Spirited Away review
8.6 / 10 — CineScope score
Overview
A sulky ten-year-old wanders into a world of spirits and is put to work in a bathhouse for the gods, where her name is the first thing she loses.
The short verdict
Miyazaki's masterpiece: a children's film with adult melancholy, drawn with a generosity of imagination nothing else has matched.
Story
There is no villain to defeat and no prophecy to fulfil — Sen earns her way back through work, kindness and memory. It is a coming-of-age story told through labour.
Direction
Miyazaki's direction is observational. He lets a train ride or a bowl of rice take a full minute, and the film is better for every one of them.
Performance
Rumi Hiiragi's Chihiro starts shrill and ends steady; the vocal arc does as much character work as the animation.
Cinematography
Hand-drawn backgrounds so dense with detail that the bathhouse feels humid. The use of negative space in the flooded train scene is extraordinary.
Music
Joe Hisaishi's 'One Summer's Day' is the sound of the film finding its nerve — restrained until the moment it is needed.
Pros and cons
What works
- Boundless visual imagination
- Genuinely moving without manipulation
- Hisaishi's finest theme
What does not
- Some spirit-world rules stay unexplained
- Dense detail can overwhelm on a small screen
Final verdict
Still the best argument for animation as serious cinema. Watch it in Japanese with subtitles if you can.
8.6/ 10