Spirited Away

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Spirited Away

Spirited Away is a Japanese animated film about a ten year old girl and her family who accidentely stumble into another world populated by gods and ruled over by a witch. Humans cannot exist in this world, and are either transformed into pigs or disappear Her mother and father get turned into pigs, after eating all the food that was meant to be for the gods, and to save them, the girl has to work in the gods' bath house! Strange, isn't it?? But it's still a wicked film with totally original story line: I'd like to see Steven Spielberg make up a story line as outrageous as this! The director of this film is a very well-known Japanese guy, Hayao Miyazaki, who's made several animated films, mostly directed at children, but it's like Haribo:- Kids and grown ups love it so, the happy world of Studio Ghibli Films!! ^_^

I have this film on VCD, and I'd lend it to my fellow peeps, but it's in Chinese (Cantonese to be precise) and I don't think anyone would be able to understand it! It's not really one of those films
which you could just watch and understand: there are lots of little twists in the plot, and vital bits of information which you can only figure out if you listen to the script. So sorry guys! Maybe they'll release the English version in the UK. The Americans have had the English version since July last year! Not fair, is it??
The names of course, are different in Chinese as they are in Japanese and English... I think. The Japanese tend to use a lot of Chinese characters, so the names in Chinese and Japanese are probably the same. I have listed the characters below, with some information about them, and a picture if you're lucky

Ogino Chihiro - The ten year old girl who is the heroine of the film. Her name in Japanese and Chinese literally mean "a thousand fathoms" However, in the film, Yu Baaba gets her workers to sign a contract, and then she literally snatches their name off them and gives them another name i.e. she takes their names off the contract and they disappear into the palm off her hand. Chihiro's name also gets shorten down to "thousand" but she remembers it later on in the film.
Ogino Akio - Chihiro's father
Ogino Yuuko - Chihiro's mother
NB. Ogino is the family name, but in Japanese, the family name comes first.

Haku - A boy who works at the bath house, the hero of the film, who can transform into a white dragon and fly. He's actually a river god himself, but he cannot remember what his real identity was, and so is forced to work for Yu-Baaba. Haku's name in Chinese is Ba Lung, which literally translates as White Dragon: get the connection, Haku can change into a white dragon, his Chinese name is White Dragon....He's also suppose to be twelve years old, I think.

Yu-Baaba - the witch who is in charge of the bath house and of the fantasy world. She also has a son called Bou, who is twice the size of her (?? why?)

Bou - Yu-Baaba's son, who gets turned into a sweet, pudgy little mouse by Yu-Baaba's twin sister, Zeniiba.

Zeniiba - Yu Baaba's twin sister, who lives in a different part of the god's world (you have to take a train to get there)

Kaonashi - a mysterious man/spirit who enters the bath house after Chihiro invites him in (the black guy with the white mask on below) Not much is known about him really, although a considerable amount of the film is devoted to him. He doesn't say anything, though he does give the occasional "uhh" and "ahh" sound. I'm not sure about this, but I think he has the ability to produce replicas of objects, such as lumps of gold.

Kamajii - an old man with 6 arms who works in the boiler room of the bath house. He's also responsible for adding the special herbs to the water. He looks weird, but he's a really nice guy, and helps Chihiro many times.

Susuwatari - These are little black soot balls which work in the boiler room, helping to carry lumps of coal to the boiler. They're really sweet, and in this one part, whilst Chihiro is in the boiler room, a Susuwatari accidently drops the lump of coal on top of itself! Chihiro picks up the lump of coal freeing the susuwatari. She then takes the coal to the boiler and throws it in. The other susuwatari, seeing her work, all decide to follow suit and drop all their lumps of coal on top of themselves! It's really funny! They first appeared in another film, Totoro, where they were dustbunnies.

Rin - a fourteen year old girl who works at the bath house. She looks after Chihiro whilst she works in the bath house, and they become good friends.

Kashira - when I first saw these guys, I thought "What the hell?!" They are three brothers who just wander about in Yu-Baaba's room. The bizaare thing is that they only have heads, and they get around by rolling and bouncing about. Strange, non??