One of Miyazaki Hayao's masterpieces, Spirited Away is a title everyone who loves Studio Ghibli should know. I know that this is a film, but it is an anime overall, so I'm going to be rewatching all the ones I have access to. This is unfortunately not one of the one that has a manga series accompanying it, like Nausicaa does. This Miyazaki film is a coming of age featuring Chihiro, a young 10 year old girl, who's family is moving to a different town. While this happens she somehow gets involved with the Spirit World. I know that most people have watched the film before but I will still put a spoiler warning just in case.
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
So the movie starts with the family, Chihiro and her parents, driving towards their new home. Chihiro is upset because she didn't want to move and leave her friends behind, what 10 year old would? She had received a bouquet of farewell flowers and a little farewell card from her friends. She holds onto it throughout the ride while she pouts.
Her father makes a wrong turn to get to the new house but then finds a road that he thinks is a shortcut. Obviously, he gets them all lost. They end up in front of a mysterious tunnel, which Chihiro and her mom don't wanna check out but her dad goes ahead anyways and so her mom and her end up following along. Once on the other side, her dad says that the place must have been an amusement park that was built when they were really popular but because of the economy most of the parks went out of business. He continues with the fact that the one they were at most likely never got the chance to be opened to the public.
Like a child, her dad wants to go exploring the park. As they pass over what would have been the river, her dad smells food and they follow him and his nose. They find a load of delicious fresh food and the parents start digging in, not giving a care in the world, planning on paying later when the owner of the booth came back. Chihiro rejects the invitation to eat, knowing it's wrong to do so without permission, so she goes off exploring on her own, coming across a giant building across a bridge. While looking over the side of the bridge, a boy comes out of the building, taking notice of her, he runs towards her and warns her to get on the other side of the river while he holds them off.
Chihiro is startled and goes off in a sprint, looking for her parents while the day gets dark and all the shops start to light up and open. Strange black transparent blobs appear to man the shops as she whizzes right by them. Instead of her parents, she finds two pigs in their place, she is horrified and runs around screaming for her parents, not believing them to be her parents, soon arriving at the river which is now filled with water.
Chihiro panics and sees that her body is now transparent itself and that she is fading. Haku, the boy from before, finds her and helps her regain her solidity by having her eat something. He informs her that her parents really did turn into pigs and that he wants to help her...
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
I'm going to leave that off there, I don't want to give the whole movie away. Chihiro grows up in this movie, she conquers her fears that she had experienced when she first arrived and learns to appreciate everything and to not take things for granted because before you know it, it will be gone, like how when her parents had turned into pigs and she didn't have anyone else to rely on. She had to learn how to work in the bath house to sustain herself and survive living with all the spirits that want to eat her. Chihiro truly had grown from beginning to end.
It really is worth a watch if you've never seen it before, but most people have seen this one in particular due to the fact that it aired on Cartoon Network a lot several years ago. I love this film, I love all Miyazaki Hayao films, they are fantastical and wonderful. So full of life and color, the worlds created make you want to go and experience everything for yourself. I'm going to tell you all this, not really a spoiler as it is common knowledge, but all of Miyazaki's films have a happy ending for the most part.
As with most Studio Ghibli movies, I want a sequel, to see what happens after the end and to expand the world, exploring more parts of it, but Miyazaki doesn't make sequels. Unfortunate as it is, the endings given are still satisfying so I do think it best to leave the films as is, without sequels.
Thank you so much for reading! I know most of you have seen this movie so I do appreciate you reading this post concerning the film. The question I would love you guys to answer this time is: what is your favourite Miyazaki film? I love this but it's not my favourite Miyazaki movie. Comment your answers below! I'll see you all next week!
(SPOILER WARNING! START)
So the movie starts with the family, Chihiro and her parents, driving towards their new home. Chihiro is upset because she didn't want to move and leave her friends behind, what 10 year old would? She had received a bouquet of farewell flowers and a little farewell card from her friends. She holds onto it throughout the ride while she pouts.
Her father makes a wrong turn to get to the new house but then finds a road that he thinks is a shortcut. Obviously, he gets them all lost. They end up in front of a mysterious tunnel, which Chihiro and her mom don't wanna check out but her dad goes ahead anyways and so her mom and her end up following along. Once on the other side, her dad says that the place must have been an amusement park that was built when they were really popular but because of the economy most of the parks went out of business. He continues with the fact that the one they were at most likely never got the chance to be opened to the public.
Like a child, her dad wants to go exploring the park. As they pass over what would have been the river, her dad smells food and they follow him and his nose. They find a load of delicious fresh food and the parents start digging in, not giving a care in the world, planning on paying later when the owner of the booth came back. Chihiro rejects the invitation to eat, knowing it's wrong to do so without permission, so she goes off exploring on her own, coming across a giant building across a bridge. While looking over the side of the bridge, a boy comes out of the building, taking notice of her, he runs towards her and warns her to get on the other side of the river while he holds them off.
Chihiro is startled and goes off in a sprint, looking for her parents while the day gets dark and all the shops start to light up and open. Strange black transparent blobs appear to man the shops as she whizzes right by them. Instead of her parents, she finds two pigs in their place, she is horrified and runs around screaming for her parents, not believing them to be her parents, soon arriving at the river which is now filled with water. Chihiro panics and sees that her body is now transparent itself and that she is fading. Haku, the boy from before, finds her and helps her regain her solidity by having her eat something. He informs her that her parents really did turn into pigs and that he wants to help her...
(SPOILER WARNING! END)
I'm going to leave that off there, I don't want to give the whole movie away. Chihiro grows up in this movie, she conquers her fears that she had experienced when she first arrived and learns to appreciate everything and to not take things for granted because before you know it, it will be gone, like how when her parents had turned into pigs and she didn't have anyone else to rely on. She had to learn how to work in the bath house to sustain herself and survive living with all the spirits that want to eat her. Chihiro truly had grown from beginning to end.
It really is worth a watch if you've never seen it before, but most people have seen this one in particular due to the fact that it aired on Cartoon Network a lot several years ago. I love this film, I love all Miyazaki Hayao films, they are fantastical and wonderful. So full of life and color, the worlds created make you want to go and experience everything for yourself. I'm going to tell you all this, not really a spoiler as it is common knowledge, but all of Miyazaki's films have a happy ending for the most part.
As with most Studio Ghibli movies, I want a sequel, to see what happens after the end and to expand the world, exploring more parts of it, but Miyazaki doesn't make sequels. Unfortunate as it is, the endings given are still satisfying so I do think it best to leave the films as is, without sequels.
Thank you so much for reading! I know most of you have seen this movie so I do appreciate you reading this post concerning the film. The question I would love you guys to answer this time is: what is your favourite Miyazaki film? I love this but it's not my favourite Miyazaki movie. Comment your answers below! I'll see you all next week!
Also on a side note, I wanted to share with you all that this blog has been added to the Top 50 Anime Blogs list on Feedspot! CME Reviews is actually added as number 63, but it's great that it has been featured on it! Thank you Feedspot for the feature! Hopefully there will be more foot traffic here in the coming weeks!
https://blog.feedspot.com/anime_blogs/
https://blog.feedspot.com/anime_blogs/
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