Spirited Away

Spirited Away
File:Spirited Away poster.JPG International film poster
Directed by	Hayao Miyazaki
Screenplay by	Hayao Miyazaki
Story by	Hayao Miyazaki
Produced by	Toshio Suzuki
Starring	Rumi Hiiragi Miyu Irino Mari Natsuki
Cinematography	Atsushi Okui
Edited by	Takeshi Seyama
Music by	Joe Hisaishi
Production company	Studio Ghibli
Distributed by	Toho (Japan) Walt Disney Pictures
Release date	July 27, 2001 (2001-07-27) (Japan)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	Template:Film Japan
Language	Japanese
Budget	¥1.9 billion (US$19 million)
Box office	¥27,492,509,500 ($274,925,095)

Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, lit. "The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro") is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who is in the process of moving to a new neighborhood, but ends up in a mysterious world of spirits and monsters. There, Chihiro must find a way to restore her parents' true forms by working in Yubaba's bathhouse.

Miyazaki wrote the script after he decided that the film would be based on ten-year old girls, who came to visit his house each summer. At the time, Miyazaki was developing two personal projects, but they were rejected. Production of Spirited Away began in 2000. During production, Miyazaki based the film's settings at a museum in Koganei, Tokyo. However, Miyazaki realized that the film would be over three hours and decided to cut out several parts of the story for its July 27, 2001 release. Pixar director John Lasseter, a fan of Miyazaki, was approached by Walt Disney Pictures to supervise an English-language translation for the film's North American release. Lasseter hired Kirk Thornton as director and Donald W. Ernst as producer of the adaptation.

When it was released, Spirited Away became the most successful film of Japanese history, grossing over $274 million worldwide, and receiving critical acclaim. The film overtook Titanic (at the time the top grossing film worldwide) in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday) and is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14.

Plot

Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino (荻野 千尋, Ogino Chihiro) is moving with her parents to a new town when they become lost and find what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. Chihiro's father decides to explore it while a reluctant Chihiro and her mother accompany him. They soon discover a stall with food, and Chihiro's parents sample the food, but find themselves unable to stop eating. Chihiro soon realizes that she and her parents have crossed into another world when she watches her parents literally turn into pigs.

Running to get help, Chihiro finds a boy, Haku, who smuggles her into a large bathhouse and tells her to find a job so she can stay there until he can help her recover her parents and escape. Haku also hints that he knew Chihiro when she was little. Haku instructs Chihiro to see Kamaji at the boiler room to ask for work. Kamaji, a six-armed, grumpy, but kind-hearted fellow, says he has no work for Chihiro and entrusts her to Lin to take her up to Yubaba. Yubaba, the cranky, elderly witch who runs the bathhouse, agrees to let Chihiro work for her, but takes all of Chihiro's name except the first character of her first name (千), which Yubaba calls "Sen." Sen later learns that Yubaba controls her servants by taking their names.

While working, she sees a masked spirit, named "No Face", outside of the bathhouse. She leaves the door open and he enters the bathhouse. Sen's first customer is a heavily polluted river spirit that all of the other workers avoid. When Sen successfully cleans the spirit, it rewards her with a dumpling-like object. Afterward, Sen discovers that Haku is actually a dragon, and when he is attacked in this form by shikigami in the form of paper birds, leaving him seriously wounded, she feeds him part of the dumpling. Haku coughs up a gold seal and an odd black slug, which Sen squishes. When Haku remains unresponsive, Kamaji tells Sen to visit Zeniba, Yubaba's identical twin sister, who owns the seal, so the curse on the seal can be lifted. Kamaji gives Sen train tickets for her to be able to travel to Zeniba's swamp. She is accompanied by Boh, Yubaba's giant baby son, whom Zeniba had turned into a mouse.

During this time, No Face swallows a spirit in order to use his voice and makes fake gold nuggets to order food and other items from the staff. No Face becomes larger as he eats, and swallows several spirits after Sen declines his offer of gold. Later, Sen lures him out of the bath house by feeding him the remainder of the dumpling, which causes him to vomit until his stomach is empty and he is back to his normal self. No Face accompanies Sen and Boh/mouse to Zeniba's house on the train.

Sen visits Zeniba, who she finds is very friendly and pleasant, in sharp contrast to Yubaba. Zeniba says that Sen had broken the seal's spell by her love and caring and that the slug that Sen killed was a curse that Yubaba had placed on Haku to make him her slave. Haku, now fully recovered, comes to pick up Sen. No Face remains with Zeniba. On the way back, Haku says that if they return Boh, Yubaba's son, to Yubaba, she will free Sen and her parents. Sen returns the favor by helping Haku remember his full name by reminiscing as a child when she fell into her hometown's river and was saved by the current (Haku in his river dragon form). The river's name was the Kohaku River, and Haku's real name was Kohaku. At the remembrance of his name, Haku is completely freed of Yubaba's spell.

At the bathhouse, Sen returns Boh to Yubaba, but the witch has one final test: Sen has to identify which of a group of pigs are her parents. Sen looks closely, then says that there must be a mistake; her parents aren't there. This breaks the spell on the pigs and forces Yubaba to give Sen the rest of her name back and let her go. Now "Chihiro" again, Haku leads her to the entrance of the spirit world, saying that her parents are on the other side and warns her not to look back (he did not explicitly state a reason for this), though they promise to see each other again. Chihiro meets her parents, and apparently with no memory of their experiences in the spirit world, the family continues on to their new home.

Voice cast

• Rumi Hiiragi (Daveigh Chase in the English adaptation) as Chihiro Ogino (荻野 千尋, Ogino Chihiro), a 10-year-old girl. While moving to a new town with her family, she enters the spirit world itself.
• Miyu Irino (Jason Marsden in the English adaptation) as Haku/Nigihayami Kohaku Nushi (ハク／饒速水琥珀主（ニギハヤミコハクヌシ）, Haku/Nigihayami Kohakunushi, lit. "god of the swift amber river"). who is a dragon in the guise of a human, who helps Chihiro after her parents have transformed into pigs. Haku works as Yubaba's direct subordinate, often running errands and performing various missions for her. He has the ability to fly in his true form, which is a dragon.
• Mari Natsuki (Suzanne Pleshette in the English adaptation) as Yubaba (湯婆婆, Yubaaba, lit. "bath crone"), an elderly witch with an inhumanly large head and nose, who supervises the bathhouse. Yubaba has an over-bearing and authoritarian personality, but does show a soft side toward her giant baby, Boh. Yubaba lives in opulent quarters and is only interested in taking care of guests for money. Natsuki also voices Zeniba (銭婆, Zeniiba), Yubaba's twin sister. Although identical in appearance, their personalities are almost polar opposites.
• Bunta Sugawara (David Ogden Stiers in the English adaptation) as Kamajii (釜爺, lit. "boiler geezer"), an old man that operates the boiler room of the bathhouse with his six arms. These arms can apparently extend indefinitely to allow him access to the upper cabinets from his original position. A number of Susuwatari (ススワタリ, lit. "travelling soot", soot sprites) work for him by carrying coal into his furnace.

File:Spirited Away Kaonashi.jpg

Chihiro (left) and No-Face (right). No-Face becomes obsessed with Chihiro Ogino after her initial act of kindness and proceeds to offer her many gifts, including gold and bath tokens

• Akio Nakamura (Bob Bergen in the English adaptation) as No-Face (カオナシ, Kaonashi, lit. "faceless"), an odd spirit who takes an interest in Chihiro Ogino. At first, he appears to be a strange, demure, cloaked, masked wraith who seems mute other than his breathing and urging grunts. Seen as polite, calm, and quiet at first, 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.
• Yumi Tamai (Susan Egan in the English adaptation) as Lin (リン, Rin), a worker at the bathhouse who becomes Chihiro's caretaker.
• Ryunosuke Kamiki (Tara Strong in the English adaptation) as Boh (坊, Bō), Yubaba's son and Zeniba's nephew. Although he has the appearance of a young baby, he is twice Yubaba's size. He is also very strong and can be dangerous. Yubaba goes out of her way to give him whatever he wants.
• Tatsuya Gashuin (John Ratzenberger in the English adaption) as Aogaeru, the assistant manager of the bathhouse.
• Takashi Naito (Michael Chiklis in the English adaption) as Akigo, Chihiro's father.
• Yasuko Sawaguchi (Lauren Holly in the English adaption) as Yugo, Chihiro's mother.
• River Spirit (川の神, Kawa no Kami) is a customer of the bathhouse originally thought to be a "stink spirit", who is assigned to Chihiro and Lin.

Themes and archetypes

The major themes of Spirited Away center on the protagonist Chihiro and her liminal journey through the realm of the bathhouse of the gods. A spoiled child forced into the fantastic world, Chihiro becomes completely separated from everything she has known and must find her way back to reality. Chihiro’s experience in the alternate world, frequently compared to Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, represents her passage from childhood to adulthood. The archetypal entrance into another world clearly demarcates Chihiro’s status as one in-between. In her transition between child and adult, Chihiro stands outside these societal boundaries, a situation mirrored by the supernatural setting outside reality. The use of the word kamikakushi (literally "hidden by gods") within the Japanese title, and its associated folklore, reinforce this liminal passage: "Kamikakushi is a verdict of ‘social death’ in this world, and coming back to this world from Kamikakushi meant ‘social resurrection.’" Upon gaining employment at the bathhouse, Yubaba’s seizure of Chihiro’s true name, a common theme in folklore, symbolically kills the child Chihiro. Having lost her childhood identity, Chihiro cannot return to reality by the way she came; she can only move forward into adulthood. The following trials and obstacles Chihiro must overcome become the challenges and lessons common in rites-of-passage and the monomyth format. In her attempt to regain her self, her "continuity with her past," Chihiro must forge a new identity.

Beneath the surface coming-of-age theme, Spirited Away contains critical commentary on modern Japanese society concerning generational conflicts, the struggle with dissolving traditional culture and customs within a global society, and environmental pollution. Chihiro, as a representation of the liminal shōjo, "may be seen as a metaphor for the Japanese society which, over the last decade, seems to be increasingly in limbo, drifting uneasily away from the values and ideological framework of the immediate postwar era." Just as Chihiro seeks her past identity, Japan, in its anxiety over the economic downturn occurring during the release of Spirited Away in 2001, sought to reconnect to past values. In interview, Miyazaki has commented on this nostalgic element for an old Japan. Initially, Chihiro travels past the abandoned fairground, a symbol for Japan’s burst "bubble economy", and her parents' credit-card-fuelled gluttony and transformation into pigs, to reach the fantasy world replete with Japanese culture and fable in the amalgam of the bathhouse.

However, the "bathhouse of the spirits has its own ambivalence, and its own darkness…. Miyazaki is not so simple-minded as to locate a perfect vision in the past or the spiritual." Many of the employees are rude and discriminating to Chihiro, and the corruption of avarice has incorporated itself into the "bricolage" of the bathhouse as a place of "excess and greed" as well, as depicted in the initial appearance of the No-Face. In stark contrast to the "archetypal approaches to cultural recovery such as recognition, proper identification, spiritual cleansing, and sacrifice," embodied in Chihiro’s journey and transformation, the constant background presence of the ambiguity of the bathhouse reminds the audience that reality is not so simple: "the bathhouse’s simultaneous incorporation of the carnivalesque and the chaotic suggests that the threats to the collectivity are not simply outside ones." The environmental asides concerning the trash deforming the River God and Haku’s plight over the loss of his river to apartment complexes further indicate that the sources of pollution within the bathhouse, a place of ritual purity, come from within the Japanese society.

Production

I created a heroine who is an ordinary girl, someone with whom the audience can sympathize. 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.

— Hayao Miyazaki

Spirited Away was directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Every summer, Miyazaki spent his vacation at a mountain cabin with his family and five young female friends. The idea for Spirited Away came about when he desired to make a film for these friends. Miyazaki had previously directed films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, which were for small children and teenagers, but he had not created a film for ten-year-old girls. For inspiration, he read shōjo manga magazines such as Nakayoshi and Ribon that the girls had left at the cabin. When Miyazaki read the magazines he felt that they only offered things such as crushes and romance. When looking at his young friends, Miyazaki felt this was not what they "held dear in their hearts", so instead he decided to make the film about a girl heroine that they could look up to.

Hayao Miyazaki, the film's director and writer

Miyazaki had wanted to make a new film for a long time. He had previously written two project proposals, but they had both been rejected. The first one was based on the Japanese book Kirino Mukouno Fushigina Machi, and the second one was about a teenage heroine. Miyazaki's third proposal, which ended up becoming Spirited Away, was more successful. All three stories revolved around a bathhouse that was based on a bathhouse in Miyazaki's hometown. Miyazaki thought the bathhouse was a mysterious place, and there was a small door next to one of the bathtubs in the bathhouse. Miyazaki was always curious to what was behind it, and he made up several stories about it; one of which was the inspiration for the bathhouse in Spirited Away.

The film went into production in 2000, with a budget of ¥1.9 billion (US$19 million). His previous film, Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki and his staff had experimented with the process of computer animation. Equipping themselves with more computers and programs like Softimage, the Studio Ghibli staff began to learn the software, but keeping the technology at a level to enhance the story, not "steal the show". All the characters were largely animated by hand, with Miyazaki working alongside his animators to see that they were getting it just right. The biggest difficulty in making the film was to cut its length down. When production started, Miyazaki realized that it would be more than three hours long if he made it according to his plot. He had to cut many scenes from the story, and tried to reduce the "eye-candy" in the film because he wanted it to be simple. Miyazaki did not want to make the hero a pretty girl. At the beginning, he was frustrated that she looked "dull" and thought, "She isn't cute. Isn't there something we can do?". As the film neared the end, however, he was relieved to feel that "she will be a charming woman".

The Takahashi Korekiyo residence in the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum was an inspiration for Miyazaki.

Miyazaki based some of the buildings in the spirit world on the buildings in the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei, Tokyo, Japan. He often visited the museum for inspiration while working on the film. Miyazaki had always been interested in the Pseudo-Western style buildings from the Meiji period that were available there. The museum made Miyazaki feel nostalgic, "especially when I stand here alone in the evening, near closing time, and the sun is setting – tears well up in my eyes." Another inspiration was the historic hill towns of Jiufen and Jinguashi, both located in Taiwan, and both which also feature Meiji-period architecture that was built when Taiwan was a Japanese colony.

English adaptation

Daveigh Chase provided the dubbing for Chihiro in the English-language version of the film.

Pixar Animation Studios dubbed the English adaptation of Spirited Away, under the supervision of John Lasseter. Lasseter is a "huge" Miyazaki fan, and he and his staff often sit down and watch some of Miyazaki's work when they hit story problems. The first viewing of Spirited Away in the United States was in Pixar's screening room. After seeing the film, Lasseter was "ecstatic". Upon hearing his reaction to the film, people at Disney asked Lasseter if he would be interested in trying to bring Spirited Away to an American audience. Lasseter said that he had a busy schedule, but agreed to executive produce the English adaptation. Soon, several others began to join the project: Beauty and the Beast co-director Kirk Wise and Aladdin producer Donald W. Ernst soon joined Lasseter as director and producer of Spirited Away respectively.

The cast of the film consisted of Daveigh Chase, Susan Egan, David Ogden Stiers, and John Ratzenberger (considered by John Lasseter as his "good luck charm"). With the cast and talent in place, word began to spread around the net. But at first, the buzz was light. Pixar had already begun to push their upcoming fall films, but the only trace that Spirited Away was coming was in a small scrolling section of their film page on Disney.com. The promotions were also quite trying, as Disney had sidelined their homepage for Spirited Away and hidden it in the confines of Buena Vista's many labyrinths. While homepages for films like Signs were clearly displayed, it was only through some people's curiosity that the Spirited Away homepage could be found.

Release

Critical reception

Spirited Away was met with almost universal critical acclaim. Based on 155 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes, it ranks as the thirteenth-best animated film, with a 97% rating on the site. In 2005, it was ranked as the twelfth-best animated film of all time by IGN. The film is also ranked #9 of the highest-rated movies of all time on Metacritic; being the highest rated traditionally animated film on the site. The film ranked #10 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films Of World Cinema" in 2010.

Box office

Spirited Away was released in Japan in July 2001, drawing an audience of around 23 million and revenues of ¥30 billion (approx. US$300 million), to become the second highest-grossing film in Japanese history (surpassing the film Princess Mononoke for highest-grossing animated motion pictures). It was the first film 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 on September 20, 2002 and had made slightly over $10 million by September 2003. The film grossed US$274,925,095 worldwide.

Home media

The film was released in North America by Disney's Buena Vista Distribution arm on DVD and VHS formats on April 15, 2003 where the attention brought by the Oscar win made the title a strong seller. Spirited Away is often marketed, sold and associated with other Miyazaki films such as Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

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 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.

The 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 U.S., Europe and Australia use a picture transfer where this "red tint" has been significantly reduced.

Soundtrack

The closing song, "Always With Me" (いつも何度でも, Itsumo Nandodemo, literally, "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 Rin the Chimney Painter (煙突描きのリン, Entotsu-kaki no Rin), a different Miyazaki film which was never released. In the special features of the DVD, Hayao Miyazaki explains how the song in fact inspired him to create Spirited Away.

The other 20 tracks on the original soundtrack were composed by Joe Hisaishi. His "The River of That Day" (あの日の川, Ano hi no Kawa) 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 "Ano hi no Kawa" and named the new version "The Name of Life" (いのちの名前, "Inochi no Namae") which was performed by Ayaka Hirahara.

Beside the Original Soundtrack, there is also an image album, which contains 10 tracks.

	Track	Composer	Duration
1	One Summer's Day (あの夏へ, Ano Natsu e)	Joe Hisaishi (久石譲)	3:09
2	Road To Somewhere (とおり道, Toori Michi)		2:07
3	Empty Restaurant (誰もいない料理店, Dare mo Inai Ryōriten)		3:15
4	Nighttime Coming (夜来る, Yoru Kuru)		2:00
5	Dragon Boy (竜の少年, Ryū no Shōnen)		2:12
6	Sootballs (ボイラー虫, Boirā Mushi)		2:33
7	Procession Of The Spirits (神さま達, Kamisama-tachi)		3:00
8	Yubaba (湯婆婆)		3:30
9	Bathhouse Morning (湯屋の朝, Yuya no Asa)		2:02
10	Day Of The River (あの日の川, Ano Hi no Kawa)		3:13
11	It's Hard Work (仕事はつらいぜ, Shigoto wa Tsuraize)		2:26
12	Stink Spirit (おクサレ神, Okusaregami)		4:01
13	Sen's Courage (千の勇気, Sen no Yūki)		2:45
14	Bottomless Pit (底なし穴, Sokonashi Ana)		1:18
15	No Face (カオナシ, Kaonashi)		3:47
16	Sixth Station (6番目の駅, Roku Banme no Eki)		3:38
17	Yubaba's Panic (湯婆婆狂乱, Yubaba Kyōran)		1:38
18	House At Swamp Bottom (沼の底の家, Numa no Soko no Ie)		1:29
19	Reprise (ふたたび, Futatabi)		4:53
20	The Return Day (帰る日, Kaeru Hi)		3:20
21	Always With Me (いつも何度でも, Itsumo Nando demo)	Youmi Kimura (木村弓)	3:35

Image album track listing

1. Ano Hi no Kawa e (あの日の川へ, lit. To that Days' River) by Umi (3:54)
2. Yoru ga Kuru (夜が来る, lit. Night is Coming) by Joe Hisaishi (4:25)
3. Kamigami-sama (神々さま, lit. Gods) by Shizuru Otaka (3:55)
4. Yuya (油屋, lit. Bathhouse) by Tsunehiko Kamijō (3:56)
5. Fushigi no Kuni no Jyūnin (不思議の国の住人, lit. The People in Wonderland) by Joe Hisaishi (3:20)
6. Samishii samishii (さみしいさみしい, lit. Lonely lonely) by Monsieur Kamayatsu (3:41)
7. Solitude (ソリチュード, Sorichūdo) by Rieko Suzuki and Hiroshi Kondo (3:49)
8. Umi (海, lit. The Sea) by Joe Hisaishi (3:22)
9. Shiroi Ryū (白い竜, lit. White Dragon) by Rikki (3:33)
10. Chihiro no Waltz (千尋のワルツ, Chihiro no Warutsu, Chihiro's Waltz) by Joe Hisaishi (3:20)

External links

• Official website
• Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi at IMDb
• Spirited Away at the TCM Movie Database
• Spirited Away at AllMovie
• Template:Bcdb title
• Spirited Away (anime) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Spirited Away at Box Office Mojo
• Spirited Away at Metacritic
• Spirited Away at Rotten Tomatoes
• Spirited Away at the Japanese Movie Database Template:Ja icon
• Animerica review