Vocal version
Piano version
Bonus: Another good song I want to recommend from Spirited Away
あの日の川へ=To The River of That Day
Movie Information
Spirited Away (千と千尋の神隠し)
Production company: Studio Ghibli
Directed by: Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎駿)
Written by: Miyazaki Hayao (宮崎駿)
Music by: Hisaishi Joe (久石讓)
Release dates: 2001/07/20
Running time: 124 minutes
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
(Information from
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirited_Away)
Plot
A ten-year-old
girl Chihiro Ogino(荻野千尋) and her
parents discovered an enter of an abandoned amusement park while they were
driving to their new home.
Meanwhile, Chihiro
met a boy named Haku while she was wandering around. He asked Chihiro to leave
before sunset.
When Chihiro returned to find her parents, she found that they had been turned into pigs. Being frightened, Chihiro tried to escape but the way which they had come was blocked. Therefore, she had to explore the magical world alone and find a way to save her parents.
Review(Warning: The
following part contains spoiler)
I was very young when I first watched this movie and could only feel
excited while the plot went up and down then. When I watched it again recently
at the age of nineteen, I tried to find what it wanted to express under the
magical settings. I thought it was telling a story about the progress of
becoming mature, or socialized from an innocent child. Chihiro was forced to stay
in the magical world because she wanted to save her parents, which symbolized
those children who had to step into the society and get a job at a too early
age because of their parents’ debt. (Some reviews from other bloggers even said
that the job Chihiro did was actually a sexual one.) After Chihiro got her job,
her name was changed from Chihiro(千尋) to Sen(千). Some said it was because women doing jobs
associated with sex usually had a shorter nickname which was easier to call and
remember. But I thought it also referred to the changes we had to make in order
to fit in the society, which made us forget who we really were as time went by.
So like Haku said, we should never forget our names, or who we were.
(“Chihiro? ......It’s my name!”--Chihiro)
In Chihiro’s journey, she learned how to get along with others while remaining innocent and staying faithful to who she loved.
(Before: “Aren’t you going to say “Thank you” to Kamajii? He did you so
many favors.”--Rin)
(After:”(To Yubaba) Thank you for taking care of me.”--Chihiro)
She was changed by the atmosphere of the society and became a girl with good manner, yet the society didn’t turn her into a greedy girl like other bathhouse workers who lost their minds while they saw golds. She never took more than what she needed and she considered relationships among people were more important than money.
(“No, thanks. Just one is enough.”--Chihiro)
(“I don’t want it. I don’t need it.”--Chihiro)
This kind of spirit didn’t fade away in Chihiro’s life in the bathhouse
because she never forgot who she was. I also left my hometown and started a new
life in university, where was usually said to be a small society. Hope that I can
always remember who I am no matter what happened like brave Chihiro!
Trivia
I believe many people have heard the rumor that one of the inspiration of Spirited Away is Jiufen in Taiwan. The rumor might be one of the reason why Japanese people like to visit Jiufen. For me, who has been to Jiufen in person, I also think the street scene and the atmosphere are similar with the magical world in Spirited Away. But in an interview in 2013, Miyazaki Hayao said that there were many places that were his inspiration of Spirited Away, but Jiufen was never concluded.
(Chihiro in Jiufen
Haku is a popular character in
Ghibli movies because he is gentle and powerful. Therefore, he was invited to star another anime called “Hikaru no Go.” In Hikaru no Go,
his name is Touya Akira…… This is a joke often played on both Haku and Akira
because they really look similar!
(Haku
on the left side and Akira on the right side
See ya!
