"Spirited Away" often makes people ignore the core of the story because of its well-made, beautiful scenes, and distinct characters. Most people are fragmented in their image of this world-famous film, remembering usually the characters of the faceless man, the white dragon, the boiler grandfather, the soup mother-in-law, etc., and they always feel that it is not clear what kind of story this anime tells.
In my opinion, Spirited Away is not only a youth elegy about growth and pain, but also a national fable about history and memory.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="3" > the background</h1>
To understand a work, you should first understand the background of the work.
After World War II, Japan's economy developed rapidly, leaping into the ranks of developed countries, and by the 1980s Japan had become the world's second largest economic power after the United States.
The screenwriter and director of the film, ---- Miyazaki, is respected around the world not only because he is an excellent animation master, but also because of his sense of social responsibility expressed through his works.
In an age of borderlessness, people without a foothold are the most despised. The place to stand is the past, is history. It seems to me that people without history and peoples who have forgotten the past can only disappear like ephemerals, or like a chicken, they only know how to lay eggs until they are eaten. ——Hayao Miyazaki
As far as Miyazaki is concerned in Japan, I think lu Xun is like Lu Xun in China, who is pessimist in his bones, but he cannot give up his pity for the country and the nation. Just as Lu Xun added a garland to the grave of Yu'er in "Medicine", Miyazaki once said in an interview:
Miyazaki created Spirited Away against the backdrop of Japan's bubble economy, and its social implications are self-evident.
Spirited Away premiered in Japan in 2001. Chihiro in the film is set to ten years old, so it is deduced that Chihiro should have been born in 1991.
At the beginning of the film, the Chihiro family moves to the countryside, passing a three-way crossing, the car turns right, at this time the camera moves up, revealing the road signs, and the Chihiro family walks towards "National Highway 21", implying that the background of the film has entered the 21st century. Chihiro's father chose to cut a short path, driving fast throughout the whole process,
Later, Chihiro's father also clearly pointed out the "bubble era".
Passing by a bunch of small houses, Chihiro's mother explains that "this is the stone shrine, the home of the gods", and these stone shrines have long been covered with moss and have obviously been abandoned for a long time.
In order to cut a shortcut, the Chihiro family enters a dark tunnel, and at the end of the tunnel is the illusory world, and the story officially begins.
Faced with a bunch of delicious food, Chihiro's parents sat down to eat, and at the same time said, "It's good to pay when someone comes, credit cards and cash are held." It is precisely the phenomenon of Japanese society at that time that generally faced temptation and advanced consumption.
In order to reverse the trade deficit with Japan, the United States insisted that Japan sign the Plaza Accord, and then Japan entered the bubble era. A lot of money went into real estate and the stock market, and tens of millions of Japanese people got rich overnight. Money came too easily, life became extravagant, at that time Japan was popular to eat gold, what gold leaf udon noodles, gold leaf sushi rolls filled with a variety of high-end restaurants, the world is full of Japanese people who rush to buy overseas luxury goods and real estate. On the streets of Tokyo, where dance halls and ramen shops are only 500 meters away, no one wants to walk to them, and they are eagerly waiting for taxis at the intersection. Golf quickly became civilian, and Bugatti Veyron swarmed in the streets. Graduates have not graduated from the company to recruit, and even played the condition of prepaying half a year's salary... To this day, there are still many middle-aged and elderly people, thinking of the "bubble era", still feel very good.
Because of greed, Chihiro's parents turned into pigs and were left to be slaughtered.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="67" Chihiro'> s parents represented the Japanese group of middle-aged people at the time. </h1>
Because the "shortcut" countries are caught in the bubble economy, and this group of middle-aged people have also suffered their own consequences and become slaves to capital.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="68" > Chihiro represents the younger generation of Japanese. </h1>
Chihiro in the film does not want to follow her parents to take shortcuts, and avoids becoming a pig because she does not eat gluttonously. However, Chihiro, who is only 10 years old, is powerless to change the status quo, and can only follow the path chosen by her parents and enter the illusion.
The blow of a sudden change of life did not defeat Chihiro, who always remained kind, industrious and sincere. On the surface, Chihiro, who seems timid and helpless, after being introduced by the white dragon to inform the rules of the road, all rely on her own efforts to step out step by step, in the crisis her potential was stimulated, tirelessly, not afraid of danger, brave to bear, apologizing on behalf of the people, so she has helped the river god, helped the swallowed clerk, helped the faceless person, helped the fat baby, and finally saved the white dragon, saved herself, and also saved her parents.
At the end of the movie "Spirited Away", Chihiro tightly wraps her arms around her mother and walks out of the dark tunnel, exactly the same shot as when Chihiro first walked into the tunnel, making people think that everything they experienced was just a dream. But Chihiro's headband flashes by, but it reminds you of its irrefutable truth.
The meaning of work is self-evident, because with a job, Grandma Tang can't turn her into a pig, and Chihiro has the capital to survive in this world. The work here, Miyaura should mean that the development of industry is the only way out for Japan.
The name represents faith, and the film repeatedly emphasizes that Chihiro should not forget his name, because if he forgets his name, he will not go back. Only Chihiro in the yuya can resist the temptation of desire because she has not forgotten her name. And Grandma Tang is using the capture of people's names to make them forget their own essence.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="75" > white dragon represents the Japanese regime. </h1>
Bai Long lost his name and lost himself because he studied magic with Tang Po Po, and knew the survival rules of this society, and finally became Tang Po Po's thug.
The white dragon's real name is "Rao Sumizu Amber Lord", (another translation: "Amber Lord") Chihiro said that after hearing the name of the white dragon, he said: "A good name, like a god".
What kind of deity is Rao Su Ri? It is said that "Rao Su Ri" was a japanese emperor who came to the earth before the advent of the Japanese tens and ruled the Yamato region, and was later seized of power and surrendered during the Eastern Expedition of Emperor Shenmu, and has since become a subordinate of Emperor Shinmu of Japan, but "Rao Su Ri" has always been regarded by some Japanese as the god of the ancestors and the origin of Japan's collective spiritual consciousness.
At that time, the Japanese government was dependent on the United States because it learned the path of development (magic) from the United States (Mother Tang), and gradually became a pawn of the United States.
Later, with Chihiro's help, he retrieves his name. Here is also the hope of Miyako for the Japanese regime:
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="97" > the faceless man represents the faceless man as a symbol of loneliness and emptiness</h1>
Before Chihiro appeared, the Faceless Man was never taken seriously, just like the characteristics of his own body- he was invisible, and everyone ignored him. He was always wearing a smiling mask and wandering alone, he didn't even have a name.
Faceless men represent the part of people who are empty and lonely in the materialistic society, who are not valued, who cannot find the value of their own existence, they are easy to become extreme, but in fact, they are also easy to satisfy, they are eager for love and attention, as long as the world is a little gentler to them, as long as they try harder, everything will be better.
Just like at the end of the story, the faceless man happily stayed in Qian's mother-in-law's house, and he no longer followed Chihiro. Because he has found the value of existence.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="73" > Tang Po Po represents the United States</h1>
All the characters in the film are typical Japanese images, but Grandma Tang is the image of an eagle hook-nosed Westerner, and I was suddenly enlightened when I saw Grandma Tang incarnate as a big bird patrol.
Isn't this image exactly the bald eagle (the bald eagle is the symbol of the United States)?
Grandma Tang lived in a luxurious house full of gold and silver jewelry, squeezing the fruits of the labor of all the people in the soup house, taking away their names, and depriving them of their personal freedom. The executives in the soup house pay great attention to cost control, miserly use high-priced medicinal baths, and only want to fill it with labor.
In order to pursue higher profits, capital will do whatever it takes to move mountains and reclaim the sea, build large-scale construction, pollute water sources, and destroy the environment. The man-made river at the entrance to the hidden world is the best irony, people are filling or polluting the natural river ("rotting" river gods) while building so-called artificial paradises, digging rivers to pretend to be natural.
In the capitalist society, people do their best to pursue money, before the faceless man did not take out the gold, only Xiaoqian greeted him, and after taking out the gold, everyone in the whole house began to be flattered, and the ordinary people who were squeezed by capital, Such ling, could only go with the flow and earn a meager income, leaving the soup house was just a distant dream.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="74" > money mother-in-law represents money</h1>
Grandma Tang and Grandma Qian are twins, and they are two sides of the same coin.
Money and capital are one, but there are two sides of good and evil, all say that "money is the source of all evil", in the film, we originally thought that the big bad Qian Mother-in-law is not a bad witch, but in a distant hut, living a simple life, doing simple labor, and then kindly telling the children that only the goods made by hand are the best.
Miyazaki borrowed money from his mother-in-law to say his advice to young people:
These two points are the essence of the whole film, realistic innovation is the future of the nation, the bubble is just a dream, but also Japan wants to pierce the bubble and return to the normal direction.
At the end of the film, Chihiro apologizes with the faceless man and riding the tram and across the sea. Apologizing across the sea is like a magic key, allowing each character's dilemma to be solved. Xiao Bai assures Chihiro that he will leave the oil house and no longer be the minions of Mother Tang; the faceless man will stay in Grandma Qian's house and find his own belonging; Chihiro's parents will also change from pigs to human beings.
At the Oscars, Miyazaki refused to attend, unwilling to go to a country that was bombing Iraq. For the film, Miyazaki simply said:
"The moment Chihiro got in the car was the happiest moment I had."