her clothes to remind her her original name.
Sometimes people lost themselves in this way. In seeing the workers in the bathhouse, we should know that they are epitome of us, who want to make more money while don't want to do more work or just want to designate the others and bully the poor ones. In this way, we adapt to this world to greater extents;we chase power,success,higher ranks and more captured equipments....
So that's why kind Haku becomes a lackey of Yubaba;that's why frogs are willing to exchange their lives for money....
At this point, I want to ask how many people can still remember their original ideal and what we want to do at first?
Or we just be busy with something mundane and gone with the wind. Love someone;merry someone;have babies;become bosses and become rich.... Admitted, we might achieve something, but we also lose the basic ability to remember our name....
If we really change the world hard or if we are changed by the world hard?
While Ogino is still innocent:she only works and doesn't care about money. Everything she does is derived from her heart:bathing ''Stink Spirit,''helping No Face, and saving Haku.
Probably we might introspect ourselves:what we have swallowed in this world? Only vomiting the things like what No Face has done, we would be as clean as a mirror....
02
Seeking
Ogino who works hard is distributed to the worst place in the bathhouse and has to welcome the most horrible guest-Stink Spirit.
No one wants to get close except goofy Ogino. -Though she is scared to paralysis at first, she still takes him to the bathroom.
This is the key of growth-facing the fear itself bravely. The others are not brave enough, so they are ''Sen'' instead of ''Ogino.''Only the bravery can bring hope at this urgent moment.
The wound is the place where the light enters you.
Ogino moves slowly along the bath pool with innocence. She accidentally falls down while finds the secret while being held by River Spirit- a bike stuck in.
The bike appears frequently in our dreams;it can represent our body, our mind, while it represents finding what we originally be there.-This bike is the source of every filth, while the filth mixed with each other is our own complexes.
The bike is the key point-everyone pulls off it together and cleanse everything filthy taken with it, and then the Stink Spirit becomes grave and great River Spirit.
Similarly, No Face can become originally innocent after vomiting everything he shouldn't swallow:materialistic appetite and those stink psychological rubbish....
So does Haku, who intakes a half of the pill and spits the things which he chases and which controls him. And finally, he becomes a human in figure.
Either the stink Stink Spirit or horrific No Face or seemingly powerful Haku, they are actually beautiful and clean after striping off the filth.
03
Finding
Ogino does something honorable there:she apologizes in behalf of Haku and returns the
amulet stealed by Haku.
She takes the train with No Face, the ''fly,'' and the ''mouse '' on the way of the return.
They finally arrive at the thatched while tranquil house and see Zeniba who looks similar to her sister.
Yubaba lives at the top of the building and is surrounded with wealth, while Zeniba lives in the happiest thatched house, knits a hair tie for ogino with the help of little''mouse'' and No Face.
One takes away Ogino's name, while the other directs Ogino to find Haku ' s name.
One makes a deal, while the other gives away.
Ogino apologizes in behalf of Haku -this is an important step to the growth:taking responsibility.
From depending on greedy Yubaba to loving industrial Zeniba, Ogino is no longer controlled by Yubaba while she attaches to kind and warm-hearted Zeniba.
When flying with Haku, she also remembers her lost memory:
''Listen Haku..., your true name is.... ''
''You did it, Chihiro! I remember! I was the spirit of the Kohaku River.... ''
Suddenly the scales of the dragon are scattered away in the sky, turning into a smiling smart man....
They hold each other's hands in the sky.... It is a charming story.
Ogino comes back to the bathhouse and undoes the last puzzle successfully:her parents have come to worldly world.
Then she says farewell to the others,especially to Haku, and has to go back without turning back. Though she has strong predisposition
to turn back, she still follows want Haku has said, because she knows:after that might-be turn, she might never come back....
In the end, it is only left the two people's hands which were shaken while loosen finally. I guess they will shake, they will,
they will....
Ogino finishes her journey in that world. But where we are now?