AAA - Spirited Away

So, we've covered Howl's Moving Castle, now onto what is undoubtedly Miyazaki's best film. It is not my favorite film of his, but I can objectively step back and see that it really is his best. It's hard to explain. It stole the first Academy Award for an animated film out under the nose of Disney, it was Japan's favorite movie, and yet a lot of people I've talked to about it want to know, Why?

The movie centers around Chihiro, a somewhat spoiled and lazy 10-year-old girl. Chihiro and her parents are moving to a new home and Chihiro is naturally upset. Her parents are unfortunately not too sympathetic but then, Miyazaki has his reasons for this I've found. On the way they get lost and end up in what they assume to be an abandoned theme park. Lured into the theme park by the smell of what I assume is enchanted food, Chihiro's parents decide to gorge themselves and, in what is some of the most shocking animation I've ever seen transform into pigs.
And so Chihiro is trapped alone in what she soon learns is the spirit world or something like that. Humans don't belong and aren't safe here, but Chihiro is helped by Haku, a mysterious boy who works as an apprentice for the sorceress Yubaba. Chihiro's only hope to rescue her parents and escape is to find work at the bath house Yubaba runs, where spirits come to rest and rejuvinate.


Sure, it's bizarre, but no more so than your average Grimm's fairy tale, which is how I soon decided to approach this. Chihiro must overcome a number of formidable tasks and obstacles on her quest to return home. The great thing is that Chihiro is just a normal 10-year-old girl. She's not some Disney princess or teen pop icon, saving the world while going out with Ken and touching up her mascara. :-) Her clothes are a little baggy on her, she stumbles and is clumsy, she's timid and unsure of herself, but she's also good-natured and friendly and in true Miyazaki fashion ten times more"real" than most of the movie biz' creations. Here is someone that kids might actually be able to identify with perhaps.

Miyazaki puts all his usual devices into play. Large black shadowy figures (he almost always has them, think of the chase scene I posted of Howl's Moving Castle, there's one in Princess Mononoke too, and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind), older women (don't ask me, but he has these characters a lot), young female protagonists, a flying scene, they're all there. And of course that amazing, wonderful attention to detail. Chihiro takes the time to wiggle her foot into her shoes when putting them on, we can feel the weight of the coal she has to carry and smell the stench of the stink spirit all because of small details and expressions. All of these add up to a wonderful sense of artistry and storytelling, but that's not the be all and end all of a creative work.

I read a "Christian" review of Spirited Away and it kind of ticked me off to be frank with you. It called Spirited Away "slickly packaged pantheism," which pretty much sums up the tone of the whole review. Well... sure, there are river gods and radish spirits and wood spirits and whatever else. I guess that is pantheism. But what the review was insinuating was that Miyazaki's goal is to brain wash people into going out and bowing down to the nearest tree. Well, if you have a problem with river gods, you'd better throw out your C.S. Lewis, that's all I'll say. I'm not saying the movie is entirely appropriate for children or that it has the same Christian themes Lewis employs. Hardly. But the emphasis here is on the importance of hard work, friendship, inner potential, growth. I particularly appreciate the hard work part. Chihiro struggles through a number of unpleasant and grueling tasks, but each and every one shows the rewards of simply gritting your teeth and tackling something. These are good values. As a Christian, I place great value on Christian works that are sources of wisdom for my life. But, I also place great worth on other things. I'm not saying I approach Spirited Away the same way I would approach the Chronicles of Narnia. For myself as a Christian, Spirited Away does not hold the same tapestry of richly woven truths that reflect my Christian condition as Chronicles of Narnia. But it does hold truths, and of course that's the ultimate test of a movie or book or whatever in my opinion.

While Spirited Away may not be my favorite Miyazaki movie, it does have some of my favorite scenes ever! After Chihiro first meets Haku, he tells her she must find the boiler room and ask someone named "Kamaji" for work. The way to the boiler room lies along a steep rickety staircase on the outside of the bath house. Chihiro edges her way down it, first sliding from step to step, then gradually getting braver and standing. Just as we think she's got it, the step breaks and Chihiro is propelled, screaming, to the bottom of the staircase where she stops abruptly, flattened by the wall. Not much happens, but the way this is executed is brilliant.


Kamaji, who is one of my favorite characters of all time, turns out to be an old man with something like six arms, which he employs in heating the baths above. He has enchanted the soot in the room to carry coal for him. The soot creatures can't speak, but it doesn't take away from their personality. I would like one for a pet.

And of course there's the obligitory flying scene, in which Chihiro rides on a dragon. These scenes stay with you.

But my favorite by far is when Chihiro takes the train. That's the scene I'm posting here. It's a shame you have to see it this way, but better here than not at all. If you ever do see the movie, the fact that you've already seen this may ruin it for you. It's not a key plot point, there's virtually no dialogue, but at the same time it's not overdone or trying to be artsy.