Breaking Through

Someone asked me who my favourite character from ‘Spirited Away’ is. It’s hard to make a decision like that; I mean, you can’t just say that you love one character. It’s Miyazaki – ALL his characters are perfect. I mean, honestly, even the Radish Spirit is amazing. And all he does is creep Chihiro out in the elevator and dance a weird funky dance near the end. Right.

So then, I can’t really pick; each and every character in this film changes in one capacity or another. Ok, maybe not a complete change, but rather, OUR views of them change because we see another side of them that was never shown before. For example, Kamajii. At first, we him as a really rough and gruff old man with six arms, stuck in the boiler room with no one but his magic soot balls to keep him company. He’s not very likeable, but then his true self starts shining as the movie progresses. The real and caring Kamajii – so caring that he can easily recognise it in others as well, even though they don’t see it for themselves. He helped Chihiro get to Zeniba’s (Yubaba’s twin) place by giving her the tickets that he’s been saving for his own escape for forty years! He also took care of Haku when he was very sick. I mean, isn’t that sweet or what? 

It goes to show that appearances are nothing if we let our real selves shine and break through.

Same with Lin; at first, she was really rough with Chihiro, annoyed at the fact that she had to ‘babysit’ the human who was causing all the trouble in the bathhouse but as the movie goes on, she evolves into a caring and kind friend. And then there’s Chihiro herself. What I love about her is the fact that she doesn’t start out the movie as a heroine. 

She DOESN’T know that she could be one or that she even had the capacity to be one. She is a selfish and spoiled brat, uprooted and resenting every minute of the change. But then this girl – modern, spoiled and normal – is plunged into this extraordinary circumstance that ends up showing her what she is capable of. I love how Miyazaki didn't end the film with Chihiro being a heroine, completely changed and mature, but rather, he ends with the knowledge that she has the makings of one. He ends it in a way so that we know that she will grow up into a lovely lady one day, but he also ends it openly enough so we can see that it's still really her choice if she will grow up into the good person she found out she could be or grow up into another person entirely. 

I suppose this is really why I love this movie: the characters' real selves shine through when they were put to the test. Everything is stripped away and we, the audience, get to see their real hearts through the circumstance that they face; after all, what one does in a desperate time shows who one truly is.