Spirited Away is one of my most unforgettable childhood animated film in my life. I remember that I watched it when I was less than 10 years old but this film is like carved deep in my brain. Maybe it is because of the special character designs in this film and I watched it in Cantonese dub. The character designs are really one of the things that I love the most in this animated film, such as Yubaba. The big headed old lady with a pair of scary eyes and a witch-like nose really brings out the creepiness of the character. I like this film when I was a kid was simply because of the interesting look of the characters and the Cantonese dub.
When I re-watch it at current age and I re-watched it twice, I see this film differently. I can see there are many hidden messages that Hayao Miyazaki puts in this film which are all reflected to the reality in Japanese society, since this is a Japanese animated film. From the moment I found out what Hayao Miyazaki was trying to do, I started to fall for this film again with another reason. How he portrays Japanese society in this animated film is what I love the most and it is really interesting.
First, we can see the parents of Chihiro are so happy when they saw the tasty foods in the spirit world and they started to eat it. Chihiro refuse to eat it even her parents asked and her dad said 'Never mind, dad is here. I have cash and credit card.' This reflects to the working adults in the society who are materialistic and think money can solve every problem. After that, Chihiro's parents turned into pigs by Yubaba because she think human only know to eat and did not want to work. This clearly reflects to the people who are lazy are the same as pigs because pigs will only eat and sleep.
This film have some shocking messages in it which we can't realize and I found the explanation online. Hayao Miyazaki admitted that this film is actually reflecting the modern Japenese society with sex industry, "I think the most appropriate way to symbolize the modern world is the sex industry. Hasn’t Japanese society become like the sex industry?" he said. As we can see, the main set in the entire film is the bathhouse and it was a place where men seek for sexual favors during the Edo period. The women who work in the bathhouse known as 'yuna' which is 'hot water women' and it is the same as what the female workers in the film are being called. In the past, people called the brothel madams as yubaba, that is what the old witch who are operating the bathhouse being called!
Next, Chihiro signs over her name to work at the bathhouse and Yubaba changes her name to 'Sen'. This is in fact how the prostitutes change their names and sign over their identities to their madam. When Chihiro thought No-Face is their customer, she allow him to get in the bathhouse. No-Face starts to observe her and offer her bath tokens and golds that he think she will like it. Actually he is trying to buy Chihiro like a man buy a prostitute. Chihiro did not accept his gifts because she does not need it and I can see this is reflecting the relationship in reality. A relationship must have someone who is willing to give and someone who is willing to take, but No-Face the one who gives and Chihiro is not willing to take. This shows that one-sided love is not going to end well. No matter how much a person gives, if another person does not want it, it will be all become a waste.
Further more, we can see that Chihiro was so weak and timid in the beginning but she started to be strong and do things all by herself after she lost her parents. In reality, we will only grow up if our parents are not helping us. In contrast with Yubaba's son, who is a gigantic baby. Yubaba is so protective towards his son and overly loving him. I think what the director is trying to show here is when the parents are over protective to their children, they will not grow up and remain as a baby or a spoil kid.
Hayao Miyazaki is also trying to reflect the environment issues nowadays. There is one scene that the stink spirit comes to the bathhouse to wash himself up. Chihiro then find out something is stuck inside his body and she try to pull it out. After a hard trying and with the helping of the other workers, they finally pull everything out and it is all trash. After that, the stink spirit becomes clean and they find out it is actually the river spirit. This clearly shows that people nowadays do not care about the environment and damaging it. The river becomes dirty and stink is all because people polluted it by throwing rubbish in it.
In conclusion, I really love this film from the character designs to the way Hayao Miyazaki portray modern Japanese society. This is a really special and worth watching animated film unlike all those fairy tales from Disney. There are just one thing that makes me confuse, which is why the female workers are human but the male workers look like frogs?
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