Movies!

Two years ago, a movie club was screening a movie (shocker), and though I have never been a huge fan of going to watch movies outside of the comfort of my blanket and snacks, it was one of my friend’s favorite movies, so I agreed. The movie was Spirited Away, and though it’s one of the most famous Studio Ghibli movies out there, I had never seen it. And boy was it a great movie. And in honor of Studio Ghibli finally releasing their movies for digital download a few weeks ago, I want to write about Spirited Away. I do want to say, though, that I’m not an actual movie critic (also a shocker) or reviewer so this will be an amalgamation of thoughts as I am re-watching this movie for the third time in the past two weeks.

*Semi-Spoilers Ahead*

The first time that I watched the movie, I was extremely confused because there was no major plot line or goal to the story, except for “find my parents and go home”, which seemed to be ditched in favor of “here’s what’s going on at the bath house”. There were funny scenes and a warming end, but I walked out thinking things like, “okay but what was the point of No Face?”, “Was Haku a bad guy or a good guy?”, “why was the baby never returned to a baby?”. Of course I asked none of this, but simply said “great movie, kinda confusing but still great”. And I think a lot of it had to do with my setting, I was sitting with friends and watching a movie, so I looked for funny parts and sat through not-funny parts.

The next time that I watched it was different. I was alone, and having already seen the movie, I was expecting to catch more things than I did last time, maybe hear a plot point that I missed last. But I hadn’t missed anything. The movie played as it did the first time, although I was more confused this time.

To not get too long-winded, it took a couple of watches (and conversations with movie enthusiasts) to figure out that the point of the movie was just that, to be a long and human movie without some pivotal miracle that saved the day and turned the protagonist into a hero. I learned that Miyazaki, the director, loves to create movies with characters that are not above human limitations, and find their strength and courage within themselves, not through some magical event. Chihiro did just that, and that was one of the things that was hardest for me to understand. Chihiro didn’t gain a power during her time at the bath house, she simply learned about what she had within, and used that to overcome her obstacles, which created a protagonist that people of all ages can relate to.

Miyazaki wanted this, he wanted an ordinary human story. Which is also shown in the pace of the film. I know this is something that people say of a lot of Studio Ghibli movies, so I implore you to watch at least one if you have not, but the slow pace of the movie that left me wondering what the hell was happening, was exactly what Miyazaki wanted to create. The word for this in Japanese is ‘ma’, referring to space to breathe. Spirited Away has a lot of that, for Chihiro and for the audience as well. This is best shown by the train scene in Spirited Away, where Chihiro, No Face, and Dumb & Dumber (bird and mouse) all travel to Zeniba’s house via a train. Through this scene, which is about two minutes, not a single word is spoken, and the movie takes a deep exhale as Chihiro goes on this last venture through her time in the spirit world. This scene is right after Haku’s fight with the paper planes, and is very jarring as the movie goes from vivid action to a standstill. And this is purposeful. It creates space for Chihiro to think, for the audience to think, and for the story to set. ‘Ma’ is incredibly important to Miyazaki, and the way in which he created it in Spirited Away was powerful. It’s even shown in Chihiro, who is restless in the back of the car at the beginning of the movie, but does not move at all while she is in the train. While people are coming in and out of the train, settings zoom in and zoom out, Chihiro breathes, and we breathe. And this time to stop, time to reflect, is the main reason that I think Spirited Away is such a great movie.

I could go into the environmental themes, gender themes, cultural themes, which all would lead into a MUCH longer post than this is, but the ‘ma’ in Spirited Away keeps me coming back to watch it, to take time to breathe for myself. And if you need some time to breathe, take some time to watch Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, or any of the Studio Ghibli movies.

Yours,

Oswaldo.