Spirited Away

animated, comedy, drama film

Spirited Away, originally known in Japan as Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi , is an Academy Award winning 2001 film by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki. Its original Japanese title can be translated as The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro or Sen and the Spiriting Away of Chihiro.

The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature and the only winner of that award to win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees).

Starring (Japan)
Rumi Hiragi
Miyu Irino
Mari Natsuki
Takashi Naito
Yasuko Sawaguchi

Chihiro is a 10 year old girl who is moving to a new town with her parents. She is unhappy about the move and only considers how it will affect her, complaining about everything including her new school to the bouquet of flowers she was given as a parting gift from her friend wilting.

While trying to find a shorter route to their new home, Chihiro's father drives down a small road that ends at a mysterious building. Chihiro's parents are curious and walk through the dark entryway of the building. On the other side, they discover what they assume to be an abandoned theme park, which is later revealed as a borderland between the human world and the spirit world.

While strolling across a dry riverbed, Chihiro's parents smell food and follow the scent across a grassy plain to a small village full of restaurants. Although the restaurants appear empty, the tables are heaped with food. Chihiro's parents help themselves, with increasing gluttony, but Chihiro is reluctant to enter because she's afraid whoever made the food will catch them and be mad. When they offer her some food, she refuses and runs off. She discovers a large bathhouse and approaches a bridge leading to it. Before she can reach it, a boy, later revealed to be named Haku, approaches her and warns her that she must leave before night falls. At that moment, the sky darkens and the lamps of the bathhouse are lighted. Haku tells Chihiro to cross the river as fast as she can and says he will distract the others.

Chihiro runs back to a restaurant where her parents are still eating and discovers that they have transformed into pigs. She is terrified and tries to find her way back to the car. She is stopped in her path when she discovers that the grassy plain is submerged by a large body of water.

Chihiro's distress is compounded when she notices that she is becoming transparent. Haku finds her and gives her something to eat from the spirit world, so that she will not altogether vanish. He helps her sneak into the bathhouse, which is managed by a witch named Yubaba. He tells her that the only way she can safely stay there long enough to rescue her parents is to work in the bathhouse.

Chihiro, following Haku's advice, goes to the boiler room to ask the boiler man Kamajii for a job. He rebuffs her until one of his workers, an enchanted ball of soot, collapses under coal. Chihiro picks up the coal and carries it to the boiler. Although the coal is extremely heavy, she completes her task. Kamajii is pleased and decides to help Chihiro find a job by enlisting a young woman named Lin (Rin) to take the girl to Yubaba.

Yubaba (left) and Chihiro OginoChihiro discovers Yubaba to be a regal but monstrous woman. Chihiro asks for a job, despite Yubaba's repeated refusals. Yubaba eventually consents, on the condition that Chihiro give her name to Yubaba. The witch takes possession of Chihiro's name, grasping the signature from the contract and leaving Chihiro only one part of her two-character name on the paper. The kanji character with one stroke removed is pronounced "Sen." Now known as Sen, Chihiro is assigned to be Lin's assistant.

The next morning, Haku shows Sen that her parents are in a pen with other pigs. Haku gives Sen her old clothes and the card from her farewell bouquet of flowers. Sen reads the card and remembers her name. Haku warns her that Yubaba controls people by stealing their names; once they forget their names, as Haku forgot his, they belong to her.

Sen (Chihiro) and No Face.Sen has difficulty adjusting to a life of work but wins respect by helping a difficult customer, a hideous and terrifying "stink spirit." Sen helps clean the stink spirit and discovers that he is a rich and powerful river spirit, who had been polluted. Sen succeeds in this task with the help of a mysterious, wraithlike spirit called No Face (Kaonashi), who is attracted to her because of her kindness toward him. The river spirit rewards her with an herbal cake ball (a medicine ball which acts as an emetic).

The bathhouse brings a dormant monster in No Face. Able to give mud the appearance of gold, he thrives on the greed of the bathhouse's employees. Eventually he becomes ravenous and eats everything in sight, including three bathhouse workers.

While No Face is transforming into a gluttonous monster, Haku returns to the bathhouse in the form of a dragon, pursued and attacked by a large flock of enchanted kirigami (paper) birds. Badly injured, he finds his way into Yubaba's office. Sen recognizes the dragon as Haku and goes to look for him, unaware that she is followed by one of the paper birds.

While looking for Haku, Sen encounters Yubaba's baby Boh, who wants to play with her. She escapes his grasp and finds Yubaba's servants, three disembodied heads called Kashira, trying to push Haku down a shaft. The paper bird that followed Sen transforms into Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister, who was chasing Haku because he had stolen her seal. A spell is placed on the seal that kills anyone who steals it.

Zeniba transforms the baby into a mouse, Yubaba's harpy servant into a small bird, and the three heads to look like Boh, in order to fool Yubaba. Haku cuts the paper in two with his tail, which causes Zeniba's presence to disappear. He then falls down the chimney, taking Sen with him, but they land safely in the boiler room. Sen feeds Haku a piece of the river spirit's herbal cake, which causes him to spit out the stolen seal. On the seal is a black slug, which Sen destroys on the orders of Kamaji. She resolves to help Haku by returning Zeniba's seal and apologizing on his behalf. Kamajii gives Sen a train ticket and tells her how to find Zeniba.

Before she leaves, Sen returns to the bathhouse to confront No Face, who is calling for her in his delirium. She feeds him the remainder of the herbal cake, which causes him to regurgitate the food and three bathhouse workers he has eaten. His gluttony is cured once he follows her outside. Sen and No Face, accompanied by Boh and Yubaba’s flying servant, take a train to Zeniba’s home in Swamp Bottom.

In the bathhouse, Haku recovers from his wounds. When Yubaba learns that her baby is missing, she is enraged. Haku makes a pact with her to retrieve the baby, and in return, he demands that Yubaba send Sen and her parents back to their world. Yubaba accepts, on one condition: Chihiro has to correctly identify which of the pigs are her parents.

At Zeniba's cottage, Sen learns that the black slug she squashed was put in Haku by Yubaba, and allowed her to control him. Zeniba tells Sen that the only way the spell on her seal can be broken is by love.

Haku, again in the form of a dragon, finds Sen at Zeniba's cottage. Zeniba forgives him for stealing her seal and invites No Face to stay with her. Haku carries Sen back to the bathhouse, and while soaring through the air, Chihiro remembers that she and Haku had met before: When she was young, she fell into a river and survived because she was carried by the current to the shore. She was saved by Haku, who was the spirit of the Kohaku River. Upon remembering this, Chihiro tells Haku that his name is Kohaku, whereupon he is freed from Yubaba's control, and he and Chihiro profess their love for each other.

In a bathhouse, Chihiro must perform one final task to free her parents: She must choose them from a group of pigs. Empowered by her newfound courage, Chihiro accepts the challenge and correctly answers that none of the pigs are her parents. As a result, they are allowed to return to their world. Haku promises her that they will meet again one day.

Characters

Principal characters
Chihiro Ogino/Sen (Ogino Chihiro)
Chihiro is the 10-year old protagonist of the movie. Chihiro is in the process of moving to a new town when her family stumbles upon the entrance to the spirit world. During her adventure she matures from a whiny, self-centered, and pessimistic child to a hard-working, helpful, optimistic young girl. She is re-named "Sen" (, sen, lit. "a thousand") by the proprietor of the bathhouse, Yubaba. Note: in Japanese orthography, "Sen" is an alternative pronunciation of "Chi", the first kanji in her name, "Chihiro", which translates as "with the depth of a thousand waters."
Voiced by: Rumi Hiiragi (Japanese), Daveigh Chase (English)
Akio Ogino (Ogino Akio)
Chihiro's father. Akio's impulsive behaviour catalyzes the unfolding of events in the beginning of the movie, climaxing in his transformation into a pig.
Voiced by: Takashi Naito (Japanese), Michael Chiklis (English)
Yuuko Ogino ( , Ogino Yuko)
Chihiro's mother who, along with Chihiro's father, is turned into a pig, at the start of the movie.
Voiced by: Yasuko Sawaguchi (Japanese), Lauren Holly (English)

Haku creating a distraction to protect Chihiro.Haku/Nigihayami Kohakunushi (, Haku/Nigihayami Kohakunushi)
A young boy who helps Chihiro after her parents have transformed into pigs. He helps prevent her from becoming a spirit and gives her advice on getting work at the bathhouse in order to survive to see her parents again. Haku works as Yubaba's direct subordinate, often running errands and performing missions for her. He has the ability to fly and to become a dragon. Toward the end of the story Chihiro recalls falling into the Kohaku (, Kohaku) river, of which Haku is the spirit, and she thus frees him from Yubaba's service by helping him remember his real name and his past, which he had forgotten due to the industrial development that has destroyed his river. While he seems often cold-hearted, and is not popular with the bathhouse staff, Haku is unfailingly kind to Chihiro, perhaps because of his experience with her in the past, which he partly remembers. When Yubaba is listening, Haku is as sharp-voiced to Chihiro as to anyone else, so as to avoid the revelation of his growing fondness for her. Yubaba sees him merely as a tool. :Voiced by: Miyu Irino (Japanese), Jason Marsden (English)
Yubaba (, Yubaaba, lit. "bath crone")
An old witch with an inhumanly large head and nose, who runs the bathhouse. She appears to be extremely intuitive. She reluctantly signs Chihiro into a contract, taking her name and re naming her "Sen" in order to hold power over her for the duration of the contract. Yubaba has an over-bearing and authoritarian personality, but she does show a soft side toward her giant baby, Boh. In contrast to her simple and hospitable sister Zeniba, Yubaba lives in opulent quarters and is only interested in taking care of guests for money. Though she is very intuitive and perceptive, she doesn't notice that her own baby is gone. When Haku prompts her by telling her that something she values is missing, her first reaction is to scrutinize the gold. Her name is similar to that of another legendary witch, Baba Yaga. Her appearance somewhat resembles that of The Duchess from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, possessing an oversized head, a child which is not treated properly (she does not notice he is missing until it is pointed out), and treats Chihiro much like the Duchess did Alice.
Voiced by: Mari Natsuki (Japanese), Suzanne Pleshette (English), Nina Hagen (German)
Kashira (, Kashira)
A trio of heads living in Yubaba's office that move around by bouncing. They do not speak except in small grunts when they bounce about. They are later changed into an illusion of Boh by Zeniba in order to trick Yubaba.
Kamajii (, Kamajii lit. "boiler old man")
An old man with six arms who runs the boiler room of the bathhouse. A number of Susuwatari (, Susuwatari) (Soot balls) work for him, by carrying coal into his furnace. He has a large cabinet where he keeps all the herbs that are used in the baths. After some persuasion, he allows Chihiro to work at the bathhouse and even pretends to be her grandfather to protect her, though this ruse does not stand for more than a minute. He later takes an injured Haku into his boiler room and cares for him, while Chihiro, given train tickets by Kamajii, journeys to Zeniba's cottage. At first he may seem cold and uncaring, but by the end of the movie he seems to have grown a soft spot of Chihiro and anyone she calls her friend. He resembles Dr. Eggman from the Sonic the Hedgehog series and even sounds like his dub voice. His brown moustache and dark glasses additionally give him a resemblance to the Tiger Moth's engineer, who is featured in Laputa: Castle in the Sky.
Voiced by: Bunta Sugawara (Japanese), David Ogden Stiers (English)
Lin (, Rin)
A worker at the bathhouse who becomes Chihiro's caretaker. Although cold at first, she warms up to Chihiro and grows a strong bond with her. She warns No Face, who had previously gone on a rampage, not to harm Chihiro or there would be trouble. At the end, she is very happy for Chihiro when she finally manages to find her way home.
Voiced by: Yumi Tamai (Japanese), Susan Egan (English)
No Face (, Kaonashi, lit. 'No Face')
No Face is an odd spirit that takes an interest in Chihiro. Chihiro lets No Face into the bathhouse through a side door. At first he is a strange cloaked and masked shadowy thing that merely breathes and smiles.
No Face is a lonely being who seems to sustain itself on the emotions of those he encounters, particularly their emotional reception to his gifts. He is helpful to Chihiro since she helped him. After observing the bathhouse staff's reaction to gold and attempting to win them over with more gold, he reacts to their greed by becoming a grotesque monster and eating lots of food and some of the staff. He calms down and reverts to normal after he leaves the bathhouse's influence, and at the end he stays with Zeniba as a helper. No Face's mask, movement and name share many similarities with the Japanese Noh theater. He also assumes the voice(s) and personality of those he "eats".
Voiced by: Tatsuya Gashuin (Japanese), Bob Bergen (English)
River Spirit (, kawa no kami)
A customer of the bathhouse originally thought to be a "stink spirit" who is assigned to Chihiro and Lin. Yubaba suspects that he may be something more than a stink spirit, and when Chihiro helps him by pulling trash that had been dumped into his river out of his side, her suspicions are proven correct. He is in fact a famous and wealthy river god. As a reward, he gives Chihiro a ball of plant material which we are told by Kamajii, in the English-subtitled version, is a "healing cake." In the English dubbed version, Kamaji simply states that it is medicine from the river god. The "healing cake" is later used to heal an injured Haku through ingestion and to cause No Face to vomit the people and vast amounts of food he ate during his rampage. It is implied that the taste of it is extremely bitter, as demonstrated when Chihiro tries a bite and reacts violently.
Boh (, Bo)
Boh is Yubaba's son. Although he has the appearance of a young baby, he is twice Yubaba's size. Yubaba spoils him and goes out of her way to give him whatever he wants. He believes that going outside will make him ill; Sen tells him staying in his room all that time will make him sick. Later, Zeniba turns him into a mouse. Though the spell wears off, Boh stays as a mouse simply because he doesn't want to change back. He becomes good friends with Chihiro while in his mouse form and eventually stands up to Yubaba to protect Chihiro. Boh tells Yubaba he had a good time when he was with Chihiro. His little adventure may be seen as an analogy to Chihiro's adventures and growing up. This idea suggests that Boh is so overgrown because he has never really matured under Yubaba's doting care.
Voiced by: Ryunosuke Kamiki (Japanese), Tara Strong (English)
Note: Elements of Ryunosuke Kamiki's voice can be heard in the English language version (i.e.: when Boh cries during the scene where Chihiro/Sen gets her contract.).
Zeniba (, Zeniba, zeni can refer to both money and public baths, making her name a play on Yubaba's)
Zeniba is Yubaba's twin sister and rival. Although identical in appearance, their personalities are almost polar opposites. At first she appears no kinder than Yubaba when she becomes enraged at Haku for stealing her magic seal and threatens to take it back, regardless of what happens to Haku. Hoping to gain Zeniba's forgiveness, Chihiro journeys to Zeniba's cottage to return it and apologize. It is then that Zeniba reveals her true character as being a kind, grandmotherly figure not at all like Yubaba. She even tells Chihiro to call her "Granny" in the English version, makes dessert and tea for her and No Face, and does her best to help Chihiro while realizing that there are limits to what she can do. She forgives Haku for stealing her seal (in the Japanese version she states that she no longer blames him, prompting some fans to speculate that when Chihiro told her about the control-slug that Yubaba put in him, she realized that Yubaba was more guilty than Haku ever was) and sees everyone off, assuring Chihiro that she will be just fine. She also takes No Face in as a helper, giving him a place to call home at last.
Note: Zeniba is voiced by the same actors as Yubaba in both the English and Japanese versions.
Note: In Zeniba's house, there is a chair with an oddly thin back, earlier seen in the house in the woods in Kiki's Delivery Service

Minor characters
The bathhouse manager is referred to as the "foreman", and he is shown to have a very high rank (he reports directly to Yubaba).
The female workers in the bathhouse are referred to as Yuna (, Yuna "bath women").
The management of the bathhouse are Chichi-yaku (, Chichi-yaku "role of father") or Ani-yaku (, Ani-yaku "role of older brother").
The male workers in the bathhouse are either Ao-gaeru (, Ao-gaeru "blue frog") or Bandai-gaeru (, Bandai-gaeru "green frog").
Chihiro shares an uncomfortable elevator journey with a gentle Radish Spirit (, daikon kami, also known as Oshira-sama).
The bathing bird gods are known as Otori-sama (, Otori-sama "bird lord"), the ones with red cloaks and masks are Kasuga-sama (, Kasuga-sama), the gods who exit the elevator wearing the Aburaya (, Aburaya "bath house") bathrobes are Ushioni (, Ushioni "cattle demon") and the gods with horns, orange faces, and green bodies are the Onama-sama (, Onama-sama).

Themes
Miyazaki characters have negative and positive traits in different situations.

Some suggest that the film is an allegory on the progression from childhood to maturity, and the risk of losing one's nature in the process. The theme of a character being lost inside a (fictional/different) world if he/she forgets his/her real name is reminiscent of Michael Ende's Neverending Story, although true names frequently have magic power in folk tales (see Rumplestiltskin). It may also be influenced by Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea Cycle. Similarly, Chihiro and Haku could windup staying under Yubaba's control forever if they forget their real names and consequently their real identities.

The main character could also be seen as a sullen, spoiled and very modern Japanese ten-year-old being forced to grow up when faced with more traditional Japanese culture and manners. Miyazaki himself has said that there is an element of nostalgia for an older Japan in the film.

Another interpretation holds that the film advocates the prevention of greed: those swallowed by No Face were attempting to receive the gold he made. Similarly, in a monomyth format, Yubaba's rich accommodations and interest in gold dominate the "road of trials" portions of the film, while Zeniba's rustic home and grandmotherly demeanor arguably mark Chihiro's gain of the "boon" in her quest. Also, Chihiro's parents' grotesque transformation after consuming too much food not meant for them is another representation of human greed.

Another theme in the movie is that of environmental awareness. The most obvious examples of this are the river spirit's dramatic and beautiful transformation once he has been freed from the material dumped in him by humans, and Haku's discovery that the reason he cannot go home is that he is the spirit of the River Kohaku, which had been subsequently filled in by apartment buildings.

Production
Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement to make this film after meeting the daughter of a friend, on whom the main character is based. Chihiro's father, Akio, was based on the real-life father of the girl Chihiro is based on. Miyazaki said the real-life father is similar to Akio in the habits of always getting lost while driving and eating too fast. Chihiro's mother (Yuuko) is based on a friend of Miyazaki's; an idiosyncratic hand-gesture of Miyazaki's friend is copied when Yuuko is eating in Spirited Away. Chihiro's best friend's name is Rumi (the one who gave her the flowers), which is the name of Chihiro's voice actor.

Japanese culture in the film
In the scene during which Chihiro squashes with her foot the small piece of gunk that inhabited Haku (a spell laid by Yubaba), Kamajii tells Chihiro to "Cut the line!" "Cutting the line" is a Japanese good-luck charm performed by making a chopping gesture through another person's connected index fingers; in a behind-the-scenes featurette included on the Disney DVD, Cindy Davis Hewitt (the English version's co-writer) likened the gesture to the children's game of giving someone a "cootie shot" when something bad happened. This is done whenever someone is affected by some impurity, such as having stepped in dog feces. During footage of the dubbing process in the Spirited Away Nihon-TV Special, the young Japanese voice actor playing Chihiro was not aware of this concept and had it explained to her by Miyazaki himself in between takes of the scene in question. One of the sound engineers commented saying "The young don't know it these days".

The kompeito that Lin feeds to the soot sprites is called confetti in the English version of the manga.

Distribution and box office gross
Ratings
United Kingdom: PG

Theatrical
Spirited Away was released in Japan in July 2001, drawing an audience of around 23 million and revenues of ¥30 billion (approx. US$250 million), to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history (surpassing the 1997 American film Titanic for overall highest grossing and 1997's Princess Mononoke for highest grossing animated motion pictures). It was the first movie to have earned $200 million at the worldwide box office before opening in the United States. By 2002, a sixth of the Japanese population had seen it.

The film was dubbed into English by Walt Disney Pictures, under the supervision of Pixar's John Lasseter. It was subsequently released in the United States in September 20, 2002 and had made slightly over $10 million by September 2003.

DVD
It was released in North America by Disney's Buena Vista Distribution arm on DVD format on April 15, 2003 where the attention brought by the Oscar win made the title a strong seller. [6] Spirited Away is often marketed, sold and associated with other Miyazaki movies such as Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service and, most recently, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (due in part to the latter's recent US release).

The North American English-dubbed version was released on DVD in the UK on March 29, 2004. In 2005 it was re released by Optimum Releasing with a more accurate subtitle track and additional bonus features. The Optimum release had a higher age rating (Not for under 12 years old) than the original release due to strong language used in behind the scenes bonus footage.

The back of the Region 1 DVD from Disney and the Region 4 DVD from Madman states that the aspect ratio is the original ratio of 2.00:1. This is incorrect; the ratio is actually 1.85:1 but has been windowboxed to 2.00:1 to compensate for the overscan on most television sets. There is much dispute over the validity of this practice, as many displays are capable of showing the entire picture, and as a result the DVD picture has a noticeable border around it.

All Asian releases of the DVD (including Japan and Hong Kong) have a noticeably accentuated amount of red in their picture transfer. This is another case of compensating for home theatre displays, this time supposedly for LCD television which, it was claimed, had a diminished red colour in its display. Releases in other DVD regions such as the US, Europe and Australia do not feature this red correction.

Television
The U.S. television premiere of this film was on Turner Classic Movies in early 2006, closely followed by its premiere on Cartoon Network's "Fridays" on February 3, 2006. On March 18, Cartoon Network's Toonami began a "Month of Miyazaki" that featured four movies directed by Hayao Miyazaki, with "Spirited Away" being the first of four. Cartoon Network showed the movie three times more: once on Christmas 2006, for Toonami's "New Year's Eve Eve" on December 30, and on March 31, 2007.

The Europe television premiere of this film was on the Dutch national television in November 2006, during an 'animation special'.

The English version of this film was shown in the UK on BBC2 on December 30, 2006.

Differences between Japanese and English versions
Some changes were made to the film by John Lasseter and the other writers of the English dub, which has caused some argument amongst fans over which version is superior.

Changes include:

The insertion of a significant portion of background chatter
The addition of dialogue explaining or emphasizing certain on-screen elements: for example, when Chihiro reaches the bathhouse, she states what it is. These insertions are mostly used to explain certain aspects of Japanese culture that are foreign in America and other English speaking countries.
New lyrics were made impromptu by John Ratzenberger for the English version of a song sung by Aogaeru.
Miyazaki himself has stated that Chihiro doesn't remember what happened to her at the end of the film. English dub adds a line indicating that Chihiro has learned something from her adventure. At the beginning of the film, Chihiro's pessimistic viewpoint had been expressed:

Chihiro's Father: Look, Chihiro! There's your new school!
Chihiro's Mother: It doesn't look so bad.
Chihiro: It's gonna stink. I liked my old school.
At the end of the English dubbed version, Chihiro is asked again what she thinks of her new school:

Chihiro's Father: A new town and a new school — it is a little scary.
Chihiro: I think I can handle it.
The original film simply ends with Chihiro's father asking that she hurry back to the car.

Acclaim
As of May 2007, Spirited Away is ranked fifty-sixth among the top 100 films at Internet Movie Database, where it is also the top-rated animation title. Based on 144 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, it ranks as the sixth-best animation film.

Original soundtrack
The closing song, "Itsumo Nandodemo," (; English title: "Always With Me", literally translates as "Always, No Matter How Many Times") was written and performed by Youmi Kimura, a composer and lyre-player from Osaka. The lyrics were written by Kimura's friend Wakako Kaku. The song was intended to be used for a different Miyazaki film which was never released, Rin the Chimney Painter ( Entotsu-kaki no Rin).

The other 20 tracks on the original soundtrack were composed by Joe Hisaishi. His "Anohi no Kawa" (; "The River of That Day") received the 56th Mainichi Film Competition Award for Best Music, the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2001 Best Music Award in the Theater Movie category, and the 16th Japan Gold Disk Award for Animation Album of the Year. Later, Hisaishi added lyrics to "Anohi no Kawa" and named the new version "Inochi no Namae," (; "The Name of Life") which was performed by Hirahara Ayaka.

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