Spirited Away

This film by Miyazaki tells the story of a young girl named Chihiro. It starts with Chihiro and her family moving to a new house much to the young girls disappointment; but along the way her father takes a wrong turn and they find a mysterious building. Believing it to be an abandoned amusement park from the 1990's they enter (against Chihiro's scared and persistent begging not to) to find that over the fields and across a stream there are many restaurants - one of which has freshly cooked food. Her parents soon begin feasting on this food, while Chihiro wanders off to explore and comes across a bridge to an amazing looking bath house. It is here on the bridge that she first meets Haku, who appears to be a young boy about her age. He tells her to run away and get back to the other side of the stream before the lanterns are turned back on (as it suddenly starts getting dark); and run she does. She gets back to her parents, who by this time have turned into pigs, and spirits have started to awake as the lights are turned on. She leaves her parents and runs back to the stream to find it is now a massive river that she cannot cross - she is trapped.

Haku finds her and tells her to go to the Bathhouse and to not leave - she must keep asking for a job until she is given one no matter what and it's likely to be the worst job they have. She sneaks into the Bathhouse and speaks with a spidery like person who sends her up to the top floor to see Yubaba - mistress of the Bathhouse.


Past that I don't really want to go into too much of the plot details, other than we learn that the building they entered was a doorway to the spirit world, and the bath house run by Yubaba is used by the spirits to replenish themselves. The general outline of the story is that Chihiro (who is named Sen by Yubaba) is traveling through the spirit world and is learning from her experiences to make her a better person through the friends she meets and what she experiences. The concept of how Yubaba having control over Sen by taking her name and it having a special power over her is something that is echoed in various literature and myths of how names are powerful; just as the concept of the spirit world, and river spirits being based upon old eastern cultural beliefs.


If you like world cinema, Anime, or anything with a bit of cultural reference to it then I strongly recommend giving this film a try - it is one of the best Anime movies I have ever seen. It is even one the whole family can enjoy (violence is only implied and is never actually seen though).

Rating: 4.5 / 5