Spirited Away

Spirited Away (Japanese: 千と千尋の神隠し Hepburn: Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, "Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away") is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film stars Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takeshi Naito, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Takehiko Ono and Bunta Sugawara.

Plot
Chihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside. much to Chihiro'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 dead-ends in front of a tunnel. Her parents decide to stop the car and explore the area. They go through the tunnel and find an abandoned amusement park on the other side, with its own little town. When her parents see a restaurant with 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 they must leave immediately. She runs to the restaurant, only to discover that her parents have turned into pigs. In addition, the theme park turns out to be a town inhabited by demons, spirits, and evil gods. At the center of the town is a bathhouse where these creatures go to relax. The owner of the bathhouse is the evil witch Yubaba, who is intent on keeping all trespassers as captive workers, including Chihiro. Chihiro must rely on Haku to save her parents in hopes of returning to their world.

Why It Has A Kind-Spirit

 * 1) Beautiful and smooth animation and gorgeous background art, as to be expected from most Studio Ghibli films. The visuals are arguably more captivating than the story itself.
 * 2) The voice acting is pretty great, both the Japanese and English dub.
 * 3) Beautiful music composed by Joe Hisaishi consisting of Nighttime Coming,The Dragon Boy, Procession of The Spirits, Day Of The River, The Bottomless Pit The House at Swamp Bottom and Always with Me among others.
 * 4) It has a lot of touching moments like the River Spirit congratulating Chihiro for her work after she pulls the garbage out from inside it and then giving her the herbal cake before flying out joyfully laughing, Zeniba accepting Chihiro's apology on Haku's behalf, and Chihiro telling Haku his true name which causes him to turn back into a boy.
 * 5) This movie has a very serious plot that makes a good job of educating children so that they wouldn't have to be punished as adults.
 * 6) Very creative creatures, which are not creatures nor monsters, but spirits like the River Spirit and No Face.
 * 7) The background animation fits well with the traditional Japanese culture.
 * 8) There are also times where you feel bad for Chihiro, because of all of the stuff she's going through during the film. This is most evidently clear when she breaks down after taking a bite of the rice ball Haku gave her, due to the severity of her situation finally getting to her.
 * 9) Speaking of Chihiro, she undergoes a very strong character arc over the course of the film. She starts the film off as a very sheltered, somewhat whiny child who has had little to no experience in working. But after she becomes trapped in the park and getting a job at the bathhouse, she gets more experience in work and becomes a strong-willed, independent girl.
 * 10) Created many iconic characters, especially No-Face, the lonely and faceless spirit whom Chihiro allowed into the bathhouse during a rainy night, causing him to grow an affinity for her as a result. He soon turns out to be a huge problem for the bathhouse, beginning to emulate the greed of the other workers and obsessing over Chihiro.
 * 11) Unforgettable quotes with more depth than they appear at first glance, like:
 * 12) * "Once You've Met Someone You Never Really Forget Them. It Just Takes A While For Your Memories To Return."
 * 13) * "I've Gotta Get Out Of This Place. Someday I’m Getting On That Train."
 * 14) * "Staying In This Room Is What Will Make You Sick!"
 * 15) * "If You Completely Forget [Your Name] You'll Never Find Your Way Home."
 * 16) * "I Can't Believe You Pulled It Off! You're Such A Dope, I Was Really Worried."
 * 17) * "Something you wouldn't recognize. It’s called love."
 * 18) * "Come On! Quit Eating! Let’s Get Out Of Here!"
 * 19) * "I Finally Get A Bouquet And It's A Goodbye Present. That's Depressing."
 * 20) * "No-Face, if you even put one scratch on that girl, you’re in big trouble."
 * 21) * "If You Make Sen Cry I Won’t Like You Anymore."
 * 22) * "Quit Whining. It's Fun To Move To A New Place, It's An Adventure."
 * 23) * "I Don't Need Any Help, This Place Is Full Of Soot."
 * 24) * "Use it to tie your hair. It’ll protect you. It is made from the threads your friends wove together."
 * 25) * "I Promise I'll Get You Out Of Here, Just Don't Get Any Fatter Or They'll Eat You!"
 * 26) * "You have to hold your breath while you cross the bridge. Even the tiniest breath will break the spell, and then everyone will see you."
 * 27) Chihiro and Haku have such a nice relationship together and some pretty good chemistry. Especially considering how Chihiro was the only one who was able to bring out the warm-hearted and emotional side of Haku, who was introduced and spent the majority of the film as generally stoic and cold.
 * 28) There isn't a true villain in the film. As the characters are designed to reflect real people in modern society. Which only adds to the film's already deep feeling of realism incorporated into the fantasy setting. There's no one who's portrayed as just an outright bad guy.
 * 29) *This is demonstrated by the fact that many of the people Chihiro meets who act cold and hostile towards her at first later grow softer after she proves herself to be a hardworker (i.e.:Lin, Kamaji, No Face, Yubaba). It also demonstartes how respect isn't something that can just be handed on a silver platter, but something that must be earned.
 * 30) It has one of the best scenes in animation history. The train sequence with Chihiro and No-Face. What made it depressing was that, even if it was simply showing Chihiro, No-Face, Boh and the bird traveling to Zeniba's, the music, combined with the events that lead up to it, caused it to come off as melancholic. Chihiro had already traveled so far from everything she's known, and the train ride gives a sense of even greater, growing isolation.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Depending on your point of view, sometimes can be a little boring (but not always).
 * 2) The humor, while not bad, is a hit & miss: the film focuses more on the emotions of the characters than the comedy, resulting in some lines (not all) being quite generic.
 * 3) Some moments can be very scary for underage audiences, such as the scene where the River Spirit's face emerges from the water, as well as the scene where fat No-Face chases Chihiro.

Reception
Spirited Away received universal critical acclaim. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 97% approval rating based on 185 reviews, with an average rating of 8.62/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Spirited Away is a dazzling, enchanting, and gorgeously drawn fairy tale that will leave viewers a little more curious and fascinated by the world around them." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 96 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".It is the highest-rated animated movie on Letterboxd and IMDb. The film is within the top ten on the British Film Institute's list of "Top 50 films for children up to the age of 14". In 2016, it was voted the fourth-best film of the 21st century by the BBC, as picked by 177 film critics from around the world, making it the highest-ranking animated film on the list. In 2017, it was also named the second "Best Film...of the 21st Century So Far" by The New York Times.

Trivia

 * 1) The English dub was created by Disney, and uses the assistance from Pixar founder John Lasseter, who is a good friend of Hayao Miyazaki.
 * 2) There was large theory surrounding the film that the entire movie is a metaphor for prostitution. When confronted with the question about why he made a movie like this in an interview, director Hayao Miyazaki answers the question by saying that he thought the most appropriate way to depict Japanese society was through the sex industry, and he asked the interviewer himself a question on if Japanese society was becoming just like the sex industry. So, unlike the theories surrounding Totoro, this theory has been out right confirmed by the creator himself.
 * 3) Accordingly, it became the most successful and highest-grossing film in Japanese history with a total of ¥31.68 billion ($305 million). It held the record for 19 years until it was surpassed by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train in 2020.
 * 4) It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, making it the first, and to date only, hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win the award. It was also the co-recipient of the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (shared with Bloody Sunday).

Videos
CQJDDoahfR8 0s2Jtuz9SDI zcFyXaLeXko bFcrindTeDs SSOZu8Ls7Qs tP2Zu26fxf8 miz4lmHZS58 BKgHBmcGB-s 0CtO8QOhVzI suVoydO-ssM

Comments
i