Spirited Away

Story

On the way to their new house, Chihiro’s family stumble across an apparently abandoned amusement park. While exploring, they stumble into the realm of the Kami, spirits from Japanese folklore. After her parents are transformed into pigs by Yubaba, Chihiro must work in the witch’s bathhouse to save them and escape back to the human world.

Why we chose it

Spirited Away is a strange, touching and beautiful fairy tale and an excellent introduction to Japanese folklore and anime films. Sometimes likened to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, it gently draws viewers into a magical, dreamlike fantasy that can be enjoyed on many levels.

With its lavish hand-drawn animation and evocative score, Spirited Away was hailed as a modern masterpiece and is often cited by other film-makers as an all-time favourite.

Where it came from

After visiting his friend’s ten-year-old daughter, Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki decided to write a film for teenage girls that broke the romance-focused stereotypes of shōjo ‘teen’ manga.

Miyazaki had always considered bathhouses to be places of mystery, and he based the film on one from his hometown. The story was heavily influenced by the solstice rituals of Japanese folklore, when villagers would summon their local ‘kami’ spirits and invite them into their baths.

Where it went next

In 2002, an English-dubbed version was released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film is the highest-grossing film in Japanese history and won multiple awards, including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature in 2003, making it the first hand-drawn and non-English language animation to win an Oscar.

Associated Stories

Miyazaki’s other films with Studio Ghibli include Castle in the Sky and Howl’s Moving Castle.