Spirited Away
★★Skip itIs Spirited Away worth watching? (No spoilers)
Absolutely stunning to look at, like everything from Studio Ghibli. But the story is a mess: things just happen, characters have random rules, and every problem gets fixed by some new bit of magic. Not a waste of time, but it didn't live up to the hype for me.
⚠️ Spoiler warning: everything below the quick take, including the full review and ending explained, contains spoilers.
Spirited Away review
The film was stunning to look at, like every film produced from this studio. However, that is about the only thing truly stunning about it.
To me, the story, or lack thereof, was a complete mess. While I understand the themes of greed, youthful innocence, capitalism conflicting with Japanese culture, and growing industrialism, it didn't feel like it actually said anything interesting about any of them. Nor are themes an excuse for a weak story. Things just happened, seemingly unconnected, with every character having their own ruleset that didn't really seem that important. The parents were easily saved at the end, the stolen names could be remembered at any point, the baby suddenly becomes friendly when all hope is lost, and the dying dragon was saved long before our main character did anything with the sister.
Another major issue for me is that every time there was an issue or obstacle, a character would be able to magically fix it, using something we had not seen before. This continues throughout the film, making it feel like deus ex machina after deus ex machina. It left me feeling disappointed by many of the struggles, for example the main character randomly relearning her name, and then her lovers name. Or the orb healing not only her lover, but also fixing the faceless one.
Overall it was interesting, and not a waste of time to watch. However from such a prestigious studio, I really expected more, and am left wondering what others saw in it to leave such raving reviews.
Spirited Away ending explained
Chihiro, working at Yubaba's bathhouse to save her parents (who were turned into pigs), travels to Zeniba's house to return a stolen seal. On the flight back, riding Haku in his dragon form, she remembers that she once fell into the Kohaku River as a little girl and was carried safely to shore. That river was Haku. Saying his true name, the Kohaku River, breaks Yubaba's hold on him.
Yubaba gives Chihiro one last test: pick her parents out of a pen of pigs. Chihiro correctly says none of them are her parents, which frees her and her family. Haku walks her to the edge of the spirit world and tells her not to look back. She doesn't, and her parents act as if nothing happened. The car is covered in dust and leaves, showing time has passed. The hair tie Zeniba gave her still glints, showing it was real.
The ending is about growing up: Chihiro starts the film whiny and scared, and leaves confident and grounded, having held on to her name and identity.
My take: a lot of the resolutions in the last act (the name, the pig test, Haku's rescue) feel too easy and come out of nowhere.
Does Spirited Away have a post-credits scene?
No. Spirited Away has no mid-credits or post-credits scene. The credits play over still images of the bathhouse and the family's journey, and the film ends there.
Movies like Spirited Away
- My Neighbor Totoro (1988) – Ghibli's gentler take on kids meeting spirits
- Howl's Moving Castle (2004) – Ghibli fantasy with a curse to break
- Coraline (2009) – a girl trapped in a creepy other world who has to save her parents
- Pan's Labyrinth (2006) – a darker fairy-tale world with tests to pass