And this is the story that I like the most,
Spirited away…
Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi is a fantasy adventure with a ten year-old girl, which starts in everyday Japan but goes somewhere very different. For young Chihiro and her family, a mysterious tunnel and haunted town lead to the Land of Spirits, inhabited by gods and monsters and ruled by the greedy witch Yu-baba. Chihiro's parents are transformed into pigs; to rescue them; she must surrender her name and serve in this world. Luckily she finds friends and allies, including the handsome but mysterious boy Haku. Initially sulky and listless, Chihiro (or Sen, as she's now called) finds inner strengths and establishes an identity in this strange world. But can she win back her name and return home?
(Copy from the hayau miyazaki web)
Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi?, literally "Sen and Chihiro's Spiriting Away") is an Academy Award winning 2001 film by the Japanese anime studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki.
The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature, the first anime film to win an Academy Award, and the only winner of that award to win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees). The film also won the Golden Bear at the 2002 Berlin International Film Festival (tied with Bloody Sunday).
Plot;
Note: This synopsis is written based on the English version, which has a few notable differences from the original Japanese version.
The movie begins by introducing Chihiro, a whiny, pessimistic child, who is very annoyed at having to move to a new town. While en route to their new house in their car (2001 Audi A4), Chihiro's father attempts a shortcut; they subsequently lose their way and come across a mysterious tunnel. Out of curiosity, they enter it, not knowing that they have entered a kind of mythological Japanese spirit world drawn from the Shinto religious traditions. The family crosses a verdant field and enters what appears to be an abandoned theme park lined with fully-stocked restaurants. Both parents impulsively eat the food they find there, and as a result transform into pigs.
Chihiro's distress at losing her parents is compounded by the discovery that the world around her has changed and her body seems to be dissolving. A mysterious boy named Haku then appears and comforts her. Haku gives her something to eat, which makes her solid again. He smuggles her into a large bathhouse, owned and operated by the tyrannical witch Yubaba, where the thousands of spirits in the Shinto religion come to refresh themselves. Haku tells Chihiro that the only way she can remain in the spirit-world long enough to rescue her parents is by gaining employment in Yubaba's bathhouse. 
Following Haku's advice, Chihiro descends a long staircase to the boiler room, where she asks Kamaji - the humanoid, six-armed boiler operator - for work. He rebuffs her until one of the coal-carrying sprites (a theme of Miyazaki's repeated from My Neighbor Totoro's soot sprites) collapses under an extra-heavy lump. Chihiro takes the sprite's place and feeds the boiler. Impressed, Kamaji warms towards the girl and tells her to ask Yubaba herself for a job.
A young woman named Lin helps Chihiro find her way through the labyrinthine building, ultimately diverting a fellow servant by tantalizing him with food while Chihiro squeezes into an elevator behind a grotesque but benign radish (daikon) spirit.
In Yubaba's penthouse suite, Chihiro repeatedly and stubbornly asks for a job, overriding the monstrous witch's refusals. Yubaba ultimately consents, on condition that Chihiro give up her name. Yubaba literally takes possession of Chihiro's name by grasping the kanji characters from Chihiro's signed contract, leaving Chihiro with one part of one character of her original 2-character name, in isolation pronounced "Sen". Taking a person's name gives Yubaba power to keep its owner in her service forever; it is revealed that Haku is also in Yubaba's service, and remains so because she has taken part of his full name.
The following morning, Haku takes Sen to the pig pen and indicates her parents among the other pigs, urging her to memorize them. He then reminds her of her full name, warning her to keep it secret.
While at work, Sen gives admittance to a wraithlike spirit called No Face, who returns the favor by helping her obtain water needed to bathe a "stink spirit" whom no one else will help. After bathing, the stink spirit is revealed to be a powerful river spirit who rewards Sen with a small ball. This ball later turns out to be a strong emetic.
Subsequently, Sen sees Haku in the form of a white dragon, and perceives that he is under attack by a horde of paper figures resembling birds. She helps him escape from these, although one of them adheres to her back unseen.
Desperate to find the injured Haku, Sen searches the bathhouse. In one room, she encounters Yubaba's gigantic infant son, Boh. Boh attempts to retain Sen as a playmate; she escapes by playing on his fears of sickness and hastens to find Haku. She finds him lying on the floor of Yubaba's office, wounded and bleeding. The paper object stuck to her back transforms into Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister, whose sigil Haku had stolen. When Zeniba is distracted by Boh, a harpy employed by his mother, and three spirits employed by Yubaba, Zeniba transforms them into a mouse, a hummingbird, and a replica of Boh, respectively. At this, Haku strikes the paper figure with his tail, causing Zeniba to vanish from the room. He then topples into Kamaji's boiler room with Sen and her transformed compatriots in tow.
Using the river spirit's emetic, Sen causes Haku to spit out the stolen sigil, which he had swallowed, as well as a black slug. Kamaji orders Sen to kill the slug, on grounds that it brings bad luck; this she does. Haku remains comatose; hoping to lift Zeniba's curse, Sen sets out to return the sigil to Zeniba.
Meanwhile, No Face has become intoxicated with the greedy atmosphere of the bathhouse and swells into a huge, aggressive monster, giving illusory gold to the bathhouse workers in exchange for lavish amounts of food. When they do not comply with his demands, he swallows three of them; this causes a panic and the entire bathhouse is thrown into pandemonium. Sen manages to solve the problem by feeding No Face the remaining emetic making him throw up his tainted substance and then leading him out of the bathhouse; No Face then reduces back to his former demure size and personality. 
Sen travels by train with No Face, Boh, and the hummingbird, to Zeniba's faraway cottage. Inside Zeniba's home, the three spirits are put to work spinning thread while Sen converses with a now amiable Zeniba who is actually a very kindhearted grandmother like figure. Sen gives the sigil back to Zeniba, apologizing for having killed the black slug. Zeniba reveals that the slug had been one of Yubaba's means of controlling Haku, and that the curse put on the seal has already been broken by Sen's love for Haku. Sen also confides in Zeniba, whom she has now befriended, her proper name of Chihiro.
Back in the bathhouse, Yubaba discovers Boh's absence and is enraged. Haku, now revived and restored to his humanoid form, offers Boh's safe return in exchange for Sen and her parents to be freed and restored to normal. Yubaba accepts, but promises to set Sen one final task. (The plots of the Japanese-language and English-language versions differ slightly here: in the Japanese version, Yubaba and Haku talk about that which is necessary to break the spell on Sen's parents, while no such conversation occurs in the English version.)
Haku, in dragon form, finds Sen at Zeniba's cottage. Along with Boh and the hummingbird, they all fly back to the bathhouse, leaving No Face to live with Zeniba as her assistant. En route to the bathhouse, Chihiro remembers a previously suggested meeting with Haku: some time ago, she had fallen into a river and was rescued by the river's spirit. She realizes that the spirit of this river, called Kohaku River, and her friend Haku, are one and the same. At this realization, Haku's dragon form molts away, and he rejoices to recall his name (and hence is finally delivered from Yubaba's control). 
They return to the bathhouse, where Yubaba and a large crowd have gathered to witness Chihiro's final task: to pick out her enchanted parents from a group of pigs. Chihiro correctly states that none of the pigs displayed by Yubaba are her parents, who have already been restored to human form and sent back to the human world. She is taken to rejoin them by Haku, who bids her farewell just as she is about to meet her parents, and promises that he will come see her again.
Chihiro and her parents (who have been deprived of all memory of the spirit world), return to their car and resume their journey to their new home. Chihiro, perhaps as a result of her adventures, is more confident in herself and more willing to embrace her new situation.
(Copy from wikipedia)
For my friends who intrested and want to know more bout this story,
Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment