Spirited Away, titled Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi in Japan, follows a young girl named Chihiro on an adventurous, yet threatening journey into a magical realm after her parents are turned into pigs. She forms relationships with people that will help her find her way back home such as Haku, Zeniba, and Mr. Kamaji. She also encounters those like Yubaba who try to make her time in the realm of spirits difficult. Spirited Away quickly became Japan’s highest grossing film of all time. It received many great reviews in every aspect of filmmaking. It won several awards, including A Golden Bear in 2002 at the Berlin International Film Festival, and an Academy Award in 2003 for Best Animated Film. Hayao Miyazaki, the film’s writer and director, strongly encourages Japanese culture and its survival. He believes that “surrounded by high technology and its flimsy devices, children are more and more losing their roots”(Reider). Hayao Miyazaki’s aim is to present not only an animated motion picture, but a work of art. He does so by using certain animation and film techniques, applying Japanese culture, and creating in depth characters, all of which highlight key symbols in the film.
Miyazaki’s strong support for Japanese culture often becomes prominent in the film. Once chihiro has learned that her parents are pigs, she believes that she is dreaming. “Go away. Go away. Disappear…” she tells herself, only to find that she is literally disappearing. This is because she has not yet eaten food from the realm she is in. Here she meets Haku, a young apprentice of the bathhouse. He feeds her food, and she begins to reappear. This scene reflects old Japanese mythological stories that hold the belief that eating food from another realm will keep you ...
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...” Miyazaki certainly does so. All of the work put into the film without a doubt exalts the it to be a true work of art.
Works Cited
Cooper, Damon. "Finding the spirit within: a critical analysis of film techniques in spirited Away." Babel 45.1 (2010): 30+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Knox, Julian. "Hoffmann, Goethe, and Miyazaki's Spirited Away." Wordsworth Circle
42.3 (2011): 198+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
"Miyazaki on Spirited Away // Interviews // Nausicaa.net." Miyazaki on Spirited Away //
Interviews // Nausicaa.net. Trans. Ryoko Toyama. Ed. Team Ghiblink. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Reider, Noriko T. "Spirited Away: film of the fantastic and evolving Japanese folk symbols." Film Criticism 29.3 (2005): 4+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
Spirited Away. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli, 2001. DVD
On October 14th, 2016 in class we watched “Two Spirits” by Lydia Nibley. Basically the film explored the cultural context behind a tragic and senseless murder of the main character. Fred was part of an honored “Navajo” youth who was killed at the age of sixteen by a man who bragged to his friends that he was nothing but a “fag”. While walking home from a carnival he was chased by one of his friends. Once his friend caught up to Fred, he pulled him down from a mountain and smashed his head with a heavy rock. Fred laid there for five days straight where two young boys found his body lying there. He was labeled as a “two-spirit” who was possessed of balancing masculine and feminine traits. In the film, there are two parts that are put together effortlessly like the people it discusses. Most of the documentary focuses on Fred’s murder, but the real issues in the film were those of the lesbian, gay, and transgender community and how its members were viewed in a
After chiyo finally accepted her fate, she worked really hard to become a geisha. She worked so hard that she broke records and as a result she was adopted into the okiya. Pumpkin, another girl who lived in the okiya was supposed to be adopted instead of Chiyo. When Chiyo broke the record for the highest cost of her mizuage, or virginity, Mother pushed aside Pumpkin and congratulated Chiyo. Chiyo felt bad for her but since they were friends, she thought Pumpkin would understand. Much later, to her surprise, she found that Pumpkin was still bitter and jealous about it. Chiyo’s view on it was the fact that she had worked hard for that honor and she had earned it. Pumkin felt that she deserved to be adopted since she had become a geisha first and she was already in the process of being adopted. Their difference of opinion on that subject drew a wedge between them that was never removed.
Many live attempting to decipher the riddle of life. What is life? What is the purpose? What makes? Even though we only seek happiness why can’t we ever seem to achieve it? When we do reach happiness why can’t we seem to grasp it and hold it for more than the few short hours that pass like seconds? The question we must answer first is “What makes happiness, true?”
The story begins in the ordinary world with Chihiro and her family moving to a new home. Chihiro is intimidated by the prospects of starting her life anew. Resulting in her being a whiny, selfish and fearful little girl. All of this changes when her and her parents visit an abandoned theme park and accidentally cross into the spirit world. This is where she meets Haku, outside of a bath house. The young boy informs her of their entry into the spirit world and tries to get her back to her world. But it is too late, in their gross ignorance her parents have already eaten from a feast intended for the spirits and they are turned into pigs as punishment. 10-year-old Chihiro now finds herself left alone in the spirit world. This is what Joseph Campbell calls “the call to adventure”. She’s been transported out of the ordinary world and is now responsible for saving her parents in this new and strange world. Chihiro is frightene...
Though most of the female heroines are accompanied by other male protagonists, it is shown that a lot of the women in his films are not dependent on the male to be strong on their own. San from Princess Mononoke is a prime example of an independent female figure. Throughout the film San struggles in an ongoing battle to fight for the protection of the forest which is her home. Although she shows a strong hatred towards the humans for destroying her forest home, she eventually realizes that violence will not solve the fighting and she overcomes this hatred. The fact that she has to fight for the protection of her home and overcome her inner hatred of the human race is proof enough that she shows a strong independence for herself. Another prime example of strong female role is Chihiro from Spirited Away. Chihiro becomes trapped in the spirit world by herself after her parents are turned into pigs and she has to find a way out of it. Even though at first she seems alone, she meets people within the spirit world who she befriends and they also help to guide her. Throughout the film she shows courage to overcome her fears as well as compassion and trust towards her friends especially Haku the male secondary character that she first meets. In the end she makes it out of the spirit world with the help of her friends, but also by showing independence and transitioning from a girl into a woman. A third example of one of Miyazaki 's strong female roles is Kiki from Kiki 's Delivery Service. Kiki is young girl who leaves home to live by the seaside and live her life as a delivery girl for a baker who she meets. Throughout the film Kiki faces self doubt, social anxiety, and a variety of other challenges. At one point her broomstick that she uses to fly around on and make deliveries with fails to work for her and she becomes unable to fly. She also has to deal
Liminal process is a human process from one level to another used to reach an outcome. Liminal process includes the call to experience, separation, margin, reaggregation, and routinization and dissolution. These steps can be seen in Spirited Away, as Chihiro goes on a quest to save her parents after they became pigs due to their impurity and greed. This can also be represented as the stages an alcoholic goes through to reach sobriety. The call to experience is when the individual feels a call from greater forces to move or transition. This can be expressed when Chihiro and her parents wander in the amusement park. The parents decide to gorge themselves with food. Chihiro finds this to be a horrible idea, saying, “Guys don't take the food! We’re gonna get in trouble!” This shows her beginning of maturity and awareness as an instinct tells her not to do as her parents are doing. This can compare to an alcoholic as their call to experience could be a family coming together to tell the alcoholic of how their abuse has affected them. This is a way to bring awareness to the individual by outside forces. Next, is separation. Separation is when an individual most abandon those around them or their environment like Chihiro. Chihiro meets Haku, who seems to be a spiritual guardian or exemplar as he hands her food when she realizes she is disappearing because she has been
In Hayao Miyazaki’s breathtaking film Spirited Away, we are introduced to 10-year-old Chihiro and her parents who stumble upon a seemingly abandoned amusement park. After her mother and father meet a cruel end, Chihiro encounters a mysterious boy named Haku, explaining that the park is a resort for the supernatural and that she must work there to free both herself and her parents. Our young protagonist is shown to be a childish, easily-scared, and whiny girl. But after her experiences in the bathhouse and the entirety of the Spirit World, she matures immensely. Chihiro’s growth into a capable individual is a core factor in the movement of Spirited Away’s plot.
Japan, that strange and exotic land in the east, has a complex and interesting history that has shaped and molded its culture into a very unique society today. Of course their customs have influenced their entertainment, especially television and movies. In a day and age where information is free to all through the internet and reliable postal systems these television shows, movies, toys, and comics have made their way all over the world. The reception of Japanese media has had mixed reactions, both good and bad.
Bob’s dreamlike arrival in Tokyo entails a long sequence in which off-screen sounds from the airport – a plane landing, a disembodied female voice welcoming passengers in Japanese and English – are layered over atmospheric traffic noises and intermingled with airy, incide...
Today there are as few as 1,000 to 2,000, mostly in Kyoto” (Toronto Star). Before WWII, becoming a geisha was a necessity. Many parents sold their daughters to geisha houses, known as an okiya. Chiyo had a similar fate. Chiyo’s father sold Chiyo and her sister, Satsu to an okiya through the hands of Mr. Tanaka Ichiro. Mr. Tanaka was the reason Chiyo became a geisha. Chiyo’s father had a sick wife and two daughters and he saw no other choice than to sell his daughters into the geisha world. This behaviour shows how circumstances can cause someone to take such desperate measures and turn selfish. Beauty is held at optimal importance in the geisha industry and Chiyo is considered more beautiful and is the one who ends up in an okiya. Satsu, on the other hand, becomes a prostitute in the district of Miyagawa-cho, but ultimately ends up running away. In Chiyo’s okiya in the Gion District, there is a Mother, Auntie and Granny, who decide if Chiyo is worthy of becoming a geisha or not. There is also a geisha who lives in the okiya named Hatsumomo. Hatsumomo is the antagonist of the novel as she does everything possible to prevent Chiyo from becoming a geisha. Hatsumomo falsely accuses Chiyo of stealing a brooch, having a boyfriend, ruining a kimono of a famous geisha named Mameha and much more. There is also another girl in the okiya, named Pumpkin. The okiya’s main objective is to take care of the geisha for a few
Through a plethora of odd cinematic choices, it seems that Harakiri serves as a metaphor for the American-Japanese conflict in World War II. The film contains multiple elements that demonstrate this connection quite clearly but others are slightly more tenuous. The critical elements that piece this metaphor together are the original situation leading to the death of Motome Chijiiwa, the final fight between House Iyi and Tsugumo Hanshiro, and the end of Tsugumo Hanshiro in conjunction with the conclusion. The director, Masaki Kobayashi, has also inserted minute elements that give this argument a slightly more solid backbone.
Cinema Journal 48.1 (2008): 27-50. Project MUSE. Web. The Web.
Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke is a development of Japanese animation that can be seen as a romantic fable of two characters that were brought together through one cause; however, Miyazaki’s film can be seen as a Japanese cultural production. It is seen as a cultural production because it shows elements of Shinto through the Kami and the use of water for purification, as well as the female stereotype reversal that was quite dominant in the time of the Heian period. The characters in Princess Mononoke interact with the kami (gods or spirits) when they are in sacred sites or areas that assist in the contact. In Princess Mononoke, the mountain is the place where the characters make contact with the kami, which is their Shinto shrine because
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan’s greatest animation directors. Most of his movies are very successful e.x. “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, “Nausicaa of the Valley of the wind”, “Princess Mononoke” and “Spirited Away”. With a sixty year old career, he managed to earn international recognition, three Academy Award nominations including a win for “Spirited Away”.