The Bite Magazine - Spring/Summer 2022 - Issue 31

Spirited Away bitefilmreview nitially released in 2001, the Japanese anime fantasy film Spirited Away , written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, is based on his friend, associate producer Seiji Okuda’s ten- year-old daughter. It received universal acclaim and became the most successful and highest-grossing film in Japanese history. It held the record for 19 years until Demon Slayer : Kimetsu no Yai- ba – The Movie: Mugen Train surpassed it in 2020. Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Fea- ture at the 75th Academy Awards, the first hand-drawn and non-English-language animated film to win the award to date. The New York Times also named it the second ‘Best Films of the 21st Century so Far’. Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents travel to their new home when her father decides to take a shortcut. The family’s car stops in front of a tunnel leading to what appears to be an aban- doned amusement park which Chihiro’s father insists on explor- ing, despite his daughter’s protest. They find a seemingly empty restaurant still stocked with food, which her parents immediate- ly begin to eat. While investigating further, Chihiro reaches an enormous bathhouse and meets a boy named Haku, who warns her to return across the riverbed before sunset. However, Chihiro discovers too late that her parents have trans- formed into pigs, and she cannot cross the now-flooded river that will take her to the spiritual world. Eventually, she exits the new realm and reunites with her parents, who have now returned to their former state; however, they do not remember anything that happened after eating at the restaurant stall. They walk back through the tunnel until they reach their car, now covered in dust and leaves. Before getting in, Chihiro looks back at the tunnel, unsure if her adventure actually happened. https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/online