Spirited Away, the English translation of Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi, is an animated film that came out in 2001, but finally made it to the U.S. in 2002. It was such a good film, that it ended up taking home the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. It's not the easiest thing to pin down this movie into a single category in regards to what it is about, but lets just say it explores the world of spirits in an interesting and sometimes funny way. The real trick to enjoying Spirited Away, is to set aside any preconceived notions of what the film should be like, and just enjoy the movie for what it is: a complex story that has many interesting characters, and doesn't adhere to any specific ways of story-telling that could muddle with the end result. This can lead it to be somewhat confusing at times if you don't pay close attention, and the movie is almost 3 hours as well, but I think that by adding in all the subtle elements that it does, makes it easy to appeal to both a young and old audience at the same time.
Spirited Away is the story of a girl named Chihiro, who is going to be moving into a brand new house with her parents. They are moving into the suburbs, but along the way they decide to make a stop and look at some of the sights along their journey. It brings them to a tunnel off of the side of a large forest, and being the explorer types, her mother and father want to go through and check out what is on the other side. This is not want Chihiro wants, who seems that she is afraid of everything, including her own shadow. On the other side they find an empty river-bead, and a small town that appears to have been abandoned. It is an exciting looking place, and with the smells and state of the main street, it actually looks like people have been there recently. There is a restaurant setting with many fresh foods just sitting out in buffet style. It looks like there is a party going on, but nobody can be seen anywhere in town. The hungry parents want some lunch and sit down to start eating this food, while Chihiro stands by urging them to stop, and leave this town. They should have given her their attention, because as it gets dark the city begins changing.
Chihiro had decided to take a quick look around the city, and finds herself looking at an immense bath-house that also appears abandoned. But as the light fades from the sky, and darkness sets in on the city, the lights start to come on all over the place. Not only that, but dark entities start appearing everywhere. This is something Chihiro wants nothing to do with and runs back to get her parents and escape this stranger "world." Getting back to her parents, she finds that they have eaten nearly all of the food, and have themselves turned into pigs. Turns out that the food was left out for the spirits that would be coming out that night, and eating the food showed off their sheer greed and disregard for this land. They are now trapped, and Chihiro makes a run for it, only to find that the empty river-bed is now filled with water. Scared, cowering, and not knowing where to turn, a boy named Haku comes across her, and decides to help her. Or is he really helping her? Haku is the henchman for the ruler of this land Yubaba, so it could be that he has a hidden agenda. If she is going to save her parents, and escape herself from this land of spirits, she is going to have to overcome all of her fears, and mature very fast, or all will be lost for her.
From a shy and timid girl when she first enters the town, we get to see the transformation of this 10-year old girl into something much more. She does finally make some friends, and it is through those friends that she is able to figure out what to do to rescue herself and her family. Spirited Away is a deep anime, that tries its best to offer something to every type of viewer. There are cute elements included for the younger audience, but hidden within that are deeper facets of the story that revolve around spirituality, and alternate realities. The movie takes its time developing all of the main characters and showing us a few things about their personalities. We are left to determine for ourselves what the intentions of each of them are, or whether or not they are what they seem. The great thing is though, we aren't given their full stories right away, and it adds a lot to my opinion of the writers of this story. Spirited Away was well deserving of its Academy Award for best animated feature, and I think that if you are a fan of the genre, that this is very much a film for you. But, I also think that you can enjoy this film even if you aren't a fan of anime. Interpretation of this film will be different from viewer to viewer, and that in my opinion is what makes this movie so good. It comes with a high recommendation from me, and I urge that you give it a chance if you have yet to see it.
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