Film: Spirited Away
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Country: Japan
Released: July 2001
Runtime: 125 minutes
Genre: Animation
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Influenced: Guillermo del Toro, John Lasseter, Mamoru Hosoda, Michel Gondry, Rebecca Sugar
My Neighbour Totoro will always be my favourite Hayao Miyazaki film, but for me Spirited Away just about pips Princess Mononoke (1997) and Porco Rosso (1992) to second place. Spirited Away combines some of the best elements of both those films, including Princess Mononoke's concern with ecological disaster and Porco Rosso's complex themes and strong sense of nostalgia. In Japan, this nostalgia or sense of the impermanence of things might be more properly described by the concept, mono no aware, a feeling of transience that Ozu also explored with such emotional power in Tokyo Story and other films. Miyazaki conceived the idea for Spirited Away after the success of his previous film, Princess Mononoke, which also gave creative expression to his concern about the impact of modernisation and urbanisation on traditional Japanese culture and the environment.
What is also so precious and unique about Miyazaki is how well he understands the minds of children. Spirited Away's story revolves around a young girl named Chihiro, who becomes trapped in a mysterious and magical world while on her way to her new home. At one point, when Chihiro needs to climb down the stairs around a castle, she encounters a terrifying cliff-edge and a howling wind, so sits down on her bottom and descends the stairs one bump at a time. This is exactly what a child would do in such a situation. Other challenges that Chihiro faces include her parents being transformed into pigs and navigating her way through a scary bathhouse run by the witch Yubaba. She meets other various spirits and magical creatures on her journey to save her family, including No-Face, who starts as a seemingly harmless spirit but becomes a central figure in the story. No-Face was inspired by traditional Japanese Noh theatre masks.
Spirited Away is known for its stunning hand-drawn animation, a hallmark of Studio Ghibli films. Miyazaki didn't create a script for the film, but instead developed the story with a team of animators through a process of visual storytelling, allowing the narrative to evolve organically. One of the most visually stunning moments in the film is the train journey across the flooded landscape, a surreal and emotional sequence. The combination of the sense of nostalgia for a lost world, the mellow music and the image of the train slowly cutting through the water is pure magic. Miyazaki wanted to create a story that would resonate with both children and adults, and has said: “I created a heroine who is an ordinary girl, someone with whom the audience can sympathise. It’s not a story in which the characters grow up, but a story in which they draw on something already inside them, brought out by the particular circumstances. I want my young friends to live like that, and I think they, too, have such a wish.”
Spirited Away received widespread critical acclaim and won numerous awards, becoming the first anime feature to win the Oscar for Best Animated Film. Miyazaki didn’t show up to the Academy Awards ceremony in 2003 because he was against America’s involvement in Iraq. This decision, and the fact that Spirited Away became the highest-grossing film in Japanese history at the time, helped introduce Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki to a global audience. One thing that is so unique about Ghibli films is the way they tell a captivating story without too much reliance on conflict and tension, instead focusing on a sense of childhood wonder, as well as characterisation and world-building. Miyazaki's vibrant use of colour and intricate attention to detail would inspire big animation studios like Pixar to take a more experimental approach in their films, including addressing environmental themes in films like WALL-E (2008).
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