Spirited Away, artistic escapism?

do i need a caption here?

I have a strange habit when it comes to Japanese directors who have made a lot of great movies (incase you haven’t figured it out, I am a Miyazaki fan) in that while I watch almost all of their movies, I never get around to buying the ones I like. Instead I have their “still good but not the best” titles lying around my house opposed to the films that they made that I think are brilliant. With Akira Kurosawa I own some of his great movies, Throne of Blood, Seven Samurai ect, but I don’t own my favorite film by him Yojimbo. With Miyazaki, I own Kiki’s Delivery Service and Spirited Away, which I find enjoyable (former) and beautiful (later), but aren’t nearly as brilliant as Castle in the Sky, Princess Mononoke, Whisper of my Heart, and Totoro, which I feel are some of the greatest animated movie ever made. So since I actually own the film, I’ve seen it four times now times, and every time I see it I walk away with a different perspective of the film. The first time I watched it, I left thinking, “It was pretty good, some parts were great, but I hated the ending”. Second time I watched it I thought, “This is good looking but with a few exceptions its just shallow trash, the character don’t make sense and the plots a mess”. Then after a few months of feeling this view point, I watched it again with my sisters and was like “Wow, this is really astoundingly animated and directed, it has all of these themes within the film)”, which I feel had happened because my expectations had been lowered. So finally watching it with a friend of mine, I came back to my original option, of being very mixed on this film. On one hand almost everybody I know who is remotely interested in the following Japanese Culture Animation Anime/Manga Shintoism Japanese Film Spiritualism The Magical/special power of nature (This includes environmentalist) Fantasy/large flying dragons going around The evils of modern society slowly corrupting traditionalist values Miyazaki (by this I mean they like his films but don’t care about the rest of the list) Absolutely loves this movie and declare it to be a masterpiece, and since I like everything on that list to at least a limited extent, so I understand their perspective, and naturally I feel instinctively driven to disagree, because I’m genetically programmed to disagree with the majority. However friends of mine who have never seen Miyazaki films and don’t care about the rest of that stuff instead say “It looks great, but just doesn’t make sense”. For example, I watched a movie review on the interest by Confused Mathew which said basically that, and when listening to the review my first instinct was to write a counter argument saying that they are ignoring the subtle themes and messages of the story and are being totally closed minded and pretentious western elitists (har har). However, on the flip side, when ever I read commentary or reviews of the film that are negative, I always find myself agreeing with the negative aspects that they point out, just not with their final conclusion. However when I hear people who like the film rave on about how great it is, I feel pretty much exactly the same way, which enforces the idea that I’m the quintessential contrarians. To narrow in on the good aspects of the film, let me just say that this film is absolutely visually stunning. For the first time, I finally watched it on a wide screen TV and other than the fact that everything blue was shown as green, it took a film that I already knew was gorgeous and just made it mind blowing. The level of detail in the animation is almost unbelievable, every object in the film, from the railings on the bathhouse, the way the hair/clothes move, the small details about the creatures movements and actions, the way the water flows, the colors of the costumes and the realistic and yet surreal nature of the magic (I love watching Yubaba repair her ruined office). Even through a great deal about the film annoyed, the astounding graphics allowed me to simply sink into the experience and get to the end feeling like I’ve enjoyed myself, the art almost justifying the movie’s holes. And yet, there is (at first glance) a double standard their, as those of you who know my views on Avatar can attest will instantly call foul, because their I said that its fancy graphics didn’t excuse its horribly cliché and offensively cooperate plot, but critically I don’t believe that Avatar is art. Yes, I know that art is hard to define and making such a distinction is horribly unprofessional of me, but watching Spirited Away, what impressed me was more than just the quality of the animation technology but instead the care and detail of the drawings, every frame felt like a painting. When I had to pause the film for bathroom breaks, I was struck by how every frame was full of these little details such as the subtle wrinkles on some of the toad people’s faces to indicate age, or the way that each of the geishas had subtly unique faces, and you could recognize them throughout the film. These details are essentially meaningless, and yet it breathes life into the film, because Miyazaki is at his heart an artist, and that the animation is given its own respect. I know that a similar time and energy went into every frame of Avatar, but it feels different, its covered in the cooperate stench of cynical manipulation. When looking at Spirited Away, I feel like it was constantly drawn and redrawn by an artist who is trying to set the mood of the story, Chihiro’s removal of her shoes is hardly important plot wise, but it adds to the mystic of the bathhouse, tapping into the traditional Japanese customs. Similarly the designs of Yubaba’s office really don’t have purpose, and yet not only is the office beautifully animated, each detail reveals more about the character and adds to the atmosphere. Her small skull/telephone shows a mixing of traditional spiritualism with modern society; the fact that it is a skull hints at the sinister nature of the witch. Similarly, her many gems obvious symbolize her greed/avarice, however each gem/ring is so detailed that one can realize that for all of her greed, she has good taste in her jewelry, which is offset by how she wears too many jewels reveals her gaudy and cheap taste. Like wise, the elaborate but overdone nature of the room reveals her insecurities, that despite being basically a bathhouse owner, she has this tacky display of wealth to comfort herself. The giant baby’s room shows aspects of his character, the padded walls shows how he is protected and enclosed, his hiding under the pillows shows his overly protective and cowardly nature, the dolls lying around the room seem discarded rather than loved, revealing the materialistic nature of his mother’s doting. All of these details could easily be omitted but they were included more to enhance the scene rather than to evoke any specific emotion, like an artist who wants his work to be perfect, and Avatar lacks this. Avatar feels artificial and goal oriented, every image is made not to enhance the scene, but instead to try to manipulate the audiences emotions. The Spirit’s bodies are obviously models off either old legends, or various nature ideas reflecting their character (the radish spirit looking like a radish, the human like frogs being cowardly and greedy, the dragon’s water like scales). In contrast the Navi feel like they were created specifically to try to gain the audiences sympathy. They are all physically perfect and sexy, the women wear very little clothing even when it wouldn’t be practical, their eyes are very wide and large, which implies vulnerability and innocence, to quote Red Letter Media, “Disney Eyes”, they have unneeded animalistic traits which make them both cute and feral. All of these elements come together to reveal a carefully crafted race whose exist to both to gain sympathy and sex appeal. I read that Mr. Cameron would show pictures of Navi women prototype to random people and ask “would you tap that”, reworking them until the majority said yes. They are like models on magazine covers, they aren’t real, they just are shallow images who’s only real purpose is to try to arouse both our emotions and sexual desires. This emotional manipulation conveys to every aspect of Avatar, the forests of Pandora are visually stunning but feel like they were created specifically to be pretty, not. The various flora in the forests are somewhat surprising and remarkable, but they feel like they were included in the scene just so the audience can be like “ohhh, awww” rather than add to the atmosphere, even the Navi’s sex tree feels like it exists just to be a backdrop for the sex scene, just like the floating rocks don’t seem to serve a purpose other than making the flying scenes more shocking. The forest doesn’t feel real, when watching more realistic (see better), movies set in jungle environments, your struck by how dirty they are, that even through they are wonderful you have mud, insects, rain, and sweat involved rather than the pristine cinematic displays. (say it with me), In contrast, Spirited Away’s animation shows both the wonder, like the multicolored and fascinating spirits, but also the icky aspects, like the frog chef smoking a cigarette, the mechanized underbelly of the bathhouse, and well, the stink spirit. Also, Avatar just feels like its borrowing ideas, it has at best a mediocre storyline that is trying to compensate for it with its graphics, while Spirit Away’s animation is about enhancing a its unique story about a spirit bathhouse, not selling itself on graphics. Now the film does in practice sell itself on its visuals, but that’s from the storyline being badly handled, not being unoriginal or cliché, so you get the impression that was not the intention, while Avatar without its graphics would be a bust. Finally Avatar’s imagery is ultimately a show of escapism and a disconnect from reality, while what is good about Spirited Away is its focus on people and everyday life, something with more meaning and personal connection than the ultimately hollow message of Avatar, because even through Spirited Away is again, flawed, its about human beings. My three favorite scenes visually are when the parents eat the food of spirits, the job interview, and the stink spirit’s bath, because in all three the animation is done in such a manner that I can almost feel present their. That food looks delicious, but more importantly it looks real and the parents eating (enhanced by the audio/dialogue) really made me want to just gorge myself on exotic Japanese food. Yubaba’s spells are focused on very minor visual magic’s, which feel slightly sinister because they are more human, her literal zipping shut Chihiro’s mouth is chillingly disturbing because we all know the term “zip it”, and this is making our own expressions literal. When Yubaba destroys then repairs her office, its more effective because we all have seen tables fall over, lights break and papers being scattered, it’s a very human feeling. And finally, the stink sprit ordeal taps into everything in the world that’s icky and disgusting, watching it makes me feel absurdly squeamish, because whenever I’ve had to do the trash or wash the dishes or I’ve fallen in mud, I feel that sense of icky helplessness that is so masterfully conveyed in the character of Chihiro’s. While in Avatar…I have nothing, it’s just a bunch of perfect creatures existing in an idealized environment, its jus wish fulfillment. Ok, so enough sucking up to Studio Ghibli’s art, its time to focus in on the more important things, namely characters, story, and writing. Now as I mentioned before, I love the concept of this story. Confused Mathew in his review complained that this review that the fantastical world was “random and arbitrary” but and maybe this is my love of mythology speaking, I liked the weirdness of the Spirit world, these creatures are spirits, I shouldn’t be able to understand them, they should always be an enigma to a mere mortal like myself. What surprised me was the human traits added to the characters, which actually made them both more intriguing and disturbing, as seeing these weird creatures doing very human things like opening a window to smoke a cigarette and indulging in wage slavery and yet it is very disquieting because even when they do human things, they come off as subtly wrong. For example, when the boiler man, the eight limbed Kamajii is first introduced, he acts oddly alien, his multiple arms mixing spices and his movements are both spider and snake like and stokes the fire with soot people, and yet he human in that he is just a worker in an industrial structure, and yet before he gets too human, he has all of this arbitrary spirit rules, like that Chihiro’s is obligated to throw the coal she picked up into the fire. Or when Yubaba is talking about business, she comes off as just a weird looking cooperate boss, when she suddenly steals Chihiro’s name off the paper, as well as moving in close to her so that her disproportioned body is more obvious when compared to the normal Chihiro. It’s this strange dichotomy of human like actions and methods mixed with totally alien spirit goals and pleasures (like the importance of Roasted Newt) that makes the whole story simply surreal. However, this is ruined in the end as the spirits start to act more human and less spirit like due to overexposure, which undermines the whole bizarre nature of the bathhouse, making it just a bunch of funny looking customers rather than some sort of pseudo Shinto ritualized ceremony turned into a business. Yubaba goes from enigmatically sinister, but with a charming undercurrent to a somewhat spiteful but otherwise harmless granny, while her sister goes from an equally ruthless witch in her first appearance to nothing more than a kind granny who loves to sew. The most glaring flaw of the film however is the character of Chihiro, and here I agree with Confused Mathew entirely. The premise of this film is supposedly that the a spoiled girl is taken to a magical world and is able to escapes after growing up a bit, but the problem is that Chihiro isn’t spoiled. She is a bit obnoxious and a massive wimp, but she isn’t spoiled, only upset that she is moving, which I can sympathize with greatly, and in fact she seems very level headed when one looks beyond her being a wimp, she doesn’t eat the spirit food even when her parents pressure her too and from the start advices leaving the spirit world alone and not getting involved, which is proven true. And even her being a wimp doesn’t really strike me as much of a flaw, because she is like what, ten? I don’t really fault a kid being scared at that age, doubly so when some of the stuff she sees is legitimately terrifying, I know I would have handled that horribly made staircase about as well as she did cause I hate heights. Critically however, her being mature from the start means she doesn’t have a character arch, when No Face offers her gold and she refuses this isn’t any different from her behavior prior in the film, she has been refusing things that creepy spirits have offered her throughout the film, that supposedly critical moment is spoiled because her refusal has no emotional impact, accepting the gold would go against her character as established throughout the film. Also, the girl’s maturity is somewhat undermined because we don’t ever understand why, why does she refuse the food, refuse the gold, offer help to No Face, see the good side in Haiku ect, it seems arbitrary, her various acts of selflessness are meaningless without context, why does she refuse these seemingly generous gifts, as she never gives a reason. My theory is that Chihiro isn’t really a character, at least not in the traditional sense, she is a stand in, she exist to give the audience something to follow and a plot to move along so the audience can be show all of the fantastical sights that the studio has in store for us, the story isn’t about her, its about the world. Which would be fine except that the plot focus seems to style itself to a story of personal growth for Chihiro, while apart from becoming less weak willed never really happens. I mean, she becomes less of a wimp, but I never felt critical of her for being a crybaby when she is like ten, maybe this is a Japanese thing with that culture of stoicism and blaming the weak, but to me blaming the girl just seems insensitive. The greatest problem of the film through is its storytelling, which just feels schizophrenic, because there are like three separate themes running throughout the film, but they only appear in bits and pieces throughout the movie. For example, the movie starts out with a theme of how materialism/consumerism/capitalism degrades our sense of understanding/appreciation of the natural world, embodied with the super American looking parents (complete with credit cards, and a big car) who show nothing but patronizing curiosity for the spirit world, mistaking it for a tacky carnival and treating the whole thing as sort of a tourist trap rather than a sacred place, which results in them turning into pigs (oddly they don’t seem to change by the end of the film…why?) And yet that theme of cultural dilution seems almost like a hobby for the film, it occasionally makes reference to it and shows us its views on the matter, but the primary focus is as I said the artwork and the setting more than any individual theme or moral point, which would be fine for a more avante guard film, but this movie is ostensibly an adventure fantasy with great artwork, the art being an addition not the main attraction, so this inconsistent theme seems out of place and feels like sloppy writing Honestly, while a lot of stuff visually happens, but apart from the art, it doesn’t seem to have a point. For example, No Face, while he gives the movie an excuse to show a great deal of visual marvels, as well as creating a conflict for Chihiro to overcome, but what purpose does it serve? Maybe I’m just stupid, but I can’t really figure out what it represents. My guess is that No Face is a metaphor for loneliness and being misunderstood, desperately seeking human connection and friendship. Not able to get friends conventionally, lacking a voice beyond the muffled gasp he makes, he tries to find an emotional connection through bribery through things people desire, like bath token or later gold. I suppose his eating people who accept his charity symbolizes how those who see relationships through such shallow lenses eventually destroy those around them instead of getting true friends I guess, and his assuming their traits after eating them would be…becoming a social poser who borrows from others to become a fake human being? His becoming bloated and disgusting could almost be a metaphor for capitalism as he becomes a gluttonous wasteful producer of cash who only encourages people’s greed and shallow materialism however longs after purity of friendship with the modest Chihiro. Or No Face could represent impressionable youth, who reacts to the world around it, alternatively innocence’s who are corrupted by the corrupt environment of the bathhouse. Or it if the bathhouse represents Japan’s pre industrial past, then No Face might represent those who look back to past for inspiration and turn into horribly parodies of the old world orders who are ultimately fake. You see what I mean; there isn’t any indication of what it stands for. Going with the “No Face Represents Loneliness” aspect, that works in his own storyline, but doesn’t really fit into the larger theme, beyond the general greed of the bathhouse, the rest of the story has little to do with social isolation in that sense of the word, Chihiro’s social problems stem from her own weakness and prejudice, not inability to express herself, which she does quite well. If he stands for capitalism, the film has an anti capitalist message, but it doesn’t pervade into the rest of the film, it just pops up whenever the parents or No Face are around. Or the traditionalism vs. modern society theme, I like that both sides are show positively and negatively, but the movie seems to be more about showing me the world than sending a message, which would be find, except again its set up to be a story about personal growth for Chihiro. At the hear through, Spirited Away is trying to tell the story of entering the world of adults and leaving behind the comforts of childhood and personal pleasures. Chihiro is a young child who is basically entering a child labor facility through a spiritual one, which draws to mind the many child labor facilities run in East Asian (not so much Japan as far as I know, more China but still). What occurred to me is how different this would be if it was written from a Western Perspective. In this version, Chihiro is shown to be bratty and spoiled, but and I’m totally stealing this from spark notes, her main enduring trait is her understanding of rules. Rules play a huge role in the story, as her entering the Spirit World means she is confronted with a series of seemingly arbitrary and all encompassing rules which restrict her and challenges her ability to cope with her surroundings, which is a bit like a metaphor for the unwritten rules of adulthood and the work place that people have to learn to understand in order to function. The essential difference however, is that in real life these rules are explained, if not justified eventually, and there is a system which upholds the rules, while in the movie the rules are left permanently unexplained and thus arbitrary. To an extent this is a good thing as it adds to the mystic and alien nature of the Spirit World, but as the spirits become more and more human and less alien in nature, the rules to be defined so I can relate to the characters and their situation, otherwise its just confusing. For example, in Yubaba’s opening scene she mentions all of these rules about people’s terms of service and that she has to accept a job for anybody who asks, and in that context these mysterious rules are good, they come off as sinister and inhuman even when they help the protagonist. However when we get into all of these later rules such as the curse slug, No-Face, the golden token, and Yubaba’s final test, it feels like rules made to run the plot rather than things that I can relate to, for example why can’t No-Face come into the bath, and what is the deal with that damn train? However even ignoring the plot holes, rules play another somewhat bizarre role in the story, because even through the rules of the bathhouse are strange and arbitrary, the characters to the end are compelled to follow them no matter how nonsensical they are. For example, when the spirit workers demand that Yubaba cancel her final test because Chihiro has done more than enough to earn her freedom, Chihiro turns down their protest and chooses to instead follow the rule even through its completely pointless. Or early in the film, we are suppose to be somewhat condemning of the parents as they explore the spirit world and eat the food, but honestly , I didn’t really feeling condemning of them, I felt pretty sympathetic. They where just exploring and eat some food which they fully intended to pay for, they had no knowledge that they were offending spirits, since it was established they were ignorant of traditionalism. While they are saved in the end, they are shown very negatively and somewhat deserving of their fate, just like Chihiro is suppose to partly deserve being forced to work and here is where we have some moral dissidence, because I can’t find it in myself to condemn a somewhat foolish family for exploring what looks like a tourist trap and not knowing much about the spirits, and while I think Chihiro is a wimp, I don’t see hard labor as a positive character building experience. I feel like in a Western film, the ethic of the story would be instead rising up against the rules and the establishment and rejecting the rules in favor of their own. I mean, compare to Pan’s Labyrinth, another fairy tale movie, in this story what makes the little girl an admirable character is the refusal to follow the arbitrary fairy laws and to do what is morally right rather than encourage unjust laws through compliance, I mean even the whole ethic if Chihiro’s growing a spine is undermined because she is still tied to the rules of the bathhouse. I was reading online about how the movie shows good and evil as more morally grey in contrast to most cartoons, and I agree this is a good thing, but the film ends more with the main character leaving behind evil rather than changing it, the Bathhouse is still a terrible place to work ruled by cruel and greedy regime (if lovable) and despite all of their talk of freedom, there are still plenty of pigs who are most likely transformed innocents, the status quo is unchanged and just ignored. I understand it, but I feel like a Western work would try to overthrow the establishment. Finally there are all these inconsistencies, since this is getting long as it is, some notes 1)Ok, so Haiku knows Chihiro from before, and rescued her from a river, and yet this only seems to be a plot point when they are around. It has no real purpose other than to have an excuse to have Haiku to know her, and the whole issue is resolved through “I love you” “Oh shit I remember you now” dialogue. The o thing that came from that relationship was the scene of her riding Haiku through water, which I thought was a metaphor for birth but…apparently I’m wrong (and Freud was right) ·2) The nature of spirits. I mean, they all hate human but many of them look human with exaggerated characteristics, and many more look totally human, I mean I had to look it up online to find out that Rin (Lin) is suppose to be some sort of weasel spirit. While I don’t mind spirits being impossible to understand, once the spirits start to become more human, we need these details to understand the world. 3)What is with Zenbaba’s character shift? Why does she start out as a ruthless bitch, saying, “interfere and I’ll tear your mouth out” to a grandmotherly figure? Also on that, why do the other spirits characters change from scorn of Chihiro to exalting in her freedom and risking their jobs to challenge Yubaba on her behalf, it comes out of nowhere other than just ending the film on a happy note. I mean, is it because of the sink spirit ordeal? No because they were all angry and rude to her when No-Face ruined the bathhouse, so why do they suddenly all love her? 4) Again, what is Haiku’s character, he just seems like an emotionless love interest who’s heart becomes pure in the end. The only time he was interesting beyond “OMGDRAGON” is when he is acting like a ruthless mob enforcer, but other than being slightly rude in like two scenes, it never has any actual impression, and sees contradictory. I mean, if he is nice to Chihiro when they are alone, why be a jerk in the elevator except to explicitly show to the audience that he can be mean. If their were two of them I feel like that would be a more interesting story. 5) Why does the boiler man have a ticket, why does he feel compelled to use it on this girl, why didn’t he use it earlier, why does he still work her? 6) Speaking of which what is the point of the train? Spirits mention wanting to leave on the train, but how does that work? What is the spirit world beyond this bathhouse? Somehow it seems less impressive when spirits have their own industries and businesses rather than a pseudo Shinto bathhouse. 7) What is the point of the giant baby beyond the effect? He doesn’t contribute to the story except to mention an out of place lesson on the dangers of overprotection. His accompanying Chihiro doesn’t really contribute to the overall plot beyond some very minor comic relief, what was the whole point of him and the little bird/bug? 8) Also why even have the whole Swamp Bottom Experience, beyond again the artwork and the closure of having a character go onto the train, and I don’t see the whole point of the trip beyond exposition and some heavy-handed love values. · So she has to eat human food to stay human…did that stop at some point? And what is the difference between human and non-human food, how does she get by later? · The Paper spirit things, apparently they can be killed by smashing into glass and they can cut flesh, and yet they don’t cut Chihiro, and many of them just fall down after other ones smash into the glass and yet one lives, why? You see what I mean, the film is enjoyable, the art and concept are enough to carry you through and come out feeling good, and some scenes are just brilliant, but as a whole the story feels inconsistent, rushed and mangled, and the character feel like stock characters, or at best particularly interesting stock characters. So totally worth watching and deserve a lot of praise because it is a work of art, but honestly, its not his best work nor is it some sort of super animated film masterpiece.

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