Spirited Away | |
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Spirited Away film poster |
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Directed by | Hayao Miyazaki |
Produced by | Toshio Suzuki |
Written by | Hayao Miyazaki |
Starring | Rumi Hiiragi Miyu Irino Mari Natsuki Takashi Naitō Yasuko Sawaguchi (Japan) Daveigh Chase Jason Marsden Michael Chiklis Lauren Holly Suzanne Pleshette David Ogden Stiers Susan Egan Bob Bergen Tara Strong (USA) |
Music by | Joe Hisaishi |
Cinematography | Atsushi Okui |
Editing by | Takeshi Seyama |
Distributed by | Toho (Japan) Studio Ghibli (Japan) Walt Disney Pictures (USA) United International Pictures (South Africa) Europa Filmes (Brazil) Optimum Releasing (UK) |
Release date(s) | Japan: July 27 2001 United States: September 20 2002 Canada: November 6 2002 Australia: December 12, 2002 United Kingdom: September 12 2003 |
Running time | 124 min. |
Language | Japanese and English |
Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi?, lit. Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away) is a 2001 film by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki.
The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award, and the only winner of that award to be traditionally animated or win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees). The film also won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday).
Spirited Away overtook Titanic to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history.
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Chihiro and her parents are moving to a new town. Whilst driving, her father gets lost, stumbling across what appears to be an abandoned theme park. The family explores the park, finding the stalls are full of freshly-cooked food, and Chihiro's parents begin to partake of the food. Chihiro refuses to join them and so, instead, she wanders off on her own and encounters a boy named Haku. Haku seems to be familiar with Chihiro and warns her urgently to escape with her parents; she returns to find her parents have turned to pigs and that the way back has become a deep river. Spirits begin to appear and go about celebrating in the park. Haku secretly takes Chihiro to a large bathhouse, careful to avoid alerting the spirits to the presence of a human. Haku then tells her that she must get a job from the witch Yubaba, the owner of the park's bathhouse, until he can help her recover her parents and escape.
With the help of the boiler room master Kamajii and a bathhouse servant girl Lin, Chihiro is able to convince Yubaba to give her a job; in exchange, Chihiro is forced to give up her name so that Yubaba may keep her in her service forever and is subsequently given the name "Sen". Chihiro eventually learns that Haku is similarly indebted to Yubaba. Chihiro is put to work alongside Lin, helping to bathe and serve the most difficult spirits in the bathhouse. Chihiro is able to successfully bathe a "stink spirit", in fact revealed to be a river spirit who awards Chihiro with an emetic. Later, Chihiro discovers Haku's true form, a dragon, as he is attacked by paper birds controlled by Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister. Haku had stolen Zeniba's sigil under orders from Yubaba. Chihiro tries to help Haku recover with the emetic, recovering Zeniba's sigil, but Haku remains comatose and Chihiro decides to travel to Zeniba's home to return the sigil, hoping to break her curse. Chihiro sets out on a lonely train ride across the spirit world - along with a wraith-like spirit called No Face who terrorized the bathhouse and tried to earn the affection of Chihiro, and Boh, Yubaba's gigantic infant son that Zeniba has transformed into a mouse.
The group arrives at Zeniba's house to find that Zeniba is friendlier than expected, and that the curse on Haku was placed on him by Yubaba, but Chihiro's love and caring has broken the seal. Zeniba makes Chihiro a special hairband in thanks for returning the sigil, and No Face is offered to stay at Zeniba's home as her assistant. Haku, now recovered, shows up to return Chihiro to the bathhouse, explaining that Yubaba will return Chihiro's parents to normal and allow all three of them to leave in exchange for returning Boh. As they travel on Haku's dragon form, Chihiro realizes that Haku is the same river spirit that saved her as a child when she fell into the Kohaku River, and the realization helps to completely break Yubaba's control on Haku. At the bathhouse, Yubaba reveals that Chihiro must pass one more task as part of Haku's deal: to identify which pigs out of several are her parents. Chihiro passes the test and Yubaba is forced to let her and her family go. Haku escorts her to the entrance of the spirit world, telling her that her parents are waiting on the other side, but to not look back or else the deal will be broken. Chihiro rejoins her parents, not once looking back; the family loses any memory of their time in the spirit world and return to their car to continue to their new home. Zeniba's hairband is still in Chihiro's hair.
Miyazaki characters have negative and positive traits in different situations.
Some suggest that the film is an allegory on the progression from childhood to maturity, and the risk of losing one's nature in the process. The theme of a character being lost inside a (fictional/different) world if he/she forgets his/her real name is a common folk theme. True names having magic power are a staple of folks tales such as Rumplestilskin. Similarly, Chihiro and Haku stay under Yubaba's control forever if they forget their real names and consequently their real identities.
The main character is a sullen, spoiled, and very modern Japanese ten-year-old being forced to grow up when faced with more traditional Japanese culture and manners. Miyazaki himself has said that there is an element of nostalgia for an older Japan in this film and several of his others.[1]
Miyazaki also included a theme advocating the prevention of greed: those swallowed by No Face were attempting to receive the gold he made. Similarly, in a monomyth format, Yubaba's rich accommodations and interest in gold dominate the "road of trials" portions of the film, while Zeniba's rustic home and grandmotherly demeanor arguably mark Chihiro's gain of the "boon" in her quest. Also, Chihiro's parents' grotesque transformation after consuming too much food not meant for them is another representation of human greed,[1] and may also be a reference to The Odyssey.
Environmental awareness is a theme explored by Roger Ebert.[2] The most obvious examples of this are the river spirit's dramatic and beautiful transformation once he has been freed from the material dumped in him by humans, and Haku's discovery that the reason he cannot go home is that the River Kohaku, whose spirit he was, had been filled in by apartment buildings. This environmental awareness is present in several of Miyazaki's works, such as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke.
Hayao Miyazaki came out of retirement to make this film after meeting the daughter of a friend, on whom the main character is based. Chihiro's father, Akio, was based on the real-life father of the girl Chihiro is based on. Miyazaki said the real-life father is similar to Akio in the habits of always getting lost while driving and eating too fast. Chihiro's mother (Yuuko) is based on a friend of Miyazaki's; an idiosyncratic hand-gesture of Miyazaki's friend is copied when Yuuko is eating in Spirited Away. Chihiro's best friend's name is Rumi (the one who gave her the flowers), which is the name of Chihiro's voice actor.
Spirited Away was released in Japan in July 2001, drawing an audience of around 23 million and revenues of ¥30 billion (approx. US$250 million), to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history (surpassing the film Princess Mononoke for highest grossing animated motion pictures). It was the first movie to have earned $200 million at the worldwide box office before opening in the United States.[3] By 2002, a sixth of the Japanese population had seen it.
The film was dubbed into English by Walt Disney Pictures, under the supervision of Pixar's John Lasseter. It was subsequently released in the United States on September 20 2002 and had made slightly over $10 million by September 2003.[4]
The film was released in North America by Disney's Buena Vista Distribution arm on DVD format on April 15 2003 where the attention brought by the Oscar win made the title a strong seller.[5] Spirited Away is often marketed, sold and associated with other Miyazaki movies such as Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
The North American English-dubbed version was released on DVD in the UK on March 29, 2004. In 2005 it was re released by Optimum Releasing with a more accurate subtitle track and additional bonus features.
The back of the Region 1 DVD from Disney and the Region 4 DVD from Madman states that the aspect ratio is the original ratio of 2.00:1. This is incorrect; the ratio is actually 1.85:1 but has been windowboxed to 2.00:1 to compensate for the overscan on most television sets. There is much dispute over the validity of this practice, as many displays are capable of showing the entire picture, and as a result the DVD picture has a noticeable border around it.
All Asian releases of the DVD (including Japan and Hong Kong) have a noticeably accentuated amount of red in their picture transfer. This is another case of compensating for home theatre displays, this time supposedly for LCD television which, it was claimed, had a diminished red colour in its display. Releases in other DVD regions such as the U.S., Europe and Australia use a picture transfer where this "red tint" has been significantly reduced.
The U.S. television premiere of this film was on Turner Classic Movies in early 2006, closely followed by its Cartoon Network premiere on the channel's "Fridays" block on February 3, 2006. On March 18, Cartoon Network's Toonami began a "Month of Miyazaki" that featured four movies directed by Hayao Miyazaki, with Spirited Away being the first of four. Cartoon Network showed the movie three times more: once on Christmas 2006, for Toonami's "New Year's Eve Eve" on December 30, and on March 31, 2007. It was also shown again on Turner Classic Movies on June 3, 2007.
The first European television showing of the film (both the subtitled Japanese and dubbed English versions) was in the UK on December 29 2004 on Sky Cinema 1,[6] and it has since been repeated several times. The first UK terrestrial showing of this film (dubbed into English) was on BBC2 on December 30, 2006. The Japanese subtitled version was first shown on BBC4 on the 26th January 2008.
The Canadian television premiere of the film was on CBC Television on September 30th, 2007.[1] In order to fit the film into a two hour time slot with commercials, extensive time cuts were made during this airing.
Australian television audiences premiered Spirited Away on March 24, on its SBS channel.[7] The movie had been heavily marketed previously, and was featured in the Australian TV Guide;[7] no edits were made during viewing.
Some changes were made to the film by John Lasseter and the other writers of the English dub.
Changes include:
Miyazaki himself has stated that Chihiro, at the end of the film, does not remember what happened to her in the spirit world, but that her adventures were also not a dream. To show the audience that something did happen, he gave several hints, such as dust and leaves on the car. Chihiro's hairband, given to her by Zeniba, glittering by the sunlight was also one of the hints.[8] The English dub adds a line indicating that Chihiro has come away from her adventure a better person.
Based on 146 reviews at Rotten Tomatoes,[9] it ranks as the eighth-best animation film, having a 97% rating on the site.[10] The film occupies the rank of #59 on the IMDB Top 250 Movies list as of November 2008.[11]
The closing song, "Always With Me" (いつも何度でも Itsumo Nandodemo?, literally, "Always, No Matter How Many Times") was written and performed by Yumi Kimura, a composer and lyre-player from Osaka. The lyrics were written by Kimura's friend Wakako Kaku. The song was intended to be used for a different Miyazaki film which was never released, Rin the Chimney Painter (煙突描きのリン Entotsu-kaki no Rin?). In the special features of the DVD, Hayao Miyazaki explains how the song in fact inspired him to create Spirited Away.
The other 20 tracks on the original soundtrack were composed by Joe Hisaishi. His "The River of That Day" (あの日の川 Ano hi no Kawa?) received the 56th Mainichi Film Competition Award for Best Music, the Tokyo International Anime Fair 2001 Best Music Award in the Theater Movie category, and the 16th Japan Gold Disk Award for Animation Album of the Year. Later, Hisaishi added lyrics to "Ano hi no Kawa" and named the new version "The Name of Life" (いのちの名前 "Inochi no Namae"?) which was performed by Ayaka Hirahara.
Beside the Original Soundtrack, there is also an Image Album, which contains 10 tracks.
Track | Author | Duration | |
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1 | One Summer's Day (あの夏へ Ano Natsu e?) | Joe Hisaishi (久石譲?) | 3:09 |
2 | Road To Somewhere (とおり道 Toori Michi?) | 2:07 | |
3 | Empty Restaurant (誰もいない料理店 Dare mo Inai Ryouriten?) | 3:15 | |
4 | Nighttime Coming (夜来る Yoru kuru?) | 2:00 | |
5 | Dragon Boy (竜の少年 Ryuu no Shounen?) | 2:12 | |
6 | Sootballs (ボイラー虫 Boiraa Mushi?) | 2:33 | |
7 | Procession Of The Spirits (神さま達 Kami-samatachi?) | 3:00 | |
8 | Yubaba (湯婆婆?) | 3:30 | |
9 | Bathhouse Morning (湯屋の朝 Yuya no Asa?) | 2:02 | |
10 | Day Of The River (あの日の川 Ano Hi no Kawa?) | 3:13 | |
11 | It's Hard Work (仕事はつらいぜ Shigoto wa Tsuraize?) | 2:26 | |
12 | Stink Spirit (おクサレ神 Okusare kami?) | 4:01 | |
13 | Sen's Courage (千の勇気 Sen no Yuuki?) | 2:45 | |
14 | Bottomless Pit (底なし穴 Sokonashi ana?) | 1:18 | |
15 | No Face (カオナシ Kaonashi?) | 3:47 | |
16 | Sixth Station (6番目の駅 Roku-banme no Eki?) | 3:38 | |
17 | Yubaba's Panic (湯婆婆狂乱 Yubaba Kyouran?) | 1:38 | |
18 | House At Swamp Bottom (沼の底の家 Numa no Soko no Ie?) | 1:29 | |
19 | Reprise (ふたたび Futatabi?) | 4:53 | |
20 | The Return Day (帰る日 Kaeru Hi?) | 3:20 | |
21 | Always With Me (いつも何度でも Itsu mo Nando demo?) | Yumi Kimura (木村弓?) | 3:35 |
Character | Japanese version | English version |
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Chihiro Ogino/Sen | Rumi Hiiragi | Daveigh Chase |
Haku | Miyu Irino | Jason Marsden |
Yubaba/Zeniba | Mari Natsuki | Suzanne Pleshette |
Kamajii | Bunta Sugawara | David Ogden Stiers |
No-Face | Akio Nakamura | Bob Bergen |
Lin | Yūmi Tamai | Susan Egan |
Bō | Ryūnosuke Kamiki | Tara Strong |
Akio Ogino | Takashi Naitō | Michael Chiklis |
Yuko Ogino | Yasuko Sawaguchi | Lauren Holly |
Chichi-yaku | Tsunehiko Kamijō | |
Ani-yaku | Takehiko Ono | |
Ao-gaeru | Tatsuya Gashūin | John Ratzenberger |
Bandai-gaeru | Yō Ōizumi | Bob Bergen |
River God | Koba Hayashi | |
Additional voices | Shirō Saitō Michiko Yamamoto Keiko Tsukamoto Akio Nakamura Kaori Yamagata Ikuko Yamamoto Noriko Kitō Ken Yasuda Shigeyuki Totsugi Mayumi Sako Rina Yamada Makiko Oku |
Jack Angel Rodger Bumpass Jennifer Darling Paul Eiding Sherry Lynn Mona Marshall Mickie McGowan Candi Milo Colleen O'Shaughnessey Philip Proctor Jim Ward |
Awards and achievements | ||
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Preceded by Intimacy |
Golden Bear winner 2002 tied with Bloody Sunday |
Succeeded by In This World |
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