Film: Spirited Away
Release date: 29th March 2004
Certificate: PG
Running time: 116 mins
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Rumi Hîragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takashi Naitô, Yasuko Sawaguchi
Genre: Anime
Studio: Optimum
Format: DVD
Country: Japan
Studio Ghibli is a name to be reckoned with in animation. Their back catalogue is sizeable, from 1984 up until the present day it numbers seventeen films without including shorts and museum releases. The Japanese animation studio has attained a high standard of excellence and awards throughout its productions - Spirited Away is no exception. It is a film that reveals at its heart a message that love can be stronger than magic.
Chihiro is a 10-year-old girl, moving to a new home with her parents, looking sadly on a bunch of flowers given to her by the friends she is leaving. On their journey, they encounter a long tunnel, at the end of which is a mysterious town. As events unfold, the mysterious town is not all that it seems. Whilst looking around, her parents are turned into pigs after gorging themselves on the available food which has appeared despite Chihiro’s warnings.
Her situation finds her alone in the town, trapped in a spirit world with darkness approaching. A young boy Haku comes to her aid, sneaking her into the large bathhouse for spirits and gods, telling her that if she is willing to make herself useful the witch Yubaba will have to tolerate her. He takes her down to the furnaces to the six armed Kijami to work. As Chihiro goes on to explore upstairs, following a young woman she is curious about, she finds work on the upper levels preparing the baths for the customers.
During this employment, where Yubaba works her staff hard through the night, Chihiro, with Haku’s help, must somehow work out where her parents are, and how to turn them back from the pigs they have become - a somewhat notable aside from Miyazaki on capitalism.
Magic and intrigue conspire to make sure that Chihiro is always tested. In a world she is unfamiliar with, Chihiro’s core values are on trial…
Ghibli’s animation is always breathtaking, and this is no exception. The clear, identifiable style of the animation studio means that the viewer is able to tell its pedigree from the outset. To top it off, it is written and directed by Miyazaki after his pseudo retirement.
The impending sense of loneliness, which comes from a little girl alone and forced to try and survive, is filled with the sort of tenderness and stillness not often found in animation. One particularly notable scene comes from the coal creatures and Kijami. An exhausted Chihiro comes to sleep in the boiler room, where she feels comfortable, deep in the furnaces of Yubaba’s bathhouse. The six armed Kijami, in a moment of kindness, place a blanket over her, and the coal creatures remove her shoes to make her more comfortable. Even though this is such a short moment in the film, it encapsulates so much of the tenderness that the audience feels toward the character. Chihiro is in a strange land and is now having to work to stay safe. The need to feel the soothing sense of familiarity - however odd - is clearly pertinent for her.
An underlying message becomes clear as the film progresses - like many of the Ghibli films, and is encapsulated by the state of the land Yubaba inhabits. Miyazaki seems to be making a comment on pollution and the global warming occurring in the world. The customer at the bathhouse, which turns out to be a river spirit - not the stink demon they had envisaged - has become so laden with filth and garbage from river pollution that he has become unrecognisable. The cleansing process of Chihiro, removing the thorn stuck in his side, becomes somewhat illustrative of the pain and peril of the natural resources of the earth. This is shown again with the water overlapping onto the train track which leaves the bathhouse. It is inferred that much has been submerged; the train no longer comes back.
Even though there is the ability to read into the narrative issues of environmental destruction, at its heart, the film is a touching tale of a little girl trying to survive in an unfamiliar world, and finding that kindness, love and truth are universally held in high esteem. The innocence of Chihiro and the goodness and compassion which she tries to uphold sees the character able to deal with everything the spirit world throws at her.
The animation is stunning, and the visual landscape created is absolutely wondrous. For an audience who are used to animated films saturating the market with 3D and other trends, Spirited Away provides a burst of freshness. The film has so many things happening at once that it keeps the audience fully engaged in the world it has created. From thunderously large babies who must be appeased, faceless spirits and dangerous paper birds, Spirited Away is one of the most creative pieces of animation around, and richly deserving of the many awards it has acquired.
Ghibli have provided what is arguably one of their best films to date. This is a classic which seems to force Pixar and Disney’s fare to take a step back. It’s a great movie to introduce newcomers to the world of Ghibli, and an absolute essential in any film collection. DHA
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