Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi/Spirited Away (2001)

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi movie poster 

As I grew up, I was exposed to watching Japanese dramas, films and their own version of animation - anime. I came to know that Spirited Away is a box office hit in Japan, and that it won several awards from award giving bodies internationally, including a Golden Bear and an Oscar award. I first watched Spirited Away when I was still in primary elementary, I liked it already by then but as time passed by, I forgot about the story. I re-watched it and now I like it more than ever.

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi or Spirited Away is a story of a 10-year-old girl named Chihiro, who got lost with her parents while driving towards their new neighborhood. They came upon a dead-end, and a tunnel welcomes them. Curious on what is on the other side, Chihiro's parents decided to see, telling Chihiro to wait inside the car if she doesn't want to come with them. Chihiro who's scared to be left alone, decided to come with her parents after all. At the other end of the tunnel, a mysterious town awaits them. As Chihiro and her parents were walking through the town, Chihiro's parents was teased by the smell of delicious foods and when they found where the aroma is coming from, they started eating the foods there. Chihiro, not wanting to eat like what her parents just did, walked for awhile then came rushing back to her parents. When she approached them, turns out they became pigs who are pigging out. Chihiro was approached by a boy named Haku. Haku told Chihiro that she would help her to turn her parents back to humans. Chihiro have to work in the mysterious town in order to do this. The story went on as Chihiro learns to be independent, to work, and gather courage she may have not been able to gather if it weren't for this experience.

Here's the trailer:

For a childlike story, for a film intended for young audiences, it's amazing how it depicted values which adults may have already forgotten. One value is how scary one's greediness can result to. Another is how one's hard work will eventually pay off. Also, I think the movie wants to convey the message that a child should learn to be able to stand/survive on his or her own someday. This was shown as Chihiro's character developed as she was once a very dependent child - scared of little things and is not accustomed to changes, then she became a child who learned to believe more in herself and was able to get things done. The film carries such strong messages within it.

Another interesting thing in this film is the characters. While everyone believes that this film is a pure Japanese legend, Director Hayao Miyazaki said that the characters were inspired by real-life people and experiences. He said that Chihiro was inspired by a friend's daughter who is lazy but Miyazaki wants to believe that her inner resource is as rich as Chihiro's. Another trivia on a character is about a mythical creature character Chihiro gave a bath to. Chihiro somehow discovered that the mythical creature is big and smelly because of trash inside him. When Chihiro and the other workers tried to get the trash out of the creature's body, they got different things including a bicycle. Miyazaki said that the mythical creature on that scene was inspired by a real-life experience. He said he was once cleaning a river, then he found a bicycle from it. Miyazaki has a deep thought on every character, not only the movie as a whole gives a message, but the individual characters carry a message within themselves too.

Here's the making of the film where Miyazaki Hayao discussed about the characters:

The scoring of the film was effective but I like to focus on it's ending song more. The ending song is one great song I must say. I have listened to a lot of Japanese songs, and this is one of the most powerful Japanese songs I've ever heard. It is powerful not only because of Kimura Yumi's good voice but also because the lyrics are very meaningful. Here are some parts of the lyrics translation I found in the web, "It's calling out, somewhere deep within my chest. My heart always wants to dance and dream. The number of my sorrows is countless, but across them, surely I'll be able to meet you again," and "I won't search on the far side of the sea anymore, because I found myself, what is shining is always here." Those lines suit Chihiro who is young and naive, but then met Haku who encouraged her to be strong because she is the one who can help herself the most. Also, the line "surely I'll be able to meet you again" is perfect because Chihiro and Haku had to part ways.

I do not usually watch old anime but Studio Ghibli's animated films are exceptions. Spirited Away's animation is different in terms of the drawings of the characters and the background from Japan's animated films and series nowadays, but when you're watching it you won't even care about those. I haven't watched any other films directed by Miyazaki Hayao but sure, after re-watching this, I want to watch more. More than a decade has passed since this film was released, and it seems like Studio Ghibli doesn't do sequels for their animated films but I'm really curious if Chihiro and Haku would meet again someday. Well, I guess Studio Ghibli is leaving it up to our imaginations.