Whispers of the Spirit World: Unraveling the Magic of Hayao Miyazaki's “Spirited Away”

In Hayao Miyazaki’s critically-acclaimed film, Spirited Away, he tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a young girl who is moving out to the countryside with her parents. The movie itself is set in 1980s Japan after the bubble economy “popped.” While trying to find their new home, Chihiro’s father ends up taking a wrong turn and drives down a deserted road which leads to an abandoned entrance to an amusement park. Unbeknownst to the family, the tunnel, or gate, that leads into the abandoned amusement park is symbolically the entrance into the spirit, or “spiritual,” world from the material, or “real” world. There are many hints throughout the short drive that connects the two worlds: Mossy, stone statues and abandoned shrines are strewn along the path to which the parents pay no heed. The material and spiritual world fully clash when Chihiro’s parents, while inside the “spirit world,” consume the food prepared for the spirits.  

To sum up the rest of the plot, Chihiro, with the assistance of many different people who she meets along the way (e.g. Haku, Kamajî, Rin, Zeniba), tries to navigate this new world and ultimately free her parents from their cursed forms as pigs. While this story may seem like a captivating coming-of-age story on the surface, Miyazaki’s film has a lot more going on plot wise underneath than initially recognized. Miyazaki takes on the challenge of expressing the loss of cultural identity amongst the Japanese people when discussing the stealing of every worker’s name, the role modernity has had on diminishing the importance of antiquity, and the aftermath of the bubble economy’s failure on Japanese society.  

Setting is extremely important, as the spirit world that Chihiro spends the majority of the film is a fusion of traditional Japanese architecture and Westernized architecture. More specifically, the restaurants within the amusement parks have characteristics of both styles. Likewise, the bathhouse itself is distinctly mixed both inside and out. For example, the baths and certain rooms are Japanese-styled, but Yubaba’s office and baby room are both Western-styled. Zeniba’s house in the middle of the Swamp Forest is also Western-looking. The mixing of Western and Japanese styles is also seen in the character designs. For example, the main “antagonist” of the film, Yubaba, is portrayed as an older “Western” witch along with her older twin sister, Zeniba. Audio wise, the music played throughout the different scenes are mixed with anticipation, somberness, and hopefulness. If you are careful enough, you can clearly hear the emotions of each scene expressed through the music itself.  

One of the most important themes throughout the film is the concept of “identity.” Both Haku and Chihiro are bound by contract using their original names. Without a name, they lose their sense of personal identity and unique personalities. It is stated multiple times by Haku that Chihiro should always keep a reminder of her name. Likewise, Haku himself was described to be a very different person before his name was taken by Yubaba. It is apparent that Miyazaki is trying to express how modernization has affected the entirety of Japanese society. To take one’s name away is to take away their sense of purpose, past, and present. If one does not remember the past, what defines a person? There seems to be a great fear that the whole of Japanese society is forgetting who they were and are due to the movement away from traditions and cultural identifications. Chihiro’s parents are the perfect example of this phenomenon. Not only do they take lightly the importance of ceremony (e.g. offering foods to kami), they also show no reverence towards the shrines or statues that they come across.  

Personally, the most significant character (aside from Chihiro herself) is No Face. No Face is a spirit that was welcomed into the bath house by Chihiro and consumed many of the workers. Evident by his name, No Face literally does not have a face, as he wears a mask. He is characterized by having insatiable greed after consuming the frog. In return for food and offerings, No Face gives the workers “gold.” This gold, however, is artificial which may link to how Japanese society was during the heydays of the bubble economy. What is interesting about this character is his role in the film—He is a spirit without an identity. He roams around thin and transparent and begs Chihiro to stay with him, because he is a lonely creature. Often forgotten, he eats whatever he can and takes the voice and personality of whoever he has eaten. By himself, he is not a threat, since his original form does not have a “purpose” or “identity.”  

On a larger scale, Spirited Away is a fascinating film since it combines a sense of nostalgia with childhood adventures and curiosity with more mature undertones and themes. While Chihiro’s journey is not that unique in comparison to other heroic stories, hers is special in that it is about cooperation and not about individualistic achievement. In every single scene in which she encounters an obstacle, there is always someone or something that helps her clear the trial: For example, Haku saves her from disappearing, Kamajî gives her a job so that she can survive, Rin helps her get accustomed to working, and even certain spirits like No Face and the spirit on the elevator assist her journey. This sense of community is essential since it directly contrasts to America’s individualistic tendency to do everything by oneself. Japan is at its core a community-based society, so it is evident that these themes are overtly displayed.  

Another interesting concept in the film was that there was no true “villain” or evil “antagonist.” Every character, even if they were at one point antagonistic toward Chihiro, were not fundamentally bad. Yubaba, although a calculating businesswoman, did not seek for Chihiro’s suffering or demise and fulfilled her promise to break the contract in accordance with the deal agreed upon by her and Haku. No Face as well was not one-sidedly evil, as he sought to “fill” his loneliness by any means and just so happened to devour a greedy frog. By the end of the film, these characters did not meet a bad end but rather were confronted and held accountable for their actions—No Face by eating the medicine, returning back to his original state, and joining Zeniba as an assistant and Yubaba by being confronted by Haku.  

All in all, Spirited Away is a multi-dimensional film that covers the joys, sorrows, and trials of advancing from adolescence to maturity on top of discussing the state of 1980s Japan in light of the bubble economy bursting and the movement away from antiquity to modernity. One last note to make is that my perceptions of the film has shifted over the course of my life. I grew up as a child watching this film, so the fact that it has taken on a different form as I became an adult is extremely telling of Miyazaki’s ability to infuse multiple different messages into a single storyline.