Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Year: 2001
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
It's a film everyone knows and loves, one of Hayao Miyazaki's greatest films. It has won several awards and it's safe to say that this film is a film which I love. It's one of the first films I've watched from Miyazaki himself, and I have to say that he certainly knows how to tell a story.
Spirited Away, for those who don't know, is a film regarding a young girl, Chihiro, who ends up at this magical place where something happens to her parents and her parents turn into pigs, which forces her to do several tasks to save her parents.
Why is this film popular? Well, I feel like this film is catered towards everyone to watch - it's not like your film such as Perfect Blue, where a person at a young age should watch it; however, this sort of film feels like one of them family films which makes it suitable for a young child to watch and for adults, too, to watch. Each character has that relatable character which everyone can relate to.
Whilst watching it, you're dragged on to support Chihiro in her quest to save her parents and, you as an audience are supporting her all this way to achieve her goal and you don't want her to fail at all.
As a child as young as Chihiro, she certainly learnt some things along the way which made her step up as that person and had to go through some challenges adults would probably have to face - but not as a young person. She certainly had to encounter some tough people, with the big boss, Yubaba, giving her a bad time; however, at the same time, I felt like cared for Chihiro.
The characters offer value to the film and it was well-written for the roles they had. The main character or not, each character had their uniqueness to them and they wanted to help Chihiro, especially Lin, who almost had that big sister personality to Chihiro and she treated her like a younger sister. Someone who looks after her. Also, the identical sister of Yubaba, Zeniba, is the total opposite of her, and she shows that caring side when Chihiro is in Zeniba's presence, showcasing the several personalities you have in this film.
Not only that but the score of the film is a favourite of mine. The composer, Joe Hisashi, certainly made a score which made everyone remember. Especially with traces of piano playing throughout the film and the piano matching perfectly with each scene.
One thing I like about Miyazaki is his ability to make imagination into reality if you get what I mean. When watching his films, it's almost visiting a dream of someone's wild imagination. Especially in this film, you have all of these creatures, aka the spirits, having their fantasy world and we are seeing it - With Chihiro having to adapt to what's going on and having to adapt to their way of life.
Taking what is not theirs and paying the consequences, as demonstrated by the parents, as they were turned into pigs. It could be a possibility that Miyazaki was playing with if you were to misbehave, there would be consequences. Based on an article I read from ScreeRant (Moser, 2023), the main story was inspired by Japanese folklore, following a religion which is related to the Japanese Shinto religion which I certainly found interesting when reading the article. Hence, the bathtubs have somewhat of a role to play in the film - showing how it's important to make sure that you're clean at all times.
Moser, Z. (2023). The Japanese Folklore That Inspired Spirited Away. [online] ScreenRant. Available at: https://screenrant.com/the-japanese-folklore-that-inspired-spirited-away/#:~:text=The%20look%20and%20feel%20of,are%20all%20kinds%20of%20kami. [Accessed 14 Dec. 2023].
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