So I'm going to college starting today! I can't really be sure how available I'll be with my schedule so I'm sorry if I won't be able to get them up on Sunday's. Sorta why I changed the title to Movie Night instead of Sunday Movie Night, but I hope I'll have the time! This post was a bit late because I didn't have enough time to put in the full review I wanted, so it's a day late, sorry!
So today we decided to watch Spirited Away, a Ghibli film that was a follow-up from Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke released in 2002. Spirited Away's main setting was inspired from a place in Taiwan called Jiufen. You kind find more information on this here.
Spirited Away
Spirited Away starts with a 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, and her family taking in the new town that they moved to. They were driving to their house and decided to take a detour on a remote country road. Finding themselves in front of a tunnel with an ominous statue they admire from a distance. Chihiro makes it obvious that she disapproves of going through, but her parents disagree.
The parents make a rash decision and go through the tunnel and find themselves in front of a large field with a river flowing across. Beyond the field was they believed to be an abandoned amusement park, and Chihiro was the only one that truly seemed concerned. The parents smell a delicious aroma wafting through the 'park' and follow it, finding a booth full of food they decide to eat it, paying for it later. Chihiro seems to be the only one thinking rationally and refuses to eat, taking a instead.
A young boy, who seemingly appears out of no where, confronts her and tells her that she shouldn't be here. The sky starts to dim unnaturally fast and lanterns start to light up signaling that something would awaken soon. He tells her to get back and that he would hold 'them' off as long as he could.
She starts to run away, a little frightened, but as she searches for her parents you would notice many odd creatures appearing. They look like the shadows of a ghost, moving and weaving through the city. An ominous and eerie shadow with a mask seems to be following her, later known as No Face.
When she arrives at the booth that they had been eating at there are only pigs in their place, gulping down the food in front of them. She runs away, scared, telling herself that this had to be a dream, that her parents couldn't have been turned into pigs. That's when she notices that she's starting to become transparent.
She runs away into a garden, crying, and the boy from earlier finds her. He tells her that he remembers her from his past but can't remember where from. Explaining that his name is Haku, he tries to give her a foreign bead telling her to eat it, claiming that it would cure her transparency.
As much as I know that he means well, I'm not sure how much I would trust him after just meeting him. He calls her by her name, Chihiro, which is odd since she never gave him her name. After asking how he knew her name, he explains that he's been watching her since she was young. A little bit creepy if you ask me, especially since she's only 10.
There is a large commotion happening inside of the building that they're next to, multiple creatures were shouting for Master Haku to come. They make it evident that they can smell a human among them. Haku tells Chihiro to meet Kamanji down in the boiler room of the bathhouse and ask him to give her a job once the commotion dies down. The value of a job is that the creatures would not be able to harm her if she were to be working.
Chihiro makes her way closer to the large stairs that lead down to the boiler room. A little hesitant at first, since they were so steep. After hearing a sound she gets spooked and books it down the stairs in an adorable and funny manner.
Upon entering she sees an old man with many limbs ordering little soot gremlins to push coal into the hearth. The soot gremlins are similar to the ones that show up in Totoro which I found was a cute touch. There's an obvious routine that the soot gremlins play in but with Chihiro standing in the way she accidentally blocks them. She helps one soot that was carrying a coal too heavy for itself. Tossing the coal into the hearth caused all the other soot to pretend to drop their coal on themselves also.
Apologizing for her actions, she asks him to give her a job. He refuses and she repeats herself again and again until he informs her that he cannot give her a job. That's when a girl named Lin (also named Rin) comes in to give Kumanji his dinner. Lin is a worker at the bathhouse and when she finds out that Kumanji had kept a human she's disgusted.
Kumanji claims that Chihiro is his granddaughter, (never really mentioned later in the movie) and asks Lin to help Chihiro get to Yubaba, the witch of the batthouse. Yubaba is the only person who has control over the jobs that are given in the city. In exchange, he would give Lin a roasted newt, which is apparently valued in the city. She reluctantly agrees and helps Chihiro go to the top floor of the bathhouse.
Making their way to the top floor, they get separated and Chihiro confronts Yubaba alone. Yubaba's design seemed oddly similar to the older Sophie from Howl's Moving Castle, which I found interesting, but also a bit disturbing.
Using the same tactic that she used with Kumanji, she repeatedly yells at Yubaba and asks her for a job. In doing so, she had accidentally awokened Yubaba's baby. In hopes of quieting Chihiro down, she offers her a job and gives her a contract. Chihiro didn't really bother reading it and wrote down her name in kanji.
The paper was taken by Yubaba and she magically takes away a few of the kanji from the contract, changing her name from Chihiro to Sen. Yubaba now has ahold of her name, which is later explained how she's able to control her workers. Yubaba explains that it was she who had turned her parents into pigs, and Sen now had to work for her until her last breath.
This is where the real story starts and the magic begins. Chihiro (or Sen) is thrown into a series of events, and her main goal is to cure her parents from the curse that Yubaba had set on them. The characters are in place and the goal is clear. Ghibli truly made a masterpiece with its collection of talented artists.
A beautiful story about such a young girl experiencing something outworldly. She learns about love and how to care about others wellbeing, to not let greed control her actions and to accept others how they come. Personally, if I were to be put in her place I would definitely take much more time than she took to grasp what had happened. As Kumanji had said, she's a strong girl, able to do what may be out of grasp for others.
Sources:
Spirited Away
Tunnel Entrance
Blowing Scales
No Face
Booking it Down the Stairs
Kumanji
Lin Chihiro Meeting
Stolen Name Contract
Chihiro Riding Dragon