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The Studio Ghibli Retrospective: Spirited Away. Nothing sad happens in the opening fifteen minutes of Hayao Miyazaki’s eighth feature film Spirited Away. Nothing really even happens until the very end of the opening, where a traumatic event occurs to our protagonist that will change her life forever, but it does not and is not meant to inspire grief. So why, exactly, do I always find myself tearing up whenever this film simply does what all movies do and begin?

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The reason why is because to watch Spirited Away feels like a special gift. It is a film of such startling imagination, originality, intelligence, and emotion that I feel inexplicable joy when the opening title card fades in as Joe Hisaiashi’s rapturous score starts to play. There’s the oft- debated difference between the “favorite” and the “best”. I already mentioned that Kiki’s Delivery Service is my personal favorite of Miyazaki’s filmography, as it is his most delightful film and the one that most resonates with me on a very personal level. There’s no doubt in my mind, however, that Spirited Away is his most remarkable accomplishment, and his best film in general.
To see this film is to be transported to a world you can not find anywhere else, and I feel simply overjoyed whenever I have the chance to watch it again. The film is–what else?–a coming- of- age story centered on a young girl named Chihiro, who’s really bummed out about moving to a new city where she won’t be able to be with her old friends.
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Her mother and father, who mean well but still shrug off her depression, are ready to move into their new home when a wrong turn on the road leads them to a mysterious, abandoned theme park. Or so they think. It turns out that the family has stumbled upon a passage to the spirit world, with Chihiro’s parents transformed into livestock after unknowingly consuming the food of the spirits without permission. Frightened and utterly alone, the only way for Chihiro to survive in this strange new world is to toil and work herself raw in a bathhouse run by a wicked sorceress.
It’s a story rife with familiar influences, from Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Japanese folklore and, of course, Studio Ghibli’s now expected coming- of- age elements. But never has a film been so visually alive and imaginative that you can’t recall anything else like it. And still, to this day, unlike most other visually revolutionary films, its singular style has still not been ripped off after a decade.
And how can you? There’s always been instances of strangeness in Hayao Miyazaki’s visuals (and this becomes broader when we take into account the other Ghibli films he didn’t direct), but Spirited Away is, visually speaking, his most unapologetically weird. Not a single idea regarding this film’s world and characters feels borrowed or repurposed. Just when you think the film couldn’t possibly top itself with an impossibly, beautifully strange image, it gives you something more: the ferry that holds within it colored sheets with eerie paper masks over their heads, the overweight radish- person, the old man with multiple arms that can stretch to any length he wants, the giant duck thing that’s there for no reason, that iconic No- Face with his vacant mask and ominous black presence, the stink god made up of the pollution of the rivers (which brings up Miyazaki’s prominent theme of environmentalism), a lamppost that hops around on a single disembodied hand…I could go on for another paragraph if I wanted. And it’s all contained in this immaculately drawn and delightfully mysterious bathhouse, a perfect backdrop for this cavalcade of delightfully bizarre spirits, which Miyazaki has stated in interviews was inspired by an actual bathhouse in his childhood hometown that he imagined to be haunted and contain a multitude of secrets. The bathhouse of Spirited Away, despite being only one building, is itself a whole other world, and not just because of the strange spirits that inhabit it. Its design is so meticulous and fully realized: stairways with no railings pose imminent danger; elevators are strung up to a multitude of floors that suggest that the building is bigger on the inside than out; secret compartments allow employees to send messages to the crazy old spider- guy who lives in the furnace; and even more details that don’t necessarily need to be in the movie, but further envelop the viewer in its surreal dimension. Watching Spirited Away for the first (and perhaps second and third) time, it’s so easy to lose yourself in Miyazaki’s spirit world that it becomes even easier to ignore, or at least underappreciate, not just the beautiful simplicity of its story, but how within that simplicity is packed a multitude of themes that run the gamut from psychological to sociological.
The main conflict we get here is Chihiro’s journey to escape the clutches of Yubaba the sorceress, bring her now transformed pig- parents back to their original selves, and escape the spirit world. Along the way, she learns to mature and come of age, which should be enough for any reader regularly following this retrospective to give a resounding “Duh!” because Miyazaki. But the real detail of interest here, one simple detail that contains a multitude of meanings, is how Chihiro’s coming- of- age is also a quest to preserve her identity. Upon agreeing to work in Yubaba’s bathhouse, the sorceress literally steals Chihiro’s name and changes it to “Sen”. This is revealed to be how Yubaba imprisons people’s souls to working in her bathhouse forever: she steals away the identities of her workers and gives them more suitable names. These names tend to be more simplified–Sen, Haku, Lin, to name a few–thus sucking away the instances of verbal personality in them for something that is more functional and quick to say/write.
Once your name is stolen, you slowly lose your memories of the person you once were, which will be important for Chihiro as she must be true to herself in order to escape this alien world. I have seen Spirited Away countless times ever since it released on DVD and aired somewhat regularly on Cartoon Network for a couple of years. I know this film by heart, and have seen both the Japanese and (terrifically directed) English dub multiple times.
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But it wasn’t until rewatching the film for this retrospective that I finally decided to look beyond its sumptuous surface and find a web of ideas that I had never even thought of before lurking underneath. Namely: Spirited Away is actually a workplace drama.

When you get right down to it, once Chihiro/Sen has started working at the bathhouse, while her concerns of escaping are always her primary goal, new conflicts arise to accommodate to the strange new rules of not just the spirit world, but of the workers’ world. Chihiro is chastised and harassed by her superiors because she is a human, so she experiences racism firsthand. She and her female coworker Lin are mistreated by their male coworkers, so there’s not only sexism, but even implications of sexual harassment as they make catcalls to the ladies. All the while, each of the workers–male or female, spirit or human–have been robbed of their individuality, each one reduced to a homogenized resource by way of giving them all similar appearances. Watch The Third Jihad Online Mic.
Not just in uniform but in physical structure too, as most of the males have deformed, large, frog- like faces, while the women are overly slender and shiny like stretched up putty. In other words: similar in essence to any regular old workplace in real life, the only difference being the fantasy elements.
In a way, the bathhouse of the spirits is like some kind of mini- dystopia, not just in how it depicts a society in which the workers are content but unfulfilled as they’re forced to literally serve and pleasure the gods, but also in how it connects these themes to very real problems in our current workplace society.
Top 1. 25 Best Gifts for Women: The Ultimate List 2. Finding the perfect gift for a woman is a tricky proposition. Every woman is different, with different tastes and different interests. In addition to your budget and her interests, you also have to consider the occasion, as well as how long you have known this particular woman. The kind of gift you buy for your mother’s birthday is very different from the gift you’d pick out for your girlfriend of a few months, or your wife of 4. A lot of people feel overwhelmed when they have to purchase a gift for someone they care about.
Finding that perfect gift is often tough and stressful when you have to come up with ideas on your own. Thankfully, our list of time- tested favorites is here to help you zero in on a cool gift that will perfectly suit the woman you are shopping for. There are some basic gift- giving rules to keep in mind. A birthday gift should feel personal, while an anniversary gift should be a bit lavish. Watch Let Him Be Online Fandango. Gifts for female friends or co- workers can be lower in price, and a bit less personalized.
Some women love jewelry, while other ladies are foodies who would much rather have a home- cooked meal than a gold necklace. There are gals who love the latest gadgets, and others who prefer knitting or handicrafts. With so many variables in play, finding that perfect gift can take a lot of time. To help you narrow your search, we’ve curated a list of the very best gifts for women. Our list includes jewelry, perfume, books, music, watches, movies, home goods, and more. We’ve even thrown in some truly unique items that will be perfect gifts for women who have everything.
Every woman is different, but we’re confident that you’ll find a great gift idea on the list below that will suit any woman on your shopping list. Here is our ultimate guide to 1. Whether you’re looking for a small token of your appreciation for an employee, a thoughtful gift for your mom, or a luxurious gift for a major anniversary with your sweetheart, we’re certain one of the unique gift ideas below will suit her perfectly. We strongly believe that a great gift doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Gifts on our list start around $5, but we’ve also included some truly premium gifts for impressing that special woman you really care about. We update this list regularly to add cool new gift ideas, so feel free to bookmark this page and check back to see our latest recommendations around the holidays. Shopping for a woman that’s tricky to buy for?
You may also want to check out our guide to the best gifts for men, which actually has lots of cool gift ideas that women will also appreciate. Our guide to the best gifts for girlfriends is also a must- read if you need a romantic gift. Alex and Ani ‘Spiritual Armor’ Endless Knot Wire Bangle(Alex and Ani)Alex and Ani jewelry is a great gift for women of all ages. These bangles are relatively inexpensive, but their wide range of styles make each piece feel unique to the person who receives them. These bangles are wildly popular among woman of all ages.
This bangle style, the Endless Knot from the “Spiritual Armor” collection, symbolizes destiny and life’s unique journey. You can browse more bangles from Alex and Ani here. Want even more gift ideas for a special woman in your life? Browse our guide to best friend gifts, and find a gift that perfectly expresses your feelings.
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The necklace is available in your choice of a decorative 9. K gold setting. There are styles available for all of the signs of the zodiac, which can you browse here. If you’re shopping for a woman who never skips reading her horoscope, this is a gift that she’ll really love. Want to see more options? Shop more Nano Jewelry here and see some of their non- Zodiac pieces. You can also get more cool gift ideas in our guide to the best gifts for mom.
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