Spirited Away

Released 20th July 2001, Spirited Away follows Chinhiro as she journeys into the world of Kami (the spirit world of Shinto beliefs). From a thematic standpoint, this film is a pure masterpiece; it divulges in adjusting to a new setting, romantic awakening, courage, friendship, life experiences and so many more. The narrative itself, while possibly jarring to western audiences, is easy enough to follow and does not shy away from it’s culture and subsequent aspects. This film also decides on a serious tone in telling its story; despite the youth of Chinhiro (she is 10 years old), every experience is shown to have an emotional impact on her and the film takes time to show her taking in the world around her.

Chinhiro herself is a brilliant character with Rumi Hiragi giving a brilliant vocal performance that appropriately evolves across the narrative and her journeys; she starts off extremely whiny and erratic in pitch to then develop into a more controlled and less pitchy voice in the denouement of the film. Miyu Irino also does a good job as Haku; a boy who is himself a river spirit and also Chinhiro’s only consistent aid through her journey. Yubaba and Zeniba are also fascinating characters (voiced by Mari Natsuki) who play off of each other like a Yin Yang; whereas Zeniba acts as a reasonable individual with a spark of anger within her, Yubaba is very antagonistic while retaining humanity. Other than these two the only other major characters are Akio Nakamura and Yoomi Tamai’s No-Face and Lin; their vocal performances are good enough with Lin serving a narrative purpose, however, No-Face is a truly brilliant character.

What makes No-face special is that he is helpful towards Chinhiro and tries to repay her for a good deed despite doing wrong in the process; he simply wants company and desperately grasps for any chance to be with Chinhiro. As usual for Studio Ghibli, the animation is breath-taking with every shot being something you would want to frame and put on a wall. Each spirit is also given a unique yet clearly Japanese design which fits its world beautifully. As for the soundtrack, Joe Hisaishi provides a gentle yet emotive soundtrack which is perfectly applied to every single scene and being a strong crutch to carry the aforementioned moments of silence. Spirited Away is a transcendent film which everyone is guaranteed to gain something from, if not also alienated by something either.