Forum - View topicMy Criticism of Spirited Away
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RedPhish
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Spirited Away is widely considered to be one of the best(if not the best) animated films of all time. For the most part, I actually agree with this. I saw the movie for the first time when I was 12 and it affected me in a way unlike which movie has ever done before. I was never able to stop thinking about the plethora of emotions that it was able to provoke from me. And while I still appreciate the movie a lot today, I can’t help but to notice certain flaws in the movie’s storytelling that often aren’t talked about.
1). Haku’s character was underdeveloped— Even though the scenes between Chihiro and Haku towards the end of the movie were the most emotional parts of the movie, it was really animation and music that set the mood rather than any natural development between the two characters. There isn’t much of a reason given for why Chihiro “loves” Haku since he didn’t even play a significant part of the movie until he was attacked by Zeniba for stealing her golden seal. The only things that were established about him up until that point was that he can’t remember his name, he apparently met Chihiro when she was younger, and that he helped Chihiro get a job in the bathhouse early in the movie. 2). No-Face’s character and subplot was pointless— Aside from the fact that the character was supposed to be symbolism for greed, the character was only needed for the second act and became pointless for the rest of the movie. Which is why after he threw up all the people he swallowed in the bathhouse and turned back to normal, he was pretty much reduced to a background character until he was cut out from the story after he decided to stay at Zeniba’s cottage. 3). Zeniba’s character— While I liked how Zeniba and Yubaba symbolized that good and evil are on opposite sides of the same coin, Zeniba’s character had the same problem that No-Face’s character had— she was only needed for a small part of the film. There was no explanation provided for why Yubaba and Zeniba dislike each other or why Yubaba wanted Zeniba’s golden seal to begin with. Zeniba’s character and plot line had much more potential, but it only lasted small part of the film and resolved relatively fast. 4). Generally speaking, the plot didn’t flow together well. The movie is divided into three parts: First: The premise and tone are established. Chihiro and her parents get lost inside the spirit world. Her parents get turned into pigs and Chihiro gets a job at the bathhouse in order to survive. Second: Mainly the No-Face subplot and other random things happen. Third: Zeniba almost kills Haku for stealing her golden seal while he was under Yubaba’s spell so Chihiro must return the seal to her and apologize for him. While the first act set the premise and the movie well and the third was the best and most emotionally impacting part of the movie, the second act seemed random and didn’t flow together well with the first and third parts. This is probably because the second act focus on No-Face’s subplot(which became irrelevant by the third act of the movie) and because third act focused more Haku’s character even though his character wasn’t developed well enough by that point. In conclusion, Spirited Away breathtaking in terms of the amount of imagination that was put into creating a world as vivid as the one in the film, but I found the plot to be lacking. It honestly felt like a bunch of random events that weren’t tied together well. And while I understand that the movie is supposed to be character-driven, Chihiro’s character development was directly influenced by the events that were happening around her, so a more cohesive plot would’ve been able to convey more gradual character development. Also, I’m not really judging the plot from a biased Western perspective of storytelling. In fact, I find some of Miyazaki’s other films, such as Princess Mononoke, to have much better storytelling than Spirited Away. (P.S. please don’t think that I hate it that I’m bashing Spirited Away, it is one of my favorite movies. But despite that, I don’t think people should be forbidden to criticize any movie regardless of how good it is) |
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