JAPANESE CULTURE, EXPLAINED

Spirited Away: an ordinary girl in an unfamiliar workplace

千と千尋の神隠し

Spirited Away is Studio Ghibli’s 2001 animated film, written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by Toshio Suzuki, with music by Joe Hisaishi. It opened in Japan on 20 July 2001 and runs approximately 125 minutes.

Chihiro, names and change

Chihiro’s predicament

Haku protects Chihiro. © 2001 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, NDDTM

Chihiro in work clothes faces No-Face. © 2001 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, NDDTM

Ten-year-old Chihiro enters a spirit world where her parents become pigs after eating its food. Haku guides her towards work in Yubaba’s bathhouse; Lin teaches her to cope there, and Kamaji tends the furnace.

An ordinary heroine

Mud-covered Chihiro holds a wooden bucket. © 2001 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, NDDTM

Miyazaki wanted girls around ten to recognise themselves in an ordinary heroine facing tasks she could manage. The river-spirit cleaning scene grew out of his experience cleaning a nearby river, where a bicycle buried in mud proved difficult to remove.

Names as a form of control

Yubaba gives Chihiro the name Sen, and Chihiro begins to forget her original name. Miyazaki’s production notes describe taking names as a means of control. Chihiro’s growing ability to cope with the spirit world eventually allows her to return home.

Production and later circulation

Architecture and invention

The bathhouse exterior in Spirited Away. © 2001 Hayao Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli, NDDTM

Ghibli identifies the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum as a major reference for the film’s architecture. The filmmakers combined details from different places with invention to create settings such as the bathhouse.

Making the film

Miyazaki developed the story through storyboards—drawings that plan the scenes—as production proceeded. Joe Hisaishi composed the score, and Yumi Kimura supplied the theme song Itsumo Nando Demo.

An English version and later recognition

Buena Vista’s production notes list a separate English-language adaptation and voice cast. In 2003, Spirited Away won Animated Feature at the Academy Awards ceremony on 23 March.

Check your understanding

How does an architectural reference relate to the film?

Real architecture supplies partial references; places such as the bathhouse remain designed, fictional settings.

What experience informed the river-spirit cleaning scene?

Cleaning a local river and struggling to pull a bicycle from its mud.

Sources and images