Spirited Away

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Spirited Away
Spirited Away film poster
Directed by	Hayao Miyazaki
Produced by	Toshio Suzuki
Written by	Hayao Miyazaki
Starring	Rumi Hiiragi Miyu Irino Mari Natsuki Takashi Naitō Yasuko Sawaguchi (Japan) Daveigh Chase Jason Marsden Michael Chiklis Lauren Holly Suzanne Pleshette David Ogden Stiers Susan Egan Bob Bergen Tara Strong (USA)
Music by	Joe Hisaishi
Cinematography	Atsushi Okui
Editing by	Takeshi Seyama
Distributed by	Toho (Japan) Studio Ghibli (Japan) Walt Disney Pictures (USA) United International Pictures (South Africa) Europa Filmes (Brazil) Optimum Releasing (UK)
Release date(s)	Japan: July 27, 2001 United States: September 20, 2002 (film), March 28, 2003 (re-release) Canada: November 6, 2002 Australia: December 12, 2002 United Kingdom: September 12, 2003
Running time	124 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese English
Budget	¥1,900,000,000 (approx.) $19,000,000 (approx.)

Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し ,Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi^?, lit. Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away) is a 2001 Japanese anime film written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film sees a sullen ten-year-old girl in the middle of her family's move to the suburbs wander into a world ruled by gods, witches, and monsters; where humans are changed into animals; and a bathhouse for these creatures.

The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award, the first (and so far only) non-English speaking animation to win, and the only winner of that award to be traditionally animated or win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees). The film also won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday). Spirited Away overtook Titanic in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history.^[1]

[edit] Plot

Chihiro and her parents are moving to a new town. While driving, her father decides to take a shortcut, but gets lost, stumbling across what appears to be an abandoned theme park. The family crosses a tunnel and explores the park, finding the stalls are full of freshly-cooked food. While Chihiro's parents are eating, Chihiro wanders off and meets a boy named Haku. Haku seems to be familiar with Chihiro and warns her urgently to escape with her parents; she returns to find her parents have turned to pigs and that the way back has become a deep river. Spirits appear and go about celebrating in the park. Haku secretly takes Chihiro to a large bathhouse, careful to avoid alerting the spirits to the presence of a human. Haku then tells her that she must get a job from the witch Yubaba, the owner of the park's bathhouse, until he can help her recover her parents and escape.

With the help of the boiler room master Kamajii and a bathhouse servant girl Lin, Chihiro is able to convince Yubaba to give her a job; in exchange, Chihiro is forced to give up her name so that Yubaba may keep her in her service forever and is subsequently given the name "Sen". Chihiro eventually learns that Haku is similarly indebted to Yubaba. Chihiro is put to work alongside Lin, helping to bathe and serve the most difficult spirits in the bathhouse. Chihiro is able to successfully bathe a "stink spirit", in fact revealed to be a river spirit, who awards Chihiro with a magic healing cake made from special herbs, as well as with gold. Later, Chihiro discovers Haku's true form, a dragon, as he is attacked by paper birds controlled by Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister. Haku had stolen Zeniba's sigil under orders from Yubaba. Chihiro tries to help Haku recover using the cake given to her by the river spirit, which acts as an emetic to the dragon, thus recovering Zeniba's sigil, but Haku remains comatose, so Chihiro decides to travel to Zeniba's home to return the sigil, hoping to break her curse. Chihiro sets out on a lonely train ride across the spirit world, along with a wraith-like spirit called No Face who terrorized the bathhouse and tried to earn the affection of Chihiro and Boh, Yubaba's gigantic infant son, whom Zeniba has transformed into a mouse.

The group arrives at Zeniba's house to find that Zeniba is friendlier than expected, and that the curse on Haku was placed on him by Yubaba, but Chihiro's love and caring has broken the spell. Zeniba makes Chihiro a special hairband to show her that her friends are with her, as well as for protection, and No Face is offered to stay at Zeniba's home as her assistant. Haku, now recovered, shows up to return Chihiro to the bathhouse, explaining that Yubaba will return Chihiro's parents to normal and allow all three of them to leave in exchange for returning Boh. As they travel on Haku's dragon form, Chihiro realizes that Haku is the same river spirit that saved her as a small child when she fell into the Kohaku River, and the realization helps to break Yubaba's control on Haku completely. At the bathhouse, Yubaba reveals that Chihiro must pass one more task as part of Haku's deal: identify which pigs out of several are her parents. Chihiro passes the test, and Yubaba is forced to let her and her family go. Haku escorts her to the entrance of the spirit world, telling her that her parents are waiting on the other side, but to not look back or else the deal will be broken. Chihiro rejoins her parents, not once looking back; the family returns to their car, now dusty, to continue to their new home. Zeniba's hairband is still in Chihiro's hair.

[edit] Cast and characters

• Rumi Hiiragi (Daveigh Chase in the English adaption) as Chihiro Ogino (荻野 千尋 ,Ogino Chihiro^?), the ten-year old protagonist of the film. Chihiro is in the process of moving to a new town when her family stumbles upon the entrance to the spirit world. During her adventure she matures from a whiny, self-centered, and pessimistic child to a hard-working, responsible, optimistic young girl who has learned to care for others. She is renamed "Sen" (千 ,sen^?, lit. "a thousand") by the proprietor of the bathhouse, Yubaba.

• Miyu Irino (Jason Marsden in the English adaption) as Haku/Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi (ハク/ニギハヤミ コハクヌシ ,Haku/Nigihayami Kohakunushi^?), a young boy who helps Chihiro after her parents have transformed into pigs. Haku works as Yubaba's direct subordinate, often running errands and performing missions for her. He has the ability to fly and his true form is a dragon. Toward the end of the story Chihiro recalls falling into the Kohaku (コハク ^?) river, of which Haku is the spirit; she thus frees him from Yubaba's service by helping him remember his real name and past, which he had forgotten due to the name change and the curse which Yubaba has placed on him. Haku had entered the spirit world seeking to learn magic from Yubaba, and as a result became an apprentice who followed her every command. When Yubaba is nearby, Haku is as sharp-voiced to Chihiro as to anyone else, so as to avoid the revelation of his growing love for her.

• Mari Natsuki (Suzanne Pleshette in the English adaption) as Yubaba (湯婆婆 ,Yubaaba^?, lit. "bath crone"), an old witch with an inhumanly large head and nose, who supervises the bathhouse. She reluctantly signs Chihiro into a contract. Yubaba then takes Chihiro's name and renames her "Sen" in order to hold power over her for the duration of the contract. She also does this to her other workers, so she can keep them in service forever. Yubaba has an over-bearing and authoritarian personality, but does show a soft side toward her giant baby, Boh. In contrast to her simple and hospitable sister Zeniba, Yubaba lives in opulent quarters and is only interested in taking care of guests for money.

• Bunta Sugawara (David Ogden Stiers in the English adaption) as Kamajii (釜爺 ,lit. "boiler geezer"^?), an old man with six arms, who operates the boiler room of the bathhouse. A number of Susuwatari (ススワタリ ^?) work for him by carrying coal into his furnace. He has a large cabinet where he keeps all the herbs that are used in the baths. After some persuasion, he allows Chihiro to work at the bathhouse and even pretends to be her grandfather to protect her, though this ruse does not stand for long. He later takes an injured Haku into his boiler room and cares for him while Chihiro, given train tickets by Kamajii, journeys to Zeniba's cottage. At first he seems cold and uncaring, but by the end of the film he seems to have grown a soft spot for Chihiro and for anyone whom she calls her friend.

Chihiro (left) and No Face (right). No Face becomes obsessed with Chihiro after her initial act of kindness and proceeds to offer her many gifts

• Tatsuya Gashuin (Bob Bergen in the English adaption) as No Face (カオナシ ,Kaonashi^?, lit. "without face"), an odd spirit who takes an interest in Chihiro. Seeing No Face standing outside in the rain, Chihiro takes pity on the creature and lets him into the bathhouse to take shelter from the storm. At first, he is a strange, cloaked, masked wraith that merely breathes and smiles. No Face is a lonely being who seems to sustain itself on the emotions of those he encounters, particularly their emotional reception to his gifts. He is helpful to Chihiro because she helped him, whereas after observing the bathhouse staff's reaction to gold and his own attempts to win them over with more gold, he reacts to their greed by becoming a grotesque monster which eats lots of food and some of the staff. After Chihiro feeds him the final piece of the medicine ball given to her by the River Spirit, No Face regurgitates everything he consumed, including the bathhouse staff members, all of whom are alive and well. Once he has emptied himself of these foreign influences and left the bathhouse, No Face reverts to his former state. At the end, he stays with Zeniba as a helper.

• Yumi Tamai (Susan Egan in the English adaption) as Lin (リン ,Rin^?), a worker at the bathhouse who becomes Chihiro's caretaker. Although aloof at first, she warms up to Chihiro and grows a strong bond with her. At the end, she is happy for Chihiro when the latter finally goes home. Lin states that she wishes to leave the bathouse for some better life.

• Ryūnosuke Kamiki (Tara Strong in the English adaption) as Boh (坊 ,Bō^?), Yubaba's son. Although he has the appearance of a young baby, he is twice Yubaba's size. He is also very strong and can be dangerous. Yubaba spoils him and goes out of her way to give him whatever he wants. When Zeniba turns Boh into a mouse, he becomes good friends with Chihiro and eventually stands up to Yubaba to protect Chihiro.

• River Spirit (川の神 ,kawa no kami^?) is a customer of the bathhouse originally thought to be a "stink spirit", who is assigned to Chihiro and Lin. Yubaba suspects that he may be something more than a stink spirit; when Chihiro helps him by pulling trash that had been dumped into his river out of his side, her suspicions are proved correct. He is in fact a famous and wealthy river god. As a reward for cleaning him, he gives Chihiro a ball of plant material which is a "healing cake" that she later uses to heal an injured Haku through ingestion and to cause No Face to vomit the people and vast amounts of food he ate during his rampage.

• Zeniba (銭婆 ,Zeniiba^?) is Yubaba's older twin sister and rival. Although identical in appearance, their personalities are almost polar opposites. At first she appears no kinder than Yubaba when she becomes enraged at Haku for stealing her magic seal and threatens to take it back, regardless of what happens to Haku. Hoping to gain Zeniba's forgiveness, Chihiro journeys to Zeniba's cottage to return it and apologize. It is then that Zeniba reveals her true character as that of a kind, grandmotherly figure. She forgives Haku for stealing her seal and tells him to look after Chihiro. She then sees everyone off, assuring Chihiro that she will be well.

[edit] Themes and archetypes

The major themes of Spirited Away center on the protagonist Chihiro and her liminal journey through the realm of the bathhouse of the gods. A spoiled child, forced into the fantastic world, Chihiro becomes completely separated from everything she has known and must find her way back into reality. Chihiro’s experience in the alternate world, frequently compared to Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, represents her passage from childhood to adulthood.^[2] The archetypal entrance into another world clearly demarcates Chihiro’s status as one in-between. In her transition between child and adult, Chihiro stands outside of these societal boundaries, a situation mirrored by the supernatural setting outside of reality. The use of the word kamikakushi, literally hidden by gods, within the Japanese title, and its associated folklore reinforces this liminal passage: “Kamikakushi is a verdict of ‘social death’ in this world, and coming back to this world from Kamikakushi meant ‘social resurrection.’”^[3] Upon gaining employment at the bathhouse, Yubaba’s seizure of Chihiro’s true name, a common theme within folklore, symbolically kills the child Chihiro.^[4] Having lost her childhood identity, Chihiro can not return to reality the way she came, she can only move forward into adulthood. The following trials and obstacles Chihiro must overcome become the challenges and lessons common in rites-of-passage, and the monomyth format. In her attempt to regain her self, her “continuity with her past,” Chihiro must forge a new identity.^[5]

Beneath the surface coming-of-age trope, Spirited Away contains critical commentary on modern Japanese society concerning generational conflicts, the struggle with dissolving traditional culture and customs within a global society, and environmental pollution ^[6]. Chihiro, as a representation of the liminal shōjo, “may be seen as a metaphor for the Japanese society which, over the last decade, seems to be increasingly in limbo, drifting uneasily away from the values and ideological framework of the immediate postwar era.” ^[7] Just as Chihiro seeks her past identity, Japan, in its anxiety over the economic downturn occurring during the release of Spirited Away in 2001, sought to reconnect to past values ^[8]. In interview, Miyazaki has commented on this nostalgic element for an old Japan^[9]. Initially, Chihiro travels past the abandoned fair ground, a symbol for Japan’s burst “bubble economy,” and her parent’s credit card fueled gluttony and transformation into pigs, to reach the fantasy world replete with Japanese culture and fable in the amalgam of the bathhouse.

However, the “bathhouse of the spirits has its own ambivalence, and its own darkness…. Miyazaki is not so simpleminded as to locate a perfect vision in the past or the spiritual.” ^[10] Many of the employees are rude and discriminating to Chihiro, and the corruption of avarice has incorporated itself into the “bricolage” of the bathhouse ^[11] as a place of “excess and greed” as well, as depicted in the initial appearance of the No-Face. ^[12] . In stark contrast to the “archetypal approaches to cultural recovery such as recognition, proper identification, spiritual cleansing, and sacrifice,” embodied in Chihiro’s journey and transformation, the constant background presence of the ambiguity of the bathhouse reminds the audience that reality is not so simple: “the bathhouse’s simultaneous incorporation of the carnivalesque and the chaotic suggests that the threats to the collectivity are not simply outside ones.” ^[13] The environmental asides concerning the trash deforming the Stink-god and Haku’s plight over the loss of his river to apartment complexes, further indicate that the sources of pollution within the bathhouse, a place of ritual purity, come from within the Japanese society.

[edit] Production

Spirited Away was directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Every summer, Miyazaki spent his vacation at a mountain cabin with his family and five young female friends. He wanted to make a film for them, and that is how Spirited Away came about. Miyazaki had previously done films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, which were for small children and teenagers, but he had not done a film for ten-year-old girls. For inspiration, he read shōjo manga magazines such as Nakayoshi and Ribon that the girls had left at the cabin. When Miyazaki read the magazines he felt that they only offered things such as crushes and romance. When looking at his young friends, Miyazaki felt this was not what they "held dear in their hearts", so instead he decided to make the film about a girl heroine that they could look up to.^[14]

Hayao Miyazaki, the film's director and writer.

Miyazaki had wanted to make a new film for a long time. He had previously written two project proposals, but they had both been rejected. The first one was based on the Japanese book Kirino Mukouno Fushigina Machi, and the second one was about a teenage heroine. Miyazaki's third proposal, which ended up becoming Spirited Away, was more successful. All three stories revolves around a bathhouse that was based on a bathhouse in Miyazaki's hometown. Miyazaki thought the bathhouse was a mysterious place, and there was a small door next to one of the bathtubs in the bathhouse. Miyazaki was always curious to what was behind it, and he made up several stories about it; one of which was the inspiration for the bathhouse in Spirited Away.^[14]

The film went into production in 2000, with a budget of 1.9 billion yen (15 million dollars). In his previous film, Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki and his staff had experimented with the process of computer animation. Equipping themselves with more computers and programs like 3D, the Studio Ghibli staff began to learn the software, but keeping the technology at a level to enhance the story, not "steal the show". All the characters were largely animated by hand, with Miyazaki working alongside his animators to see that they were getting it just right.^[15] The biggest difficulty in making the film was to cut its length down. When production started, Miyazaki realized that it would be more than three hours long if he made it according to his plot. He had to cut many scenes from the story, and tried to reduce the "eye-candy" in the film because he wanted it to be simple. Miyazaki did not want to make the heroine a pretty girl. At the beginning, he was frustrated that she looked "dull" and thought, "She isn't cute. Isn't there something we can do?". As the film neared the end, however, he was relieved to feel that "she will be a charming woman".^[14]

The Takahashi Korekiyo residence in the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum was an inspiration for Miyazaki.

Miyazaki based the buildings in the spirit world on the buildings in the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. He often visited the museum for inspiration while working on the film. Miyazaki had always been interested in the Pseudo-Western style buildings from the Meiji period that were available there. The museum made Miyazaki feel nostalgic, "especially when I stand here alone in the evening, near closing time, and the sun is setting – tears well up in my eyes."^[14]

[edit] English adaption

Daveigh Chase provided the dubbing for Chihiro in the English-language version of the film.

Walt Disney Pictures dubbed the English adaption of Spirited Away, under the supervision of Pixar's John Lasseter. Lasseter was a "huge" Miyazaki fan, and he and his staff had often sat down and watched some of Miyazaki's work when they hit story problems. The first viewing of Spirited Away in the United States was in Pixar's screening room. After seeing the film, Lasseter was "ecstatic". Upon hearing his reaction to the film, people at Disney asked Lasseter if he would be interested in trying to bring Spirited Away to an American audience. Lasseter said that he had a busy schedule, but agreed to executive produce the English adaption. Soon, several others began to join the project. Beauty and the Beast co-director Kirk Wise and Aladdin producer Donald W. Ernst soon joined Lasseter as director and producer of Spritied Away respectively.^[16]

The cast of the film consisted of Daveigh Chase (Chase had voiced Lilo for Disney's "Lilo & Stitch"), Susan Egan (Megara from "Hercules"), David Ogden Stiers (A Disney mainstay in voice talent), and John Ratzenberger (considered by John Lasseter as his "good luck charm"). With the cast and talent in place, word began to spread around the net. But at first, the buzz was light. Disney had already begun to push their upcoming fall films, but the only trace that "Spirited Away" was coming was in a small scrolling section of their movie page on Disney.com. The promotions were also quite trying, as Disney had sidelined their homepage for "Spirited Away" and hidden it in the confines of Buena Vista's many labyrinths. While homepages for films like "Signs" and "Sweet Home Alabama" were clearly displayed, it was only through some people's curiosity that the "Spirited Away" homepage could be found.^[16]

[edit] Release

[edit] Reviews

Based on 153 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes,^[17] it ranks as the second-best animation film, having a 97% rating on the site.^[18] The film occupies the rank of #60 on the IMDb Top 250 Movies list as of December 2008.^[19] The Anime Critic gave it a 4 and 1/2 out of five stars. ^[20]

[edit] Box office

Spirited Away was released in Japan in July 2001, drawing an audience of around 23 million and revenues of ¥30 billion (approx. US$250 million), to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history (surpassing the film Princess Mononoke for highest grossing animated motion pictures). It was the first movie to have earned $200 million at the worldwide box office before opening in the United States.^[21] By 2002, a sixth of the Japanese population had seen it.

The film was dubbed into English by Walt Disney Pictures, under the supervision of Pixar's John Lasseter. It was subsequently released in the United States on September 20, 2002 and had made slightly over $10 million by September 2003.^[22] As of 2008 this film has earned $264,869,236 worldwide.^[23]

[edit] Home media

The film was released in North America by Disney's Buena Vista Distribution arm on DVD format on April 15, 2003 where the attention brought by the Oscar win made the title a strong seller.^[24] Spirited Away is often marketed, sold and associated with other Miyazaki movies such as Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

The North American English-dubbed version was released on DVD in the UK on March 29, 2004. In 2005 it was re released by Optimum Releasing with a more accurate subtitle track and additional bonus features.

The back of the Region 1 DVD from Disney and the Region 4 DVD from Madman states that the aspect ratio is the original ratio of 2.00:1. This is incorrect; the ratio is actually 1.85:1 but has been windowboxed to 2.00:1 to compensate for the overscan on most television sets. There is much dispute over the validity of this practice, as many displays are capable of showing the entire picture, and as a result the DVD picture has a noticeable border around it.

All Asian releases of the DVD (including Japan and Hong Kong) have a noticeably accentuated amount of red in their picture transfer. This is another case of compensating for home theatre displays, this time supposedly for LCD television which, it was claimed, had a diminished red colour in its display. Releases in other DVD regions such as the U.S., Europe and Australia use a picture transfer where this "red tint" has been significantly reduced.

[edit] Soundtrack

The closing song, "Always With Me" (いつも何度でも ,Itsumo Nandodemo^?, literally, "Always, No Matter How Many Times") was written and performed by Yumi Kimura, a composer and lyre-player from Osaka. The lyrics were written by Kimura's friend Wakako Kaku. The song was intended to be used for a different Miyazaki film which was never released, Rin the Chimney Painter (煙突描きのリン ,Entotsu-kaki no Rin^?). In the special features of the DVD, Hayao Miyazaki explains how the song in fact inspired him to create Spirited Away.

The other 20 tracks on the original soundtrack were composed by Joe Hisaishi. His "The River of That Day" (あの日の川 ,Ano hi no Kawa^?) received the 56th Mainichi Film Competition Award for Best Music, the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2001 Best Music Award in the Theater Movie category, and the 16th Japan Gold Disk Award for Animation Album of the Year. Later, Hisaishi added lyrics to "Ano hi no Kawa" and named the new version "The Name of Life" (いのちの名前 ,"Inochi no Namae"^?) which was performed by Ayaka Hirahara.

Beside the Original Soundtrack, there is also an Image Album, which contains 10 tracks.

[edit] Original soundtrack listing

[edit] Image album track listing

1. Ano Hi no Kawa e (あの日の川へ ,lit. To that Days' River^?) by Umi (3:54)
2. Yoru ga Kuru (夜が来る ,lit. Night is Coming^?) by Joe Hisaishi (4:25)
3. Kamigami-sama (神々さま ,lit. Gods^?) by Shizuru Otaka (3:55)
4. Yuya (油屋 ,lit. Bathhouse^?) by Tsunehiko Kamijō (3:56)
5. Fushigi no Kuni no Jyūnin (不思議の国の住人 ,lit. The People in Wonderland^?) by Joe Hisaishi (3:20)
6. Samishii samishii (さみしいさみしい ,lit. Lonely lonely^?) by Monsieur Kamayatsu (3:41)
7. Solitude (ソリチュード ,Sorichūdo^?) by Rieko Suzuki and Hiroshi Kondo (3:49)
8. Umi (海 ,lit. The Sea^?) by Joe Hisaishi (3:22)
9. Shiroi Ryū (白い竜 ,lit. White Dragon^?) by Rikki (3:33)
10. Chihiro no Waltz (千尋のワルツ ,Chihiro no Warutsu^?, Chihiro's Waltz) by Joe Hisaishi (3:20)

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi at the Internet Movie Database
• Spirited Away at Allmovie
• Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Spirited Away (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
• Spirited Away at Metacritic
• Spirited Away at Rotten Tomatoes
• Spirited Away at SparkNotes
• Spirited Away at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)