By Jarrad Climpson
A beautiful liminal journey told through the fantastical realm of spirits.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is the type of film that sneakily sticks with you after the credits roll. After my initial watch, I wasn’t sure if I had really connected to the movie- I had so many expectations and didn’t find it to be as profound as I was hoping. But the more time I spent away from it, the more I found myself revisiting it in my mind.
The film follows ten-year-old Chihiro as she’s plunged headfirst into the realm of spirits after her and her parents take a detour, at an abandoned amusement park before moving into their new house. Without spoiling too much of the plot for those who haven’t seen it, what follows is a beautiful liminal journey of a ten-year-old girl as she begins to navigate the fantastical. What went unnoticed in the initial viewing was all the subtext Miyazaki has inserted into what appears to be a simple out-of-water narrative. In fact from the works I have seen, this is Miyazaki’s most subtle commentary on society, when compared to the explicit themes of environmentalism in Princess Mononoke and critical rejection of warfare in Howl’s Moving Castle.
Here Miyazaki uses the lens of a girl who is neither child or adult to make observations on traditional values being lost in a capitalist society. In fact the setting of the bathhouse in the amusement park acts as a potent symbol for greed. This can be seen when the character of No-Face is invited by Chihiro into the bathhouse. No-Face starts off a well-meaning and benevolent character, but quickly alters and changes by quite literally consuming the greed and excess that inhabits this domain. It is only when Chihiro gets No-Face away from the bathhouse and gets it to spew out and regurgitate what it’s consumed, does No-Face return to its original state as a well-meaning and pacifist spirit. It is also quite telling that Miyazaki leaves No-Face with Zeniba, in isolation away from corruptible influence, so that No-Face may retain its peaceful nature.
The choice to follow the liminal journey is perhaps the most interesting thing the movie does. While most coming-of-age films follow the rites of passage involving childhood or adolescence, Miyazaki places Chihiro in neither. Her identity in the spirit world and the subsequent arrival out of it, is transformed by both experiences that require her to mature, but without ever losing the sense of wonder that comes with being a child. Chihiro doesn’t end the movie suddenly being more mature and world-weary. That’s not to say she isn’t filled with more vigour and resolve, but she still finds herself clinging to her parents when she’s reunited with them. I think the point Miyazaki places here is an important one, we don’t suddenly change overnight, but rather it’s a process and our interaction with the world that helps to shape this change.
Spirited Away is truly profound, even if that profoundness wasn’t recognised straightaway by me. It’s further proof that Miyazaki is focused on showing how real world issues and insights into the human condition can be told through the lens of children. There’s a trove more to dissect here, but I hope if you’ve never seen this animated masterpiece that you give it a shot, it’s stunningly beautiful and packs a lot of weight without beating it over your head.
A gem I hope to watch many more times.
The Scribble 