It's not a Miyazaki film if there isn't allusions to capitalism, destruction of the environment, identity, growth, and change. And we love him for it immensely.
It's easy to think of movies like Spirited Away as nothing more than a kid's movie, but time and again powerful messages are hidden within Miyazaki's work, really making you question why animated media gets so trivialized.
I'm a Ghibli dork, I love it. While Spirited Away isn't even in my top 3 (tbh not even my top 5. I only really like the sprites and No Face...) of their movies, it's still such an important film that touches on a lot of incredible emotions. The fear of change that Chiihiro feels at the beginning is spot on to what a young child who has been uprooted is likely to feel. She's in an unknown place with unknown surroundings, it's not a surprise she freaks out the way she does. The most major aspect of this film is how a child deals with their fears--their fear of being separated from her parents, of growing up, of change, of figuring out who they are. Because identity is massive in this film. I mean, hello, there's a whole ass character named No Face. Yubaba literally steals aspects of their names, and it's Chiihiro's growth that allows her to take back her (and Haku's) identities and reclaim them. She gains confidence and autonomy by doing this. This, I feel, everyone can see in this film. It's pretty heavy handed.
Capitalism is throughout pretty much every Miyazaki film (as far as I've noticed) and this movie has it in abundance. I mean, they work in bathhouse, slaving away to the point they no longer have an identity. She has to beg for work to survive. The physical laborer's are literally hidden well beneath the lavish building they slave over. Also, hello, literal child labor? Even the clothes separate the working class from the elite--Yubaba is always lush and extravagant (while also being very ugly, a staple for Ghibli antagonists). The uniformity Chiihiro has to change into and hide her real clothes. The boiler rooms????? Hello????????? It puts a spot light on western industrialization and how dehumanizing and terrible it is. The mix of both Japanese and distinctly western influences just shows how they feel about the ever-expanding western capitalism influences into Japanese society--spoiling it and rotting it from the inside.
There is so much emphasis on over-consumption in this from the parents literally obsessively eating food they happen upon to No Face spouting their gold everywhere, the literal polluted river. The coal the sprites lug to keep the bathhouse going. The forever-baby indulging in their mom's attention and wealth with no thought to growing up or making an effort to be independent. Yubaba herself. There's so much of it.
Miyazaki is one that no one questions the greatness of, and for good reason. Dude is gifted. We still should've watched Howl's Moving Castle instead (but I know you like anti-capitalism, prof. Howls' has that too!!!!)
Recommendation: read the Howl's Moving Castle book series (trilogy?) it's very good.
Thank you for mentioning how this movie reflects on child labor! This is also a little crazy, but I feel like this movie kind of also reflects on the human trafficking of children. Like, her parents were put under a curse, and the only way she is able to free them from the spell is to perform essentially forced labor. I know she literally begs for work, but it's because she has no choice.
















