Spirited Away

[I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd put this in as a filler. This was a review I wrote for my film studies class about the movie Spirited Away. Since I'm writing it for a class, it's gonna look different from the ones I post up on Blue Yoshi. I wrote it differently, since I'm writing for a teacher this time. So don't take this one too seriously, but if you want to read it, go ahead, here it is. Enjoy.]

Spirited Away is a pretty well known film from a not-so-well-known director. Hayao Miyazaki was the director of Spirited Away and he also brought about other movies, such as My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke. Pretty much all the films that Miyazaki works on are all animated, and Spirited Away is no exception. Because Spirited Away is animated, it does have a lot of room for creative thought, and that’s where this movie really shines.

Sprited Away’s creativity begins with the actual story. The main character is a girl named Chihiro. Chihiro recently had to move to a new place (for reasons unknown) and left behind her old life, including her friends and her school. She doesn’t have very high hopes for this new destination and just uses the opportunity to sulk. On the drive to the new house, Chihiro’s mom and dad get themselves lost and all three of them end up at what seems to be an abandoned theme park. Hunger gets the better of Chihiro’s parents, so they find food and begin eating. Chihiro has a bad feeling about the situation, but leaves them to eat while she walks around. She soon finds a mysterious bathhouse where she also sees a boy her age. The boy chases her away and Chihiro is left to look for her parents. It soon becomes nightfall and the spirits have awoken. Dodging ghostly figures, Chihiro finally finds her mom and dad, still eating. But when they turn around, Chihiro sees that they somehow transformed into pigs. Terrified, she runs away, yet again. With nowhere to go, she hides from all the spirits. The boy from the bathhouse finds her hiding and tries to comfort her this time. His name is revealed to be Haku, and he wants to help her, first of all by getting a job at the bathhouse. In this way, Chihiro enters the bathhouse of the spirits and gets to work, in hopes of later reuniting with her parents.

You can find many memorable moments while watching Spirited Away. I think one of the best scenes was when Chihiro was flying with Haku up in the skies (Haku can turn into a dragon). During the flight, Chihiro suddenly remembers that Haku, in dragon form, saved her from drowning when she was very little, and by remembering this, Chihiro also remembered Haku’s real name. Before, the owner of the bathhouse stole his name and replaced it, and Haku forgot his real name since then. Now that he knew his real name, he could be the master of his own fate.

Spirited Away was originally a Japanese movie, which is a minor problem. The language gap can quickly be overcome by translation. But what doesn’t get translated is the kind of feeling that the Japanese voice actors can create through their own language. As a result, the English version is lacking in acting skills. People might prefer the English version, and others might like the Japanese version. It differs between people.

For an animated movie, Spirited Away looks amazing. The people who made it paid very close attention to detail, and as a result, even though it’s an animation, it feels realistic. There are some things about it that are not realistic, however. But even these things looked great on film. The different spirits and monsters and supernatural effects were very colorful and detailed. The score for this film is terrific as well. I actually have the soundtrack to this movie because it’s so good. Right when the scene calls for some music, it’s there. And it just enhances the mood. Joe Hisaishi, the musical composer for Spirited Away, did a great job creating music for this movie.

The movie has a good ending (spoiler alert!). In the end, Chihiro makes a deal with the bathhouse owner to return her parents. But she can only return to them if she can figure out which pigs they are. Several pigs are lined up and Chihiro was told to choose her parents. She tells the bathhouse owner that they aren’t in the group. Surprisingly, she’s right. She no longer had to work at the bathhouse and she was now free to go. After parting with Haku and the others from the bathhouse, she sees her parents on the far side of a field. She rushes over and hugs them, crying and laughing, just happy that they’re back. Her parents acted like nothing ever happened between entering the “theme park” and the present. Chihiro leaves with a positive outlook that this new place might not be so bad. What this film teaches you is to try and make the best of things, even when things look pretty scary or intimidating.

So overall, this is a very good film and it was very entertaining to watch. This film is like a big journey that you travel with the characters on screen. You really feel like you’re “spirited away” in this other world. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys good movies. Out of 10, I would give it 9. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough.