Spirited Away - 2001
"Spirited Away is a fairy tale, but I don't want to make it a Western-style one, with lots of easy outs." - Miyazaki, 2001
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When moving to a new home, Chihiro and her parents take a wrong turn down a seemingly ancient road. Upon coming to a strange building, they decide to investigate. Chihiro reluctantly follows them through the tunnel, into a different world beyond. When Chihiro's parents gorge themselves on food that belongs to the spirits, they are transformed into pigs and Chihiro trapped in this strange, demented dimension. She begins work at the bathhouse in the spirit town, contracting herself to the whim of a maniacal witch in an effort to save her parents and herself.
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"The girls a brat, frankly." - Miyazaki, 2001
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Chihiro is a young, ugly girl trapped in a mystical dream of a world. Despite her initial devastation at her predicament, Chihiro (christened Sen by her spirit boss) shows resolve in her quest to save her parents. A number of powerful spirits seem to take interest in (or pity on?) Sen throughout the film, despite her being a painfully boring girl.
Haku is highly regarded by most in the Spirit World, and is the witch Yubaba's right-hand man. When Chihiro is trapped in the forest world, Haku assists her and ensures her a new life working at the bathhouse. This spirit is extremely powerful and has many magical abilities.
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"There are No-Faces all around us." - Miyazaki
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No-Face is a lonesome spirit who is quickly affected by the mindset of the bathhouse workers. He mimics them, and their greed provokes him to begin producing and offering absurd amounts of gold for their services.
Yubaba is the owner of the bathhouse, where spirits come to cleanse themselves. She is both quite rich and quite powerful, and her workers fear her as much as respect her. Yubaba believes humans to be overly greedy, and does not take pity on those who wander into the Spirit World.
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Many spirits work at the bathhouse or seek its services, and Chihiro meets many of these strange and powerful beings in her work. And many even assist her, from river spirits to simple workers.
The browns of Spirited Away capture the classic Japanese architecture of the bathhouse. This simple color allows the absurdity of the film's characters and events shine through, both inside and outside scenes in Yubaba's establishment. There is also a fair amount of travelling and aviation in this film, causing many scenes filled with blue sky and water.
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A certain garden scene stands out, an emerald in the rough, as do many other scenes that do not take place in the capitalistic bathhouse. This makes these locations even more vibrant. Despite the mystifying places and people, Chihiro's predicament is constantly looming over her.
Below is a "smoothed" version, in which the vertical pixels are averaged out.
Miyazaki has stated that he considers Spirited Away to be "the direct descendant of Japanese folktales like Suzume no oyado (Home of the Sparrow) or Nezumi no goten (Mouse Palace)."
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These Japanese fables fall more closely to Western fairy tales than traditional Japanese myths, with obvious morals and typical narrative structure. Miyazaki has also expressed love for other Western fairy tales.
The world of Spirited Away was also inspired by the "festival known as Shimotsuki, where they summon spirits from all over Japan and have them bathe in an ofuro to make them feel better. It's a festival held in the area around Gifu and Shizuoka." Festivalgoers must walk down a long, dimly lit tunnel that, like in Spirited Away, signifies the transition to the spirit world.
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Of the spirits in the film, few were based on pre-existing Japanese mythology. Miyazaki wanted to create ambiguity, because "Japanese spirits originally had no form." Even still, there are clear inspirations from Shintoism. Most notably is the river spirits shown in the film as dragons, consistent with the rest of Japanese mythology.
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Miyazaki also based several of the spirit characters off of classic masks at Shinto Shrines.
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As for the workers at the bathhouse, many are portrayed as "frog-men and slug-women because, in our daily lives, we rather look like frogs and slugs." Despite its fantastical setting and continuation of mythology and fables, Spirited Away is meant to be a reflection of the real world.
