Spirited Away is one of Hayao Miyazaki's masterpieces. His use of the film to make the audience think of complex issues such as the environment, human greed, and desecration of or indifference to Japanese religion and tradition is just beautiful. In the beginning of the film, Chihiro and her family are moving to a new house in a new neighborhood. They get lost on the way, and while they are driving on the "short-cut," the pass small temples that are meant to house little spirits. However, the houses are in disrepair and have not seemed to be taken care of properly in a long time. This shows one aspect of people's indifference to Japanese tradition. This shows the people's disrespect toward the spirits who used the houses. At the end of the road was what seemed like an abandoned theme park. Chihiro's parents found some food on a counter unattended, and decided to just dig in. They were stuffing their faces with so much food that they turned into pigs by a magical spell. In this scene, Miyazaki is demonstrating what greed can and will turn us into, if we are not careful. When Chihiro could not get back to the other side of the river, and back to the human realm, Haku came to her rescue and helped her get a job at the bath house. She made a deal with Yubaba, the witch in charge of the bath house, and signed her name over to her. While she is there, most of the spirits working there did not like her because she was human. They knew what humans did to the human realm, and they did not like that one bit because it had sever affects in the spirit realm. While working at the bath house, a customer came that smelled awful. Yubaba thought it might have been a stink spirit, and she sent Chihiro to help him out. While she was helping to clean the spirit, she noticed what seemed to be a thorn in the spirit's side. Chihiro helped remove the object from the side and it turned out to be a lo of junk. The stink spirit was actually a river god! This scene clearly show how human pollution is hurting our environment physically and spiritually.
Since the humans did not take care of the little spirit houses, it definitely showed how the humans disrespected the religion and traditions of the spirit world. What Chihiro’s parents did also showed disrespect toward the spirits, but it also showed human greed. Humans will get punished for being greedy, which Chihiro say for herself. The Stink Spirit did represent the amount of pollution the humans are creating. The fact that Chihiro found the problem confirmed that humans can not only make a mess, but they can also clean up after themselves. I guess Yubaba sent Chihiro to help the Stink Spirit because she wanted Chihiro to see and fix what the humans have done to the environment and to the human realm. I think this was one of my favorite scenes. This scene brought the humans and spirits together, at least in my mind.
I really enjoyed reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteSince the humans did not take care of the little spirit houses, it definitely showed how the humans disrespected the religion and traditions of the spirit world. What Chihiro’s parents did also showed disrespect toward the spirits, but it also showed human greed. Humans will get punished for being greedy, which Chihiro say for herself. The Stink Spirit did represent the amount of pollution the humans are creating. The fact that Chihiro found the problem confirmed that humans can not only make a mess, but they can also clean up after themselves. I guess Yubaba sent Chihiro to help the Stink Spirit because she wanted Chihiro to see and fix what the humans have done to the environment and to the human realm. I think this was one of my favorite scenes. This scene brought the humans and spirits together, at least in my mind.
I thought your analysis was really interesting.