Spirited Away is the Oscar winning animated feature film by Studio Ghibli released in 2001, an Alice in Wonderland-esque story directed by famed director, Hayao Miyazaki. The synopsis is as follows:
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
[The scene was not available to link on Youtube, but all of Ghibli's films are currently available on Netflix UK]
My favourite scene in the film is perhaps its most iconic: it sees main character Chihiro taking a magical train with her newfound friends in order to save her friend Haku's life.
This scene combines so much of what makes Miyazaki's films special. The idea of a train that carries spirit passengers, dropping them off at remote stations on a track submerged under an infinite stretch of calm, blue water is so abstract and beautiful at the same time. It distils the movie's strength at soft world building- a type of storytelling that prioritises ambience over hard details, in other words the opposite of mythologies like Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones. The gaps that the audience fills in themselves and the interpretations we make are far more impactful than any expository explanation for the spirits that we could ever get. We could imagine that this train ferries spirits through the afterlife, in a slight parallel to Greek Mythology, but we never truly get the answer to our speculation. Even without seeing the film, the visual of Chihiro sitting next to No-Face- a mysterious spirit with an unmoving face mask and weakness for greed- with its oddness of art style and character, makes the scene instantly iconic.
Miyazaki is far from style over substance, however. Chihiro's train journey is a sign of her reaching a key point in her character growth over the film. Taking the train alone for the first time is a landmark step in a young person's independence, and Chihiro's quiet determination as she sits quietly is subtly powerful. Seeing her grow from a timid girl who clings to her mother's arm to a brave young woman riding a train alone to save her friend is such a heart-warming story to see. Many Ghibli films are similarly strong at following the journey of girls who prioritise kindness, bravery and friendship.
What I love most of all about this scene is the sereneness of it. The combination of Ghibli's usual beautiful animation: the brilliant blue of the sky, the ripples in the water (Ghibli water is always so stunning!), the gentle sway of the train and the shadowy forms of the spirit passengers. Composer Joe Hisaishi delivers his best work here with 'Sixth Station'- which says a lot because of his outstanding music for Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo. The soothing piano in combination with the animation gives the sequence a meditative and dream-like quality that is so unique to Spirited Away and no other film I have ever watched.
The ability of Ghibli films to linger on a moment and let the audience bask within the tiny details of the environment and the story is something that I love about each of their stories. Spirited Away combines this with a beautiful and mystical sense of ambiguity, demonstrated wonderfully by the train sequence towards the end of the film.
Thank you for reading this post, you can find my thoughts on more movie scenes (including another Ghibli sequence from My Neighbor Totoro) below:
I do not own any of the images or videos used in this post.