Trailer
Genres
Genres: Adventure, Supernatural, Action, Mystery, Comedy, Romance, Family
Summary
Chihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside, much to Chihirou’s dismay. On the way to their new home, Chihiro's father makes a wrong turn and drives down a lonely one-lane road which ends in front of a strange tunnel. Together they go through the tunnel and find a supposed “abandoned theme park” on the other side. When her parents see a restaurant with unusual, yet great-smelling food but no staff, they decide to eat and pay later. However, Chihiro refuses to eat and decides to explore the theme park a bit more. She meets a boy named Haku who tells her that Chihiro and her parents are in danger, and that they must leave immediately. When she runs to the restaurant, she finds out that her parents have literally turned into pigs. Absolutely terrified, Chihirou sets out to find her human parents, in disbelief that her parents had literally turned into pigs. In addition, the theme park turns out to be a town inhabited by demons, spirits, and evil gods known as the “Spirit World”. Quivering with fear, Chihiro convinces herself that she’s having a bad dream however, at the center of the town is a bathhouse where the spirits go to relax and replenish themselves. The owner of the bathhouse is an evil witch known as Yubaba, who is intent on keeping all trespassers as captive workers, including Chihiro. To survive in this world, Chihiro gets a job at the bathhouse, but when Chihiro‘s name gets taken away from her, she looses hope of returning home. Chihiro must rely on Haku, and overcome obstacles of her own obstacles in order to save her parents in hopes of returning to the human world.
Theories for Thought
- I always wondered why Kamaji told Chihiro that the train used to go two ways, yet it only goes one way now. He could have just told her that it goes one way, right? Does this mean that the train symbolises going to the afterlife, and that our lack of belief has caused it to become a one way trip?
- Before Chihiro returns to the human world with her parents she is told by Haku not to look back. Why is this?
- When Chihiro returns to the human world with her parents, the surroundings of the tunnel is very aged and does not look like it did when they first went into the tunnel to the Spirit World. For example, when they went into the tunnel at the beginning of the movie, the bricks were bright red and the grass was short, however, when they exited the tunnel from the Spirit World at the end of the movie the bricks were browning and aged, and the grass was long, weeds had grown, and even moss had formed on the strange spirit statue. Were they in a time lapse, different dimension, did several years go by, or was this all a dream? This is truly a mystery!
Music
Throughout the film Spirited Away, "One Summer's Day" composed by Joe Hisaishi plays. This peice is absolutely beautiful and I even have it downloaded onto my phone. I would highly recommend listening to it; here's the link below!
Note: Spirited Away was made by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli