50. Spirited Away

Spirited Away directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) 2001

Genre

Film

Honors

Best Animated Feature, 2002 Academy Awards

Review

Chihiro is moving to a new city with her parents.  Her father takes a wrong turn and drives down a disused lane.  At end of the path there is an entry way.  The family gets out to explore, though Chihiro is reluctant.  The family find themselves in an thoroughfare of restaurants.  Chihiro's parents become hungry and when they stumble across some food begin to eat gluttonously.  Before long they have transformed into pigs.  A young boy tries to warn Chihiro away, but she and her parents end up crossing into an alternate plane of existence where humans are not allowed.  Chihiro manages to get a job at a bathhouse in exchange for her name.  She works hard and long at the bathhouse and tries to discover a way to save her parents.

Opinion

The movie is deliberately paced, but visually gorgeous.  I appreciate that everything about the film is more complex than it might seem on its surface.  Villains are not pure evil and the film does not end with the villains destroyed (as many Disney movies do).  Instead Chihiro's journey is one of personal growth and developing friendships.  While I've read that many of the figures in the film are pulled from Japanese folklore, as someone unfamiliar with these folk tales, the film felts mysterious and novel to me.

Ideas

I think it might be fun to track down the folk stories that inspired Spirited Away and create a slate of programs around the stories and the film.  Early programs could focus on individual tales and the movie could be the culmination of the festivities.

P.S. This is post number 50; it's been great fun tracking down and spending time with the various materials for this course.  I've had a wonderful time creating all of the imaginary programs and book displays of these materials.  Thanks for a great class.