07
SPIRITED AWAY
A testament to the beauty of tradition.
Spirited Away marks another animated masterpiece in the 50 year career of renowned film director, Hayao Miyazaki, who is also responsible for the critically acclaimed Kiki’s Delivery Service and Howl’s Moving Castle. Miyazaki’s hand drawn style of animation inspired by classical Japanese graphic artists, pairs perfectly with the weird and whimsical world of Spirited Away.
The 10-year-old heroine named Chihiro makes her mark as a powerful female lead in Miyazaki’s latest animated epic, which clocks in at 125 minutes. The film opens as Chihiro and her parents decide to explore a mysterious tunnel in the woods, but they emerge in a place that appears to be a dilapidated theme park. As her parents stumble upon a free meal, Chihiro wanders off to a gigantic structure that she later discovers is a bathhouse for the spirits. Yubaba, the owner of the bathhouse, transforms Chihiro’s parents into pigs and forces her to work in order to restore her parents to their human form. The bathhouse, or “sento,” as the Japanese call it, is populated by a diverse cast of spirit characters and serves as the setting for the remainder of the film.
The mysterious world of the bathhouse as revealed though the eyes of Chihiro provokes a sense of child-like curiosity, even for the most mundane of viewers. Spirited Away’s elaborate plot is woven together by the dilemmas Chihiro faces while working as a human among the strange spirits.
Everything from giant babies to fantastical dragons is flawlessly integrated into Chihiro’s extraordinary adventure.
While Spirited Away is often compared to Alice in Wonderland, the film takes its greatest influence from eastern philosophy, specifically Miyazaki’s own Shinto heritage. An overarching theme of purification and the spirits that inhabit the film’s world can be traced directly to Shinto tradition and beliefs.
One of the first scenes of the film features Chihiro and her parents driving past a forested “torii” or gate, which is placed at the entrance of a shrine to welcome spirits referred to in Shintoism as “Kami”. This torii appears just before the tunnel that ultimately leads Chihiro to the spirit bathhouse.
An important concept of the Shinto faith is purity as an indicator of good and evil. Impurity is said to separate humans from Kami, which ultimately brings forth the idea that obtaining complete purity is equivalent to becoming a Kami. Humans are born pure, but gain impurity through pollution, or “tsumi” which can be of physical or moral nature.
Everything from disease to thinking a malicious thought is considered to be tsumi. These impurities are removed though complex rituals, all involving the use of water or bathing.
The bathhouse that maintains a significant role in the setting of Spirited Away expresses the central theme of purification, as spirits travel to rejuvenate and wash away their impurities.
The concept of tsumi is most prominently featured through the intriguing character of Okutaresama, a benign, slug-like being who makes his first appearance as a stink spirit caked in oozing mud. When Chihiro is forced to prepare his bath, it is revealed that his tsumi, or impurity, is human pollution. In one scene, an entire bicycle is pulled from his body. Okutaresama’s purification transforms him into a serpentine dragon, at which point Chihiro discovers that he is in fact a rich and powerful river spirit. Chihiro experiences her own purification as she learns the value of friendship, hard work, and family, all in an effort to save her parents from the evil bathhouse master, Yubaba.
Spirited Away flawlessly captures the beauty and ingenuity of Hayao Miyazaki. From the film’s painstakingly hand-drawn frames to its deep roots in Japanese culture, Spirited Away is a film to be appreciated by anyone who values true passion for one’s craft.
Director: Hayao Miyazaki. Cast: Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takeshi Naito, Yasuko Sawaguchi
Tsunehiko Kamijō, Takehiko Ono, Bunta Sugawara
THE VERDICT
07
An animated masterpiece.