Miyazaki's Spirited Away

i love this movie, and if you haven't seen it yet, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT! well, spirited away is about a young girl named Chihiro. On their way to a new home, Chihiro and her parents take a wrong turn and end up at a tunnel which seemed untouched for decades. Curiously, chihiro's parents wander off into the tunnel, leaving chihiro no choice but to follow. A mysterious town filled with delicious food on display awaited the other side, and without hesitation chihiro's parents eat the food while she wanders around. Darkness falls and strange things start to happen. The town begins to fill with the ghosts of japan's mythology and chihiro tries to leave the town only to find that her parents have turned into pigs and that the tunnel has vanished into a vast ocean. A young boy named haku finds Chihiro and offers to help her find her way back home.

the movie touches upon the major themes we covered in class; identity and the struggle of adapting to a new environment and culture. The movie shows how important identity is to a person by establishing that chihiros name is the key to getting Chihiro home. When chihiro starts to work for ubaba to try and earn her ticket home, ubaba strips chihiros name from her, and now has to answer to sen. by the middle of the movie she almosts forgets her original name completely. this can allude to our discussion in class about how hard it was for asian-americans to remember and keep their original roots once they arrived in this forgein place called united states. this asian identity, because everyone just wanted to fit in and not be so noticeable like chihiro. we see this struggle root from the struggle of adapting to a new environment and culture. chihiro's work isn't easy in the new spiritual world, she works as a servant and has a hard time with getting comfortable with all the different spirits that are around her. She deals with money issues around her, love, establishing friendship and avoiding possible dangers. She quickly grows from this young, very impatient, and cowardly girl into a mature soul.. for she has no other choice but to. The changes in chihiro and her experiences i see reflect those who we learned about in class. the many changes asians had to go through as a whole. stereotypes - chihiro was pictured as weak and useless because she was human. threats from "superior powers" - chihiro was threatened many times by ubaba to leave the bath house. money issues - chihiro dealt with greed in the movie. ETC. overall, this is an excellent film that not only teaches people about the many themes i mentioned up there, but Miyazaki being an asian, decided to allude the movie to the asian struggle in being american.