Spirited Away

Spirited Away's Plot Summary

Spirited Away is perhaps one of Miyazaki’s most infamous films both in Japan and the United States, claiming over 350 billion in the box office worldwide. This coming-of-age tale follows Chihiro, whose family is moving to a new town away from everything she has known. On the drive to their new house, the parents veer off course and end up near what they think is an abandoned theme park, but which is actually the crossing place for spirits. Chihiro watches, horrified, as her parents eat the spirits of the food, become pigs, and get taken away as she begins her journey of working in the bathhouse.

Reflective/Restorative Silence

Chihiro's Journey

According to Glenn and Ratcliffe in Silence and Listening as Rhetorical Arts, "Silence is restorative: it grants…a space for reflection" (Glenn and Ratcliffe 188). This reflective and even restorative silence can be a time of growth for a character in their own identity. Silence, specifically ma, is utilized by Studio Ghibli to explore the growth of characters within their films. In their biggest box office hit, Spirited Away, the main character Chihiro experiences many moments that could be considered reflective or restorative; however, the most visually appealing moment can be seen above, and the most important moment of reflection can be shown below. In order to understand Chihiro's need for reflection and restoration, a person enjoying the movie would need to experience Chihiro's many traumatic experiences first.

As the story begins, Chihiro is a young, shy girl. Riding in the car to her new house away from her friends and everything she has known, Chihiro seems sad and frustrated to be moving. When her parents stop to sight-see and stumble upon what looks to be an empty amusement park full of food, Chihiro's parents start eating everything, saying that they will pay after. Chihiro looks worried and fearful of their doing this and has been fearfully standing behind her mother since they entered what they thought was an amusement park. Chihiro looks around while her parents are eating and returns to find that they have turned into massive pigs bulging out of their clothing. Chihiro cries out for them to no avail and runs off to escape, but the once dry landscape is now filled by a river.

Chihiro has started off the movie as a scared child, unwilling to try new things even alongside her parents. Her parents are taken away, and Chihiro starts to see figures arriving in the "amusement park." She is now alone in what is really a passing place for spirits. Although Chihiro was moving to an unknown house in an unknown town, this world is completely beyond what she has ever known; it is only with the help of a friendly stranger that she makes her way to the bathhouse.

In order for Chihiro to stay and try to get the curse on her parents reversed, she must get a job in the bathhouse where spirits come to relax and rejuvenate. Traveling down the steep staircase and making her way through many strange spirits and workers, Chihiro finds herself in front of an extremely large and powerful witch who is the proprietor of the bathhouse. Although Yubaba is terrifying and harsh, this is the first time the audience witnesses Chihiro being assertive and advocating for herself. She receives a job but must relinquish her identity to Yubaba meaning that her name Chihiro belongs to Yubaba; she becomes Sen.

As a young girl, Chihiro has never worked a day in her life, and that is made clear to the workers who are not fans of humans. Though her time working in the bath is difficult, Chihiro learns to persevere. During one of the more difficult jobs given to her by the workers and Yubaba as a test, Chihiro passes and ends up making the bathhouse a lot of money. In this job, she helps what is thought to be a stink spirit get cleaned up. She fills a massive bath, almost drowning, and when that is not enough, the stink spirit asks for help to pull out a thorn. The thorn turns out to be a bike handle because the stink spirit is a river spirit that has been clogged by so much pollution. Without Chihiro's determination to help this spirit, they may not have found out that it was a river spirit and helped it to become clean again. For Chihiro's help, the river spirit gives her some medicine.

It is after this moment that the picture above occurs. Chihiro stares off at the train that passes by the bathhouse while eating her steamed bun. The steamed bun is restorative after a long day of work, and she watches as the waters are pushed aside by the train. She is likely taking this moment of ma to reflect on the waters as they are one of the things that is keeping her and her cursed parents from returning to the human world. The lights in the distance are another reminder that she is so close to her world but must continue her work in order to save her parents.

Before the final moment of ma, Chihiro is faced with a spirit that she has continuously met multiple times. No-Face, the white-masked being in the picture below, is a gentle spirit until they become greedy. When they are able to give gold that they can make with their own hands, they will take what they want, and for some reason No-Face decides that they want Chihiro. Terrified of the creature that No-Face has become, all of the workers have become their slave, giving in to their desires until No-Face begins eating them at will.

When Chihiro faces No-Face, she speaks calmly in a rather mature manner. Previously, when faced with danger or a task, Chihiro would often become flustered or even yell, but she is able to talk to No-Face and give them the river spirit's medicine. No-Face chases her out of the bathhouse, throwing up everything and every worker they ate as he follows her. When everything is out of his system, he returns to his docile self and decides to join Chihiro on her next journey, which she agrees to with no problem.

The Train Ride

Chihiro's next quest is to apologize for a friend by going to her boss Yubaba's twin sister's house at Swamp Bottom, which is the last stop of the train. With No-Face and her two small friends in the window-sill as seen above, Chihiro sits in silence on the train for a full three minutes of movie time.

Although the music is tranquil and the scenes shown from the inside of the train, the passing houses, and the tracks under the water are visually calming yet reflective in their own way, there is no dialogue whatsoever. This intentional silence allows the audience to do exactly what Chihiro is doing which is to reflect on her journey and the changes that it has made in her identity. Chihiro is able to utilize this time of "silence as the medium of inner transformation and healing" (Glenn and Ratcliffe 190). Through her abandonment and isolation, her lack of experience and confidence in herself, and the many tests of will and perseverance, Chihiro has made it. After going through these many potential traumas and successes, she has come out on the other side a different person than she was before.

After Chihiro makes it to Swamp Bottom, makes the apology, reunites with her friend, and returns to the bathhouse for her final task, she is ready to face down her adversary in this moment, Yubaba. Chihiro calls out confidently as she arrives and successfully solves the riddle which allows her to regain her identity, and she can go back to the human world with her parents over the area where the landscape has dried.

Chihiro's growth in this coming-of-age story is made clear during her reflection periods because Chihiro herself and the audience are given that time to process her story. "[S]ilence can be used to create the self" (Glenn and Ratcliffe 115). In her time on the train, Chihiro was able to recount her journey and recognize her growth as her identity. This new self is no longer the scared child that she was when she first wound up in the spirit world. Chihiro's maturity and confidence emanate off her in the final act of her journey as she goes off to go up against her new challenge of moving to a new town and starting all over. Chihiro's words to her parents as they drive off establish her newfound identity: "I think I can handle it."