Rated "PG" for "Some Scary Moments"
Hope you had a spooky Halloween, friends! Instead of reviewing a film that'll make you wet yourself with fright, we're going to take a look at one of my old favorites, one of the few movies that can make me smile whenever I watch it. "Spirited Away", much like "FLCL", reminds me of what it was like to be on the cusp of young adulthood, comfortable still being called a child but faced with responsibilities and pressures that you never dreamed would fall upon your shoulders.
How scary can you get?
A brief overview: this movie was a really big deal when I was young. The adults in my life knew about it before I did and were just as excited to watch it, because even in 2003 you would have to be living under a rock to never have heard of Hayao Miyazaki. Often compared to Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg, Miyazaki is known for his stellar storytelling prowess, his artistic and creative vision, his penchant towards female protagonists, and his ability to appeal to children without shunning adults. "Spirited Away" was the first anime film to win an Oscar, and argueably kick-started an anime rennaissance in the west that lasted a good decade.
It's not even a question: "Spirited Away" deserves all the praise it got. And I made a drinking game for it and it's PERFECT, possibly one of the best ones I've made. So get ready for a nice, hot soak; you're about to bathe in beauty and charm.
How scary can you get?
A brief overview: this movie was a really big deal when I was young. The adults in my life knew about it before I did and were just as excited to watch it, because even in 2003 you would have to be living under a rock to never have heard of Hayao Miyazaki. Often compared to Walt Disney and Steven Spielberg, Miyazaki is known for his stellar storytelling prowess, his artistic and creative vision, his penchant towards female protagonists, and his ability to appeal to children without shunning adults. "Spirited Away" was the first anime film to win an Oscar, and argueably kick-started an anime rennaissance in the west that lasted a good decade.
It's not even a question: "Spirited Away" deserves all the praise it got. And I made a drinking game for it and it's PERFECT, possibly one of the best ones I've made. So get ready for a nice, hot soak; you're about to bathe in beauty and charm.
"Spirit-ed Away": The Rules
We chose to drink warm sake during our test run, not just because it's Japanese but because the majority of the action in the film takes place in a luxury bathhouse. Sake is a tricky little spirit; I didn't know exactly how drunk I'd gotten until the next morning when my first steps were oh so wobbly.
It also has the tendency to stink up your house, so watch out for that.
Easy Mode
1. Drink for Title Drops. That's the full title, "Spirited Away".
2. Drink when they drink
3. Drink for daddy issues
4. Drink when they eat. Gluttony is a big theme in this movie
5. Drink when Chihiro cries, trips, or whines about something.
Medium Mode
All the above rules apply. Also...
1. Drink when someone calls Chihiro by the name "Sen".
2. Drink for moments of magic.
Hard Mode
All the above rules apply. Also...
1. Drink when Haku and Chihiro say each others names.
2. Drink when Chihiro is given a task. It could be a big task like "go save your dragon boyfriend's life" or a small task like "scrub the floor."
1. Drink for Title Drops. That's the full title, "Spirited Away".
2. Drink when they drink
3. Drink for daddy issues
4. Drink when they eat. Gluttony is a big theme in this movie
5. Drink when Chihiro cries, trips, or whines about something.
Medium Mode
All the above rules apply. Also...
1. Drink when someone calls Chihiro by the name "Sen".
2. Drink for moments of magic.
Hard Mode
All the above rules apply. Also...
1. Drink when Haku and Chihiro say each others names.
2. Drink when Chihiro is given a task. It could be a big task like "go save your dragon boyfriend's life" or a small task like "scrub the floor."
...and she doesn't have to be very good at completing it.
The Players
The players for this game are...
Krissy Pappau: Unlikable Heroine (Hard)
Baebra: Sassy Sidekick (Hard)
The Fuzzy Masked Man: "Handsy" Comic Relief (Medium)
Bride of Buggerlas: Business-Savvy Witch (Easy)
Krissy Pappau: Unlikable Heroine (Hard)
Baebra: Sassy Sidekick (Hard)
The Fuzzy Masked Man: "Handsy" Comic Relief (Medium)
Bride of Buggerlas: Business-Savvy Witch (Easy)
I Will Fight You
I have watched MOST movies that Studio Ghibli has put out since its inception. The only Ghibli film I have not seen that Miyazaki directed was "The Wind Rises", which grabbed him another Oscar nomination in 2013. "Spirited Away" is far and away my favorite film with his name on it; I think it's perfect. I've seen the dub so many times that I've memorized lines based purely on the way they were spoken.
"Don't worry - I've got four-wheel drive."
If this film has flaws, I don't see them. So I polled my friends as we watched. Most of them agreed with me that it was a fantastic movie, but some revealed they didn't always feel that way.
"I was so bored," The Fuzzy Masked Man recalled of his very first watch-through. "I wasn't used to this kind of pacing." This is the number-one complaint I've heard about "Spirited Away": that it's boring. This complaint makes sense on an intellectual level, even if my first emotional response is to laugh in people's faces. I mean how can you classify a movie with a living radish and sentient soot balls as "boring"?
"I was so bored," The Fuzzy Masked Man recalled of his very first watch-through. "I wasn't used to this kind of pacing." This is the number-one complaint I've heard about "Spirited Away": that it's boring. This complaint makes sense on an intellectual level, even if my first emotional response is to laugh in people's faces. I mean how can you classify a movie with a living radish and sentient soot balls as "boring"?
"They're like those little toys, what were they called? Kooshes." -Baebra
You know that three-act structure we all know about from our eleventh grade English classes? Rising action, falling action, climax, all that good stuff? That structure forms the basis for almost all of the media we consume...in the West. It turns out that Eastern countries don't care so much about "narrative" as we're used to recognizing it. Japanese narrative especially is much more free-flowing, and you can see this a lot in anime; most stories are comprised of scenes that all follow a central theme or emotional journey, and those scenes don't have to be connected in any way. In some cases, like in "FLCL", the lack of linear storytelling can seem chaotic and random. In the case of "Spirited Away", where the plot is linear but the line is not straight, it can seem meandering and slow.
With "Spirited Away", the story almost mimics a river's flow. There are moments of wild, rushing action and moments where the flow settles and lets you focus on the beautiful scenery (some of the most gorgeous background art can be found in this film). This comparison is apt considering Miyazaki's heavy use of natural imagery, particularly with water. A neverending river blocks Chihiro's path home after her parents have been transformed into pigs. An injured river spirit comes to Yubaba's bath house where Chihiro and the rest of the staff help remove a bicycle from its muddied, stinky body. And hell, spoilers, Chihiro's amnesiac boyfriend turns out to be a river spirit too - he can't find his way home because his river was paved over to make way for condominiums.
None of this stuff is plot related. Not much of it has to do with the larger story. But "Spirited Away" is more about the feelings it puts inside you than what made those feelings happen.
With "Spirited Away", the story almost mimics a river's flow. There are moments of wild, rushing action and moments where the flow settles and lets you focus on the beautiful scenery (some of the most gorgeous background art can be found in this film). This comparison is apt considering Miyazaki's heavy use of natural imagery, particularly with water. A neverending river blocks Chihiro's path home after her parents have been transformed into pigs. An injured river spirit comes to Yubaba's bath house where Chihiro and the rest of the staff help remove a bicycle from its muddied, stinky body. And hell, spoilers, Chihiro's amnesiac boyfriend turns out to be a river spirit too - he can't find his way home because his river was paved over to make way for condominiums.
None of this stuff is plot related. Not much of it has to do with the larger story. But "Spirited Away" is more about the feelings it puts inside you than what made those feelings happen.
"THAT'S why I can't remember what it was about!" -Bride of Buggerlas
I get the feeling that what made "Spirited Away" popular in the West, though, is the "happenings", which on their own are still spectacular. And honestly? Terrifying.
Some Scary Moments
"This movie is more upsetting as an adult," said Bride of Buggerlas as the first half hour came to a close. I have to agree with her.
So as a refresher to all of you, "Spirited Away" starts off with Chihiro and her parents wandering onto what they think is an abandoned theme park. They come across a line of food stalls and the parents help themselves, despite Chihiro's protests. They seperate, and once shit starts going down Chihiro returns only to find that they've been turned into pigs.
Giant pigs. And this isn't a "Brave" or a "Brother Bear" kind of thing, they can't talk, they're actually pigs. And the spirits of the bath house whip them and place them into a pig pen. Where they might get slaughtered later.
HORRIFYING.
So as a refresher to all of you, "Spirited Away" starts off with Chihiro and her parents wandering onto what they think is an abandoned theme park. They come across a line of food stalls and the parents help themselves, despite Chihiro's protests. They seperate, and once shit starts going down Chihiro returns only to find that they've been turned into pigs.
Giant pigs. And this isn't a "Brave" or a "Brother Bear" kind of thing, they can't talk, they're actually pigs. And the spirits of the bath house whip them and place them into a pig pen. Where they might get slaughtered later.
HORRIFYING.
"I did that in Bloodborne the other day!" -The Fuzzy Masked Man
If you don't remember this level of brutality when you were younger, there might be a reason for that. Because I own the DVD of this movie, I was able to manipulate the audio options so that we could watch the film in English, but with the subtitles for the Japanese audio. This turned out to be a BRILLIANT move on my part, because we could easily compare the dub and sub script in the moment, and while the dub of "Spirited Away" is a mostly faithful translation, there are some departures in tone.
In both translations, our lead Chihiro is a spoiled brat who is afraid to step outside of her comfort zone. The film is a coming of age story wherin she finds strength inside herself and uses it to protect the people she cares about, but it's a gradual change for her, and in the early half of the film she's next to useless. In the English dub, there are some subtle changes made in how the other characters talk to her. As they give her instructions they make assurances, tell her that things will be okay, tell her to calm down. By extension, they're telling the young viewers to calm down, assuring THEM that everything will be okay.
In the Japanese version, the characters are much more blunt and to the point. They tell Chihiro to be still. They offer no explanations about what's happening. They give her orders and they instruct her to follow them. In short, they treat her like an adult, and because she has no choice Chihiro does what they tell her to do. Eventually she learns to act without being told, and watching the growth from when she's a little girl crying while double-fisting rice balls to a young woman who's willing to stand up for her friends is wonderful.
In both translations, our lead Chihiro is a spoiled brat who is afraid to step outside of her comfort zone. The film is a coming of age story wherin she finds strength inside herself and uses it to protect the people she cares about, but it's a gradual change for her, and in the early half of the film she's next to useless. In the English dub, there are some subtle changes made in how the other characters talk to her. As they give her instructions they make assurances, tell her that things will be okay, tell her to calm down. By extension, they're telling the young viewers to calm down, assuring THEM that everything will be okay.
In the Japanese version, the characters are much more blunt and to the point. They tell Chihiro to be still. They offer no explanations about what's happening. They give her orders and they instruct her to follow them. In short, they treat her like an adult, and because she has no choice Chihiro does what they tell her to do. Eventually she learns to act without being told, and watching the growth from when she's a little girl crying while double-fisting rice balls to a young woman who's willing to stand up for her friends is wonderful.
"I've totally been there." -Baebra
Miyazaki said in an interview that he wrote this film for some young family friends, and that he wanted to make the protagonist a regular girl their age. He read girl's comics for inspiration, saw that they mostly discussed romance and decided to make an adventure story that they could identify with, about a heroine being influenced by changing circumstances to become a strong person. It's a wonderful goal, and the dub does a good job of honoring that, even if they try to sweeten things up a bit.
Not to say that the movie doesn't deal with romance at ALL.
Not to say that the movie doesn't deal with romance at ALL.
Wuv...Twoo Wuv...
The other major changes to "Spirited Away"'s translation are entirely to do with the fact that Disney produced the English release.
Heh. Can you imagine if they tried to push for more merchandising? Hilarious.
"Spirited Away" is a children's movie after all, and Disney has certain expectations forwhat that means. So the dub is littered with references to two things that are notably missing from the Japanese version: the idea of "True Love", and a division between Good and Evil.
So Chihiro meets a mysterious boy in the bath house named Haku, who spends a ton of his energy watching over Chihiro and making sure she stays safe while she figures out a way to get home. However, he's contractually bound to serve Yubaba, the witch who rules the bath house and uses her magic to force people to be loyal to her. Chihiro goes through incredible emotional turmoil over deciding whether or not she can trust Haku, and this subplot finally gets resolved when she breaks the curse holding him in thrall to Yubaba and helps him recover his identity. As the two of them rejoice over Haku's newfound freedom, Chihiro cries out (in English) "I knew you were good!"
So Chihiro meets a mysterious boy in the bath house named Haku, who spends a ton of his energy watching over Chihiro and making sure she stays safe while she figures out a way to get home. However, he's contractually bound to serve Yubaba, the witch who rules the bath house and uses her magic to force people to be loyal to her. Chihiro goes through incredible emotional turmoil over deciding whether or not she can trust Haku, and this subplot finally gets resolved when she breaks the curse holding him in thrall to Yubaba and helps him recover his identity. As the two of them rejoice over Haku's newfound freedom, Chihiro cries out (in English) "I knew you were good!"
In the Japanese version, she says something along the lines of "thank goodness you're safe."
What's key here is, while Yubaba is a clear antagonist, at no point in the Japanese sub is she referred to as "evil". I'm not sure if she's ever explicitly described as evil in the dub either, but the implication is that Yubaba is an untrustworthy and coldhearted person, and by extension so is Haku and anyone else who works for her. If you examine her actions, though, you can see this is untrue. Yubaba has a policy of hiring anyone who asks for a job, she shows a great amount of love for her child, and she is great at boosting morale when her employees need it. But she's a businesswoman, and she knows the best way to get her employees to listen to her is to buy their loyalty, or trick them into servitude (or maybe offer sexual favors, she had to get that baby somehow).
"If you fucked Yubaba, you'd probably be set in that bath house." "Yeah, but she probably has four vaginas and one of them leads to snakes." -Bride of Buggerlas and Fuzzy Masked Man
All this to say, Yubaba's no Cruella De Vil. Her actions aren't cartoonish and they have clear benefits for people other than her, even if she's at the top of the totem pole. But Disney pushes the "evil witch" narrative a little further than they need to, and the "true love" narrative helps that along.
While Chihiro and Haku are adorable and clearly have what their parents would call a "special friendship", it's not necessarily romantic in the Japanese version. In the dub, they making a point of labeling what they have "pure love", crediting the feelings between the two of them as the thing that breaks Haku's bond with Yubaba. These declarations are absent in the Japanese version, replaced by subtler tells that lump Haku in with the rest of the cast who gets won over by Chihiro in the end.
It's not that the English version made up the romance. It's clearly there. But Disney definitely prioritized the love story over the larger picture, which is the story of a girl who meets a bunch of magical creatures that change her life. The closest correlation in the Disney canon is probably "Alice in Wonderland", although as Bride of Buggerlas points out, Wonderland's denizens don't function without Alice around, and Yubaba's bath house will probably be in business for many centuries to come. When Chihiro gazes back at the abandoned structures at the end of the film, she's not just thinking about Haku. She's thinking about everyone she met, and about how different she is now.
...I'm ashamed to say that I missed that subtext for years. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a love story.
While Chihiro and Haku are adorable and clearly have what their parents would call a "special friendship", it's not necessarily romantic in the Japanese version. In the dub, they making a point of labeling what they have "pure love", crediting the feelings between the two of them as the thing that breaks Haku's bond with Yubaba. These declarations are absent in the Japanese version, replaced by subtler tells that lump Haku in with the rest of the cast who gets won over by Chihiro in the end.
It's not that the English version made up the romance. It's clearly there. But Disney definitely prioritized the love story over the larger picture, which is the story of a girl who meets a bunch of magical creatures that change her life. The closest correlation in the Disney canon is probably "Alice in Wonderland", although as Bride of Buggerlas points out, Wonderland's denizens don't function without Alice around, and Yubaba's bath house will probably be in business for many centuries to come. When Chihiro gazes back at the abandoned structures at the end of the film, she's not just thinking about Haku. She's thinking about everyone she met, and about how different she is now.
...I'm ashamed to say that I missed that subtext for years. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a love story.
"It's the magic of fiber! Fiber is magic, and fiber is love!" -Bride of Buggerlas
The Results
The four of us finished a 1.5 liter bottle of sake during what is a SHORT movie. I'm proud of this one, and because most sake is so mild you won't even feel that drunk at the time (I think. I don't know your life).
If you want to experiment with some other rules, here are some new ones you can try swapping out.
Drink whenever someone criticizes Chihiro
This happens mostly at the beginning of the film, so you can also drink when someone praises her.
Drink when an animal makes a noise
I'm mostly talking about non-sentient animals, but I guess if one of the frogs who works for Yubaba ribbits or something, that'll count.
Drink when someone shouts or yells
If you want to experiment with some other rules, here are some new ones you can try swapping out.
Drink whenever someone criticizes Chihiro
This happens mostly at the beginning of the film, so you can also drink when someone praises her.
Drink when an animal makes a noise
I'm mostly talking about non-sentient animals, but I guess if one of the frogs who works for Yubaba ribbits or something, that'll count.
Drink when someone shouts or yells
Drink again if accompanied by fire breath.
Thanks for reading everyone! I hope your Halloween was frightfully fun. Next month, a franchise ends, and I eagerly anticipate its final installment.
Good thing Jennifer Lawrence is the most castable actress in Hollywood.
Like what you see? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, at For Your Inebriation and @KrissyPappau respectively. You'll get weekly updates, behind the scenes drunk talk, and other chatter!
For Your Inebriation is written by Krissy Pappau (Hollis Beck). All "Spirited Away" images are owned by Walt Disney Entertainment and Studio Ghibli.
Special Thanks to my patrons, Caroline Kittredge Faustine, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin and Antonia Beck! Your support helps me keep this blog up and running. Join their ranks today and donate to my ongoing Patreon campaign!
For Your Inebriation is written by Krissy Pappau (Hollis Beck). All "Spirited Away" images are owned by Walt Disney Entertainment and Studio Ghibli.
Special Thanks to my patrons, Caroline Kittredge Faustine, Kaela Mei-Shing Garvin and Antonia Beck! Your support helps me keep this blog up and running. Join their ranks today and donate to my ongoing Patreon campaign!
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