“Spirited Away” Summary – English Composition Informal Essay
“Spirited Away” is a wondrous fantasy movie about a young girl, Chihiro. In a summer afternoon, Chihiro and her family are on the way to their new home. But they get lost in a glove and find a tunnel in it. They are curious about the tunnel and decide to check it out. They walk through the tunnel and discover a new world behind it. They keep on walking and finally go into a small
town where is no one there. Her parents find a restaurant selling tasty food and suddenly feel hungry for it. They eat the food though there is nobody in the restaurant. And then something happens. When the night comes, her parents transform into the pigs for eating the food of Gods. Yes, they are trapped into a world of spirits, including Gods. And she must call upon her courage to find a way to turning her parents into humans, freeing herself, and returning her family to the outside world.
In the movie, there are two scenes impressing me. One is the train running on the sea. When Chihiro goes to ask Zeniiba, a wise wizard, for help, she takes the train that is running on a far long railway based on the sea. Although the movie is an animation, the sea is vivid like the real one. I can see even tiny waves and reflection of sunlight. It is so serene and beautiful that I also want to take a trip in this way. The other is in the final part. When Chihiro gets help from her friend, Haku, and goes back to the tunnel, Haku says, “Go through the tunnel and you can return to your world. But remember one thing that do not look back when you are in the tunnel.” Eventually, Chihiro doesn’t look back and goes through the tunnel smoothly. When I see this scene, I feel that it is kind of familiar to me. And then I find that I have read a story which has the similar situation; that is the story about Orpheus and Eurydice in Greek mythology. In this case, when Orpheus went back from Hades to the upper world, he was also warned that he could not look back at Eurydice who walked behind him until they reached the earth out of the cavern. But he looked when he stepped into the earth, and find Eurydice was still in the cavern. Then, he tried to clasp her but she had faded away. All he got was her final word, “Farewell.” So I think this part of movie is influenced by Greek mythology, and maybe Chihiro would lose everything if she looked back in the tunnel.
“Spirited Away” is a movie of Hayao Miyazaki, the writer and the director of the movie. I like his movies because the stories in his movies are always enthralling and deep; therefore, seeing his movies can not only amuse me, but also let me learn something from it. “Spirited Away” is full of imagination, even beyond the imagination. I am so amazed that Miyazaki can always create what we’ve never seen in the movie. To me, “Spirited away” is a movie that can transports you to a world unlike anything I have seen before just like a mystical journey through my imagination.