Spirited Away is a Japanese anime fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli in 2001. When I first watched this movie, I didn't understand why the movie gained so much fame. A girl gets whisked away to a fantasy world? We've seen and heard that story before. Unlike many other movies, there is no dramatic love story, epic battles nor intense action scenes to keep you at the edge of your seat. However, after seeing this movie three more times, I have realized that Spirited Away isn't meant to be something grand. Instead, it has a quiet, subdued way of conveying a simple story about a normal girl's peculiar plight in a bizarre world.

This beautifully-animated movie follows the tale of Chihiro, a young girl who is moving with her parents to another city. On the bumpy drive to her new home, Chihiro and her family stumble upon an abandoned amusement park. Upon smelling delicious food in an empty kiosk, Chihiro's mother and father help themselves to some tasty purloined morsels, causing them to transform into giant pigs. Chihiro, in her attempt to flee, learns that this amusement park is really a bath house where numerous gods and other mystical beings dwell after their completing their exhausting duties in the human world. Soon after befriending a boy named Haku, Chihiro learns the rules of the land: first, she must work as laziness could lead to her death; and second, she must take on the new name of Sen. Unfortunately, if she forgets her true name, she will never be able to leave the bath house.

The plot of the movie is pretty basic as the target audience is relatively young, and the story entirely revolves around Chihiro's attempt to survive in this strange world and rescue her parents. My biggest issue with the film was the plot because it felt like the movie was throwing characters and situations at us that are only tangentially connected to each other and to the main goal of saving her parents. For example, Haku's theft of Zeniba's seal was left unexplained, hurriedly concluded and unrelated to the salvation of Chihiro's parents. However, while the plot itself is not particularly unique nor flawless, the characters, the animation and the artwork are definitely exceptional. Throughout the movie, the audience is guided by the trembling, uncertain hands of 10-year-old Chihiro as she paves her way through a world which is as mystifying to her innocent eyes as it is to ours. She is an audacious but still authentically childish character as she faces a wild horde of frog-men, river dragons, nameless ooze-beasts, radish giants, and, most importantly, the sorceress Yubaba, a huge-headed, bejeweled old woman who steals names and memories. Whereas character development is often neglected in movies due to their relatively brief duration, I couldn't help but resonate with the delicate heart of our protagonist as I followed her subtle growth from a pessimistic, immature child with no desire for change to a more headstrong, responsible, and loving young lady.

I absolutely adored Chihiro, Haku, Lin, and pretty much every character in the movie, even Yubaba who was supposed to be the "villain" of the movie. One of the best parts of this movie, for me, was that it lacked any clear good or evil characters. Just like in the real world, everyone has a bit of both, though perhaps some allow the evil sides of them to come out a bit more obviously than others. Indeed, hidden beneath Spirited Away's light-hearted façade are haunting messages speaking volumes about the dichotomy of good and evil, identity and growth, and other connotations which linger subtly in the movie’s duration, but become more prominent upon reflection.

The artwork is perfection: the colors are rich and the animation is fluid. When Chihiro and her family first walk into the spirit world, you can almost feel the breeze as you watch it rustle through the grass. The night lights of the spirit world are breathtaking, and watching the train ride toward the climactic ending of the movie remains one of my favorite animation sequences. Moreover, the soundtracks of the movie are also magnificent; in fact, the main theme song, "One Summer's Day", of the film is one of my favorite tunes (listen to it here). Joe Hisaishi, the composer for most Studio Ghilbi films, has a very simple and subtle style of music, and it takes a careful ear to notice the music when your eyes are captivated by what's going on in the screen. Nonetheless, I would highly recommend listening to the Spirited Away soundtracks on youtube as the music is extremely soothing and exhibits an almost cathartic effect on the listeners.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie, enough to have rewatched it multiple times. It was an entertaining film with visual and musical grandeur. One thing I think would be interesting is if Spirited Away was made into an anime series rather than just a film. A short series would allow for further exploration of the background stories of the secondary side characters such as Haku, Lin, Zeniba and No Face. There are definitely plot inconsistencies in the movie, including the fact that Haku makes a big deal about how Chihiro must to hang onto the farewell card so she'll always remember her name and then the card is never mentioned nor seen again. I feel that if the movie were a full animated series instead such plot gaps could have been fixed. Nevertheless, I would still recommend watching this wonderful film and evoking your inner child to appreciate this nicely-crafted fantasy story and world.