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English

Why “Spirited Away” Will Remain As One Of

The Best Studio Ghibli Movies ?

5A Ma Hoi Wan Natalie

The movie “Spirited Away” has taken the world by storm and has been given the title “The Best Studio
Ghibli Film” according to the IMDB. The movie was released in 2001 and it has a long list of awards
won, including an Oscars Award. Not only that, it became so famous that it has won the “Best Animated
Feature” award in the 15 Academy Awards in 2013. It is known as the top grossing movie ever made in
th
Japan for about two decades. Today, I will be talking about a review for the movie “Spirited Away”, and
how it will always remain nostalgic for many.
The movie “Spirited Away” is a Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao
Miyazaki, animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Buena Vista
Home Entertainment, Tohokushinsha Film, and Mitsubishi and distributed by Toho. It is also known as “Sen
and Chihiro’s Spiriting Away” or “千と千尋の神隠し” in Japanese. The hard hitting nostalgic movie was
originally released on 20th July, 2001, and went on to become Japan’s highest-grossing film of all time,
and held the record for 19 years, surpassing 300 million dollars at the local box office in 2020 after the
movie was re-released. The main actors, including both Rumi Hiiragi and Daveigh Chase as Chihiro and
Miyu Irino as Haku, and 19 iconic characters were featured with simple yet unique designs and realistic
voice acting.

For a quick summary of this memorable movie, Chihiro and her family stumble upon an abandoned
amusement park while moving to their new house. They go to the abandoned amusement park to explore
out of curiosity and find many food stalls which display some unknown dishes. Chihiro’s parents decide to
eat the displayed food in the meantime. Chihiro tries to tell them not to eat the mysterious food but they
don’t listen, and tell Chihiro that they’ll remember to pay after. Chihiro runs around the amusement park
as the sun is setting until a mysterious blue-haired with a bob-haircut boy appears and tells Chihiro to
leave. Chihiro is confused but listens to the boy and runs to find her parents, telling them that it is time to
go. However, when she arrives at the previous place where she has last seen her parents, Chihiro finds
two pigs wearing her parents’ clothes instead, ingurgitating many dishes of substances somewhat like
meat. She is shocked to see what her parents have become and is now more eager to leave. As the sun
sets, the Spirit World dances to life in front of the worried Chihiro, with ghostly specters appearing from
nowhere, lights turning on, signs appearing, colours blooming into existence, and life flowing from every

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