Spirited Away
I love this movie so much. Itās the first Studio Ghibli film Iāve ever watched, and it had haunted me until I rewatched it in high school (Yubaba is a scary lady for a three-year-old, donāt judge me).
I think it wasnāt until rewatching it a few more times and hearing snippets of Miyazaki talking about this film that I truly understood the importance of this story. Now, as an adult, I think I understand why it resonates with so many people and has such a strong nostalgia for many. It really is a coming-of-age story, focusing on a girl whoāat the beginningāis shy and nervous and not very sure of herself. She is somewhat forcefully pushed to face demanding tasks head on, which in itself is tough for a young kid to do all on their own. But on top of that, she has to hold onto her name (Chihiro) and her yet-to-be-established identity in order to return to her real life. Her character development into a strong individual who still remains her childish self is awesome and I think very effectively pulls you into the story.
An interesting thing about this movie is how the characters (mainly Chihiro and her family) are motivated. In the āreal world,ā the characterās motivation stems from very mundane reasons, and those reasons are easily identifiable. The family moves to a new place and the parents are eager to explore and learn about the surrounding area, as many parents tend to do. Chihiro herself is apprehensive of new things and unfamiliar places in a way that is very common for children.
But once they enter the train station/clock tower and exit through the other side (a very obvious liminal space) the parents are motivated by some obsessive or unhealthy desire to explore. Their dismissal of social etiquette when they arrive at the only open restaurant is greedy and obnoxious. Meanwhile Chihiro feels uncomfortable by her parentsā behavior and has a strong urge to leave.
I think there are many ways to interpret this situation, but one I like is that children are still transitioning from relying mainly on instinct or vague ideas to making decisions based on what is considered appropriate or logical, a skill often learned from oneās parents. Therefore, in this situation where her parents are acting our of pure gluttony and greed, she feels this strong cognitive dissonance and confusion. I mean in the beginning, we see her mom scolding her for small things constantly, so she knows her mom to be a strict person with clear ideas of appropriateness. She clearly did not think eating food that they hadnāt had permission to eat was a smart decision, so it must have been shocking to see her mom abandon those ideas and pig out.
Yubaba also provides Chihiro with a plethora of arbitrary rules for right and wrong behavior, and seeing Chihiro be self-motivated andāpolitelyābreak those rules to help those she loves is very heartwarming and admirable. Navigating growing up can be very difficult for children, and I think this film does an effective job representing that difficulty.
I had much the same experience with this film growing up, only catching a few minutes of it while it was airing on TV at one point, which was unfortunately the sequence where the parents turn into pigs, and that left me wondering were the hell they ended up for awhile. Thankfully I caught the movie in full only a couple of months later, so I didn't have that hanging over my head for too long.
I think your interpretations here are aptly put, Chihiro's parents are definitely blunt representations of greed and consumerism, right before they pig out the father mouths off about his credit cards and the cash they have, so he feels that he can take as much as he likes with no repercussions. He also drives a European car, and wears a western polo shirt, so I think it's pretty clear that this is all a commentary on Japanese consumerism that stems from the west in particular. Chihiro is a bit more neutral with her fashion in comparison, and adopts a more traditional Japanese aesthetic for a time with the hakama. A lot of things are a bit on the nose like this, but the film retains a lot of style and grace so it doesn't feel as blunt as it actually is in execution. Great stuff!














