Spirited Away
Is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy-adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film tells the story of Chihiro Ogino, a sullen ten-year-old girl who, while moving to a new neighborhood, becomes trapped in an alternate reality that is inhabited by spirits and monsters. After her parents are transformed into pigs by the witch Yubaba, Chihiro takes a job working in Yubaba's bathhouse to find a way to free herself and her parents and escape back to the human world.
When released, Spirited Away became the most successful film in Japanese history, grossing over $274 million worldwide, and receiving critical acclaim. The film overtook Titanic (at the time the top grossing film worldwide) in the Japanese box office to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history. It won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards, the Golden Bear at
the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday) and is among the top ten in the BFI list of the 50 films you should see by the age of 14. In 2005, Spirited Away was voted the 8th greatest cartoon in Channel 4's 100 Greatest Cartoons poll behind The Simpsons, Tom and Jerry, South Park, Toy Story, Family Guy, Shrek and The Lion King.
Plot of the Story
Chihiro Ogino, a 10-year-old girl, moves with her parents to a new town when they become lost and find what appears to be an abandoned amusement park. Chihiro's father insists on exploring it, and she and her mother reluctantly accompany him. Chihiro's parents sample the food at an unattended stall. After Chihiro wanders off and finds a grand bathhouse, a boy approaches and warns her to leave before nightfall. When Chihiro runs back to her parents, she finds they have been transformed into pigs, and the park starts to swarm with monsters.
She eventually learns from Haku, the boy she had met earlier, that her family has become trapped in the spirit world. He also reveals that he had known her since she was a child. Haku brings Chihiro to the bathhouse where he tells her to see Kamaji, a six-armed man who works the boiler room, to ask for a job. Rejecting Chihiro's request, Kamaji entrusts her to Lin, a bathhouse worker. Lin takes her to see Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse. Denying Chihiro's request to work, Yubaba eventually allows her to work on the condition that her name is changed to Sen , the first character of Chihiro's name. Having been told from Haku that Yubaba controls her servants by taking their names, Chihiro is warned that if she forgets her real name, she will be trapped in the world forever.
While working as Lin's assistant, Sen allows a mysterious masked spirit to enter. Later, a "stink spirit" enters the bathhouse. Sen eventually cleans the stink spirit, revealing himself to be a spirit of a polluted river. In return for restoring his health, the river spirit bestows upon Sen an emetic dumpling.
Sen eventually realizes Haku is actually a dragon. Having been seriously injured his dragon form by a shikigami, Yubaba orders her servants to kill Haku, but is eventually rescued by Sen. The shikigami reveals herself to be Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister. Zeniba informs Sen that Haku stole her gold seal on Yubaba's orders and transforms Boh, Yubaba's large baby son, into a mouse and her bird into a smaller bird, demanding the gold seal to be given back. Haku and Sen flee and fall into the boiler room again, where she feeds him part of the dumpling. Haku coughs up the gold seal and a black slug, which Sen crushes with her foot. Kamaji gives Sen train tickets to visit Zeniba and to beg her to lift the curse on the seal. Boh, in his mouse form, and the bird accompany her.
Meanwhile, the masked spirit Sen allowed into the bathhouse reveals himself as a monster called "No Face." No Face, who swallows one of the servants in order to speak, offers gold to the staff in exchange for large quantities of food. No Face continues to eat, causing it to grow to immense size, eventually swallowing several other employees. Later, Sen feeds No Face the remainder of the dumpling, causing him to regurgitate everything and everyone out. Restored to his prior inoffensive form, No Face also accompanies Sen to Zeniba's house.
Haku regains consciousness and learns that Sen has gone to see Zeniba. Yubaba, enraged by both the damage caused by No Face and Sen's departure, orders Sen's parents to be killed. Haku appears and warns Yubaba that something precious to her has been replaced, and she realizes that Boh has disappeared. Telling her that Boh is with Zeniba, Haku proposes should he return Boh, Yubaba will allow Sen and her parents to return the human world. However, Yubaba also insists that Sen has to take one final test.
Sen, Boh, and No Face arrive at Zeniba's house and find Zeniba to be friendly. Zeniba says Sen's love broke the seal's spell, and the slug Sen killed was the curse Yubaba had used to enslave Haku. Haku appears in his dragon form to pick up Sen and Boh, while No Face remains with Zeniba. Realizing that Sen once fell into the Kohaku River as a child, she guesses Haku is the spirit of the river who saved her, freeing Haku from Yubaba's spell.
Haku returns Boh to Yubaba, and Sen, now called Chihiro, is offered a final test to guess her parents from a group of pigs. She correctly answers that none of them are her parents. Haku leads her towards the entrance of the park and promises they will see each other again. Chihiro reunites with her parents, who do not recall their experiences, and the family depart from the park.
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