" There are certain movies that are so well crafted, they stick with you for a long time. Spirited Away, a Studio Ghibli movie, is one of those. And it’s good for watching anytime, but it’s specifically a good quarantine movie because you get to escape into another world while being in the safety of your own home, protecting others and yourself from COVID-19." --Frankie Ettinger, 11th grade
There are certain movies that are so well crafted, they stick with you for a long time. Spirited Away, a Studio Ghibli movie, is one of those. And it’s good for watching anytime, but it’s specifically a good quarantine movie because you get to escape into another world while being in the safety of your own home, protecting others and yourself from COVID-19.
Spirited Away is about a young girl named Chihiro who gets separated from her parents after they accidentally enter a vacation spot for spirits. Her parents are turned into pigs as a punishment for eating spirit food, so Chihiro must survive in this strange new world without them. WIth the help of a strange boy named Haku, Chihiro gets a job at the bathhouse in order to earn her keep and stay safe in the spirit world. Chihiro faces many challenges while working here, including having her name stolen by the evil witch named Yubaba, but will do anything to be reunited with her parents. Chihiro’s strength is admirable, especially for being so young and in a scary situation.
Spirited Away is about a young girl named Chihiro who gets separated from her parents after they accidentally enter a vacation spot for spirits. Her parents are turned into pigs as a punishment for eating spirit food, so Chihiro must survive in this strange new world without them. WIth the help of a strange boy named Haku, Chihiro gets a job at the bathhouse in order to earn her keep and stay safe in the spirit world. Chihiro faces many challenges while working here, including having her name stolen by the evil witch named Yubaba, but will do anything to be reunited with her parents. Chihiro’s strength is admirable, especially for being so young and in a scary situation.
When I first watched this movie, it felt like a strange dream. I didn’t quite understand it but I kept watching because I really wanted to see how it ended. The plot played a part in this, but the art and music did as well. If you aren’t familiar with the animation Miyazaki does, I highly recommend looking it up because it’s just beautiful. Spirited Away was no exception. I was entranced by the scenery and I think that’s part of what made this movie the perfect quarantine movie. It’s a world so different from our own drawn in such a detailed way that it feels like you’re really there with Chihiro. One of my favorite scenes is when Chihiro is walking down the train tracks in the shallow water, and then when she’s on the train with No Face. There was something very peaceful about the illustrations in that scene. The whole movie is illustrated in an incredibly captivating way.
Not only does Spirited Away have a complex plot, it also has some very complex characters. Chihiro is different from a lot of the young, female characters I’ve seen on screen. She’s not happy and carefree and two dimensional. She’s pretty impatient from the start of the movie; the first we see of her is her complaining in the car ride into her new town because she didn’t want to move. Chihiro’s impatience doesn’t go away any time soon and it turns into anger and fear as she gets deeper into the spirit world. She’s not unlikeable, though. She’s incredibly brave and refuses to give up, even though she’s terrified of Yubaba the witch and all the spirits. Chihiro’s impatience created an interesting parallel to the world we’re living in right now: Chihiro yearns to get out of the spirit world and back home with her parents, and we’re all stuck in quarantine, impatient to be able to get back outside with our friends.
Spirited Away also pushes the boundaries between good and evil. There aren’t any characters that are just good, or just evil. Even Yubaba has a soft side when she’s taking care of her baby. There’s a spirit called No Face that goes crazy when it enters the bathhouse and ends up eating a lot of the spirits in there. No Face seems peaceful at first but when this happens, you’re led to think they might not actually be a good character. But No Face has a redemption arc and never hurts Chihiro. No Face ended up being one of my favorite characters because there was so much mystery surrounding them. Even though Spirited Away is technically a children’s movie, there’s a lot of ambiguity which made the movie all the more interesting.
Spirited Away also pushes the boundaries between good and evil. There aren’t any characters that are just good, or just evil. Even Yubaba has a soft side when she’s taking care of her baby. There’s a spirit called No Face that goes crazy when it enters the bathhouse and ends up eating a lot of the spirits in there. No Face seems peaceful at first but when this happens, you’re led to think they might not actually be a good character. But No Face has a redemption arc and never hurts Chihiro. No Face ended up being one of my favorite characters because there was so much mystery surrounding them. Even though Spirited Away is technically a children’s movie, there’s a lot of ambiguity which made the movie all the more interesting.
All in all, this is an amazing movie and the perfect one to watch while we’re stuck at home. It felt almost therapeutic to escape into Chihiro’s world with the spirits and I would highly recommend this movie to anyone and everyone.