Movies - Spirited Away

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	Movies - Spirited Away

Spirited Away, or Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (千と千尋の神隠し; "Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away") is a 2001 movie by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, directed by renowned artist Hayao Miyazaki.

The film was named Best Animated Feature at the 75th Academy Awards.

Release dates and box office gross

Spirited Away was released in Japan in July 2001, drawing an audience of around 23 million and revenues of ¥30 billion (approx. $250 million), to become the highest-grossing film in Japanese history (surpassing the 1997 American film Titanic
). It was the first movie to have earned $200 million at the worldwide box office before opening in the United States. By 2002, a sixth of the Japanese population had seen it.

The film was subsequently released in the United States in September 20 2002 and made slightly over $10 million dollars by September 2003. It was dubbed into English by Walt Disney Pictures, under the supervision of Pixar's John Lasseter.

It was released in North America by Disney's Buena Vista Distribution arm on DVD format on April 15 2003 where the attention brought by the Oscar win made the title a strong seller.

Spirited Away is often marketed, sold and associated with other Miyazaki movies such as Castle in the Sky
, Kiki's Delivery Service
and, most recently, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
(due in part to the latter's recent US release).

The English-dubbed version was released on DVD in the UK on March 29 2004.

Story

In the movie, Chihiro Ogino is a little girl who is moving to a new town with her parents, Akio and Yuko. She is clearly unhappy about the move and appears rather petulant. They lose their way and come across a tunnel, and out of curiosity enter it, unaware that it actually provides access into a spirit world—specifically, to a spirit bathhouse, where the spirits and gods (drawn from the Shinto religious tradition) go to rest and relax.

The family enters what is apparently an abandoned theme park populated with restaurants, and Chihiro's parents, finding a place to eat, immediately help themselves to a meal. Chihiro is uneasy, and hesitates outside, watching her parents eat like pigs. When her parents offer her some food, she refuses and runs off to explore more of this abandoned theme park by herself. She comes to a grand looking bathhouse and approaches a bridge leading up to it and looks down to see a mysterious train passing below. Suddenly, a mysterious boy named Haku appears on the bridge and orders Chihiro to leave before it gets dark. Just then the sky darkens and the lamps of the bathhouse light up. Haku creates a magical diversion and tells Chihiro to get across the river. Chihiro then runs back down to the restaurant where her parents are still eating and discovers to her horror that they have been transformed into large pigs (as happened to Odysseus' crew in Homer's Odyssey). Terrified, Chihiro screams and runs off back the way she had come, in attempt to find the tunnel back to her parents' car. As she runs, ghostly spirits and shadows appear in the previously-deserted theme park and frighten Chihiro even more. However, she is stopped from going back to the tunnel by an ocean, which has replaced the grassy plain she originally crossed with her parents to get to the park.

When Chihiro's distress at losing her parents is compounded by discovering that she's turning transparent, Haku finds her and comforts her, giving her something to eat from the spirit world so she does not vanish. He knows her name somehow, and helps her sneak into the spirit world palace of Yubaba. He tells her that the only way she can safely remain long enough to rescue her parents is to find work in the spirits' bathhouse.

Chihiro follows Haku's advice, descending a long outdoor staircase to the boiler room where she asks the human-looking, six-armed boilerman, Kamaji, for work. He rebuffs her, until one of the coal-carrying sprites (reminiscent of My Neighbor Totoro
's soot sprites) collapses under an extra-heavy lump. Chihiro picks up the coal and feeds the boiler, despite the fact that she can barely carry the fantastically heavy coal. Kamaji warms towards the girl, and assists her in getting a job in the bathhouse.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Spirited Away ]

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Movies - Spirited Away

Release dates and box office gross

Story

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