IChihiro and her parents tried to take a shortcut to go to their new house, new place. After getting through out of the dirt road, they found a restaurant. Although no workers were there, her parents started to eat food. Chihiro didn't join them and noticed that the area was different. When she came back to the restaurant, her parents had been turned into pigs...

Faceless, Haku, the old female master of spa hotel where Chihiro works, and the thousands of Japan's gods. I think everything is mysterious to foreigners. That is a kind of nostalgic thing to Japanese people.

The thousands of Japan's gods is the origin of Japanese shinto, most of the Japanese had believed everywhere before 19th century. However, shinto changed into Emperor's religion by the Meiji government and that plunged Japan into the century of wars. This movie makes Japanese people notice that ancient Japan has a wonderful sprit world we had forgotten for the sad 30 years of war.

"Spirited Away" directly means that God holds back someone or something. In ancient times, Japanese people thought so when something they didn't know happened. And then The thousands of Japan's gods get together in Izumo country (Shimane prefecture now) every October and we call October "Kanna-duki (No Gods month)". Yeah, that is the spa hotel in this movie. The thousands of Japan's gods stay eating and drinking like that in the month.

"Faceless" seems to be present Japan. Paying money Faceless acts coquettishly to Chihiro, but she doesn't care. As he has no face, everyone feels weird. Since the U.S. occupied Japan and China and Korea never stop blaming after the 30 years of war, Japan might be scared to have the own face.

That means, this movie is not only a magic fantasy for kids, but also a serious message involved a touch of irony by the director, Hayao Miyazaki. By the way, his first work, "Nausicaa of Valley of Wind" was the theme of survivors after atomic war. His next work, "Howl's Moving Castle" will be coming soon. Probably, we might know his opinion about Iraq War.

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