Spirited Away (2001)
"Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi" (original title)

In the middle of her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; where humans are changed into animals; and a bathhouse for these creatures.

Director:

Hayao Miyazaki

Writer:

Hayao Miyazaki

Stars:

Daveigh Chase, Suzanne Pleshette, Susan Egan

Top 250 #41 | Won 1 Oscar. Another 35 wins & 19 nominations.

Cast

Credited cast:
Daveigh Chase	...	Chihiro (voice)
Suzanne Pleshette	...	Yubaba / Zeniba (voice)
Susan Egan	...	Lin (voice)
David Ogden Stiers	...	Kamajii (voice)
Lauren Holly	...	Chihiro's Mother (voice)
Michael Chiklis	...	Chihiro's Father (voice)
John Ratzenberger	...	Assistant Manager (voice)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jack Angel	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Bob Bergen	...	No-Face / Frog / Additional Voices (voice)
Rodger Bumpass	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Jennifer Darling	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Paul Eiding	...	Additional Voices (voice)
Tatsuya Gashûin	...	Aogaeru, Assistant Manager (voice)
Koba Hayashi	...	Kawa no Kami (voice)
Rumi Hiiragi	...	Chihiro / Sen (voice)

Storyline

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.

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Plot Keywords:

bathhouse | spirit | pig | car | witch | 

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Taglines:

(The tunnel led Chihiro to a mysterious town...)

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Family | Fantasy

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG for some scary moments

Details

Official Sites:

Miyazaki collection MSN France (French)

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

20 July 2001 (Japan)

Also Known As:

Miyazaki's Spirited Away

Box Office

Budget:

JPY 1,900,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£152,504 (UK) (12 September 2003)

Gross:

£542,530 (UK) (26 September 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Studio Ghibli, Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV), DENTSU Music And Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

DTS-ES Dolby Digital EX Dolby (English-language version) Dolby Digital (English-language version)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The theme of not looking back is a reference to the famous Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice.

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Goofs

When Sen and Lin are asked to clean the "big tub" before they start to clean it the tub appears full with dirty water but a few seconds later Lin and sen are stood in the tub but it is empty.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Chihiro: [reading a card] I'll miss you, Chihiro. Your best friend, Rumi.

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Crazy Credits

The credits have a series of still images from the film. The last image before the film fades is Chihiro's shoe in the river.

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Connections

Referenced in Weakest link: Hitori gachi no hôsoku: Episode #1.1 (2002)

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Soundtracks

"Shigoto wa Tsuraize"
("It's Hard Work")
Composed by Joe Hisaishi

User Reviews

An Amazing Achievement in Animation.

'Spirited Away' is the first Miyazaki I have seen, but from this stupendous film I can tell he is a master storyteller. A hallmark of a good storyteller is making the audience empathise or pull them into the shoes of the central character. Miyazaki does this brilliantly in 'Spirited Away'. During the first fifteen minutes we have no idea what is going on. Neither does the main character Chihiro. We discover the world as Chihiro does and it's truly amazing to watch. But Miyazaki doesn't seem to treat this world as something amazing. The world is filmed just like our workaday world would. The inhabitants of the world go about their daily business as usual as full with apathy as us normal folks. Places and buildings are not greeted by towering establishing shots and majestic music. The fact that this place is amazing doesn't seem to concern Miyazaki.

What do however, are the characters. Miyazaki lingers upon the characters as if they were actors. He infixes his animated actors with such subtleties that I have never seen, even from animation giants Pixar. Twenty minutes into this film and I completely forgot these were animated characters; I started to care for them like they were living and breathing. Miyazaki treats the modest achievements of Chihiro with unashamed bombast. The uplifting scene where she cleanses the River God is accompanied by stirring music and is as exciting as watching gladiatorial combatants fight. Of course, by giving the audience developed characters to care about, the action and conflicts will always be more exciting, terrifying and uplifting than normal, generic action scenes.

Through Chihiro, Miyazaki is clearly (but non-patronisingly) talking to youth of Japan. There's a certain sense of revile about the youth of Japan at the moment. Many people consider them to be ill-mannered and baring no respect for their elders or their forefathers. They are simply bi-products of their material world and consumerism. 'Spirited Away' taps into this. At the start Chihiro is a selfish, spoiled, whiny brat. But as she plunges deeper into the spirit world, she becomes more independent, more assured, more respectful and learns some manners. No Face, a black figure with a white mask, is the catalyst behind Chihiro's transformation. Once he is let into the bathhouse, we are no longer tourists – the story propels forth. Watching No Face prey on the greed of the workers is a terrifying delight. The three main characters in Miyazaki's youth allegory are Chihiro, No Face and Bô. All of these characters are disconnected with their world. They are lonely, misunderstood and largely ignored. But when they go on their journey together, they united and become stronger individuals.

Miyazaki also talks about the ecology of Japan. What was once a beautiful; grassland has now turned into the Asian New York. That The Last Samurai had to be filmed in New Zealand to get a turn of the century Japanese look speaks volumes. The River God sequence is an unsubtle but unpretentious commentary on pollution. While these two themes are very much current in Japan, they are also universal themes – which makes 'Spirited Away' a universal story that most of us can connect with. I'm willing to bet everyone reading this has at some time seen bicycles lying on a lake bed or have had a child talk to them disrespectfully. Sure these themes aren't advanced philosophy. They are everyday issues told in an inventive, fun way.

The animation is wonderful, if not as smooth as Disney's works – but there's something superior to that. 'Spirited Away's imperfect, but detailed world is far more fascinating than the perfected blandest of Disney's latest offerings. The animators successfully balanced the tight-rope between not-enough animation on characters and too much animation on characters. No Ralph Balski ADD antics here! The film is full of vivid images – both beautiful and horrifying. The line between those two extremes is crossed over seamlessly. From Chihiro and Haku running through an opening flower field to Haku's dragon snarling with a bloody mouth, both extremes seem to belong in the film. It's also excellently done with the characters. Kamaji can be seen as a scary, daunting figure at the beginning, but soon he seamlessly changes into a humble, wise figure. Yubaba also seems to be able to turn from kind to witch with the snap of a finger.

The sound on the film was expertly done. The sounds perfectly match the on screen actions and objects. My sub woofer got a wonderful workout when Haku swoops Chihiro past the bridge at the beginning. And while I don't speak Japanese, I think the voice actors did a wonderful job of conveying their personality and emotions true their voice. Joe Hisaishi's music is sublime, definitely one of my favourite scores. His main piano theme is simple and evocative. His thunderous action music hits the viewers on the chest like a hammer. Like all great scores it heightens the greatness of a scene about three times. The score, unlike many American composers', is unobtrusive. It plays excellently with the scenes, but never overbears them. A lot of the time the it is barely noticeable, a sole piano plays softly in the background evoking a dreamlike/lullaby quality.

'Spirited Away' is a simply a modern masterpiece, easily one of the Top 10 films of the new millennium. It works on a multitude of levels; a social commentary on Japan, a homage to ancient Japanese/Russian mythology, a moral film for both children and adults. But most importantly, it is a simple story brilliantly told by a great filmmaker who appears to be at the top of his game. 'Spirited Away' works much like a relaxing journey. Pop in the DVD; leave this world for two hours and when you will be almost certainly enriched and ready to take the trip again.