What is theme of "Spirited Away"? Could you tell me what did you think?

[Julia]

I am a Japanese university student and researching about "Spirited Away" which is Hayao Miyazaki's movie . (understanding for non-Japanese people)

I would like to ask for people who had whatched this movie, "what is theme of this movie?"
Could you please tell me what did you think? I would like to hear your idea.

I think this movie's theme is a little bit hard to understand especially for non-Japanese ppl
because this movie based on very old(traditional) Japanese custom...

I am very interested in how do non-Japanese ppl think of this movie...!

And if you couldn't understand meaning of some scenes(e.g. "gross-out", No-face, 8 million gods,
Kohakunushi...), plese tell me those scenes as well and how did you think.

When you answered, could you please tell me your nationality as well? X ( cuz it might be different from each country...!


thank you very very much for your cooperation

 

[troy]

Hayao Miyazaki is my absolute favorite cartoonist and animator. I first watched My Neighbor Totoro when I was a kid and ever since I've loved every one of his movies. I have yet to see Ponyo.

What is the theme of this movie? I think it is a story of Chihiro's coming of age. She starts out as a selfish and spoiled bratty kid who is forced to group up and be brave once her parents are gone. By the end of the movie she is an entirely different person, grateful, brave and assertive.

I also see an element of nostalgia and longing for old Japanese society within the movie. The first few scenes with Chihiro's parents are of a conventional urban family moving into the countryside where magical things happen. The family seems boring and not particularly intelligent until Chihiro enters the spirit world of the bath house. She begins to appreciate the gods and the magical beings that surround her. I think this is a subtle way of taking the Japanese viewers back to old folkloric stories and appreciation for a life different than the Japanese urban experience. Even after Chihiro leaves the bath house and returns to the real world with her parents she carries a little bit of the magic she found in the elastic golden ponytail the witch gives her.

Some scenes: no-face is my favorite character of the movie. I wasn't grossed out by the scene in the bath but I was very creeped out by the giant, talking baby.

About the river god, I think it is a commentary on water pollution no? I could be wrong, but the reason why the spirit is acting out and looks so disgusting is because of all the crap people have dumped on him.

The 8 million gods is the amount of spirits that exist in the Shinto religion. Or so I think. I must have read that in some manga so I could be very wrong.

I am from the USA.