Colombo, SRI LANKA – Twenty-five years ago, Studio Ghibli released Spirited Away in Japan. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film tells the story of Chihiro, a 10-year-old girl, who takes a job at a bathhouse for spirits, after her parents are turned into pigs by the house’s owner, the witch Yubaba.
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While at the house, Chihiro befriends spirits like Yubaba’s apprentice Haku, the boiler-man Kamaji and the mysterious No-Face, who help her on her quest to save her parents.
Chihiro’s journey is the film’s main focus and is incredibly compelling. We see her mature from a sullen, spoiled young girl to a mature protagonist by the end.
The film’s story is enhanced by its amazing animation. The fact that the studio drew every frame by hand means that it often looks like a moving painting popping with color. It also adds to the fantastical nature of the bathhouse, which is populated by spirits lifted from traditional Japanese mythology.
The use of traditional animation also means that the movie still looks timeless and arguably on par with most modern anime.
The film’s other technical aspects are equally brilliant.
Joe Hisaishi’s beautiful score manages to be both whimsical and melancholic when needed, reflecting the bittersweet nature of the film’s world.
While cinematography is not often associated with animated films, the camerawork in the movie is excellent. It helps immerse the audience in the spirit world, while also creating iconic scenes, most famously one of Chihiro and No-Face in a train.
But despite the film’s stunning visuals, arguably its biggest strength is Miyazaki’s script, which balances the needs of the story and characters with Miyazaki’s own complex themes and messages.
This is best shown in how Miyazaki subtly criticizes modernity and consumerism in the film. Chihiro’s parents are turned into pigs after they greedily devour the food at the bathhouse, while in one of the film’s best sequences, a river-spirit is shown to be polluted with garbage from humans.
These details, while minor, show how Miyazaki used fantasy to comment on the issues within modern Japan, which remain relevant a quarter-century after its release.
But even if you ignore the subtext, Spirited Away is an extraordinary film, which brings to life a fantastical world using some of the best animation ever put to screen.
Directed by Miyazaki at the peak of his creative genius, it has aged beautifully in the 25 years since its release and rightfully deserves its place as a modern classic of cinema.
Shanish Fernando is a Reporter with Youth Journalism International.
