Film Aesthetics Essay:

Aesthetics and Film is a philosophical study of the art of film. It is a branch of philosophy dealing
with the nature of art, beauty, and taste, with the creation and appreciation of beauty. The
movie ‘Spirited Away’ is a 2001 Japanese animated coming-of-age fantasy film directed by the
famous Japanese director and animator Hayao Miyazaki. The film is one of the multiple films
released from the well-known Japanese studio, ‘Studio Ghibli.’ The movie follows our
protagonist Chihiro and her parents when they stumble upon a seemingly abandoned
amusement park. After her mother and father are turned into giant pigs, Chihiro meets the
mysterious Haku who explains that the park is a resort for supernatural beings who need a
break from their time spent in the earthly realm, and that she must work there to free herself
and her parents.

The main theme of this movie correlates to the issues of the ‘Bubble Economy’ of Japan in the
late 90S, along with multiple other aesthetics that bring the whole movie together. We first see
our protagonist Chihiro laying in the backseat of her parents car holding a bouquet of flowers
that were a goodbye present from her best friend, looking unhappy and fed up from having to
move away from her home. The flowers in this case act as a prop. Throughout this first scene
we see her holding this bouquet close to her, seemingly very attached to it. This prop can
signify her last connection with her past life, friends and home. Once we see her parents getting
out of the car to investigate the abandoned theme park, we see her leaving those flowers
behind too. This can signify her not only leaving a piece of her past behind but a piece of the
real world as she and her parents walk over into the spirit world. During this scene in the car we
also hear a sorrowful piano piece being used symbolically to perhaps to externalize Chihiro’s
inner turmoil and sadness at having to move. As Chihiro and her parents begin their slow walk
towards the theme park we hear an audio bridge as the pianos music connects the characters
transitions from the real world to this world of spirits and spells.

When Chihiro is standing on the bridge, over looking at everything beneath and around it, we
get our first glimpse of Haku. Haku warns Chihiro of the dangers of being here in the spirit
world and demands that she leave at once. Immediately as Haku is in the frame we hear a
dramatic musical piece being played and see a wide camera angle where we see Chihiro’s point
of view as she runs back down the steps to her parents. This whole scene gives of a dramatic
aura that the story has only begun for Chihiro. When Haku finds Chihiro later on, helping her
escape, we see a telephoto camera angle lens of the both of them passing one room after the
other, each room filled with even more odd but eye capturing objects, animals and food. This
aesthetic without any dialogue helps give the viewer an idea of how different this world really is
from the world that Chihiro came from.

When Haku leaves Chihiro after instructing her on how to get to Kamaji, the boiler man, we see
Chihiro slowly begin her descent downwards towards the boiler room. This wide angle view of
all the stairs and the dark water below is very symbolic of Chihiro’s downwards journey deeper
into the world of spirits and what she must do to return her and her parents back to the real
world. This whole scene and after where she walks to meet Yubaba after meeting Kamaji and
one of the bath house workers, Lin, is very representative of not just how deep physically
Chihiro has travelled but mentally too as we see substantial growth in her character already.

Here is where I believe that the economic state comes into play and how the director has put
subtle hints pertaining to character wardrobe and props. We see all characters that work here
in Yubaba’s bath house all wear traditional Japanese outfits, while when we finally meet
Yubaba, she is the only character in the spirit realm that is wearing western style clothing. This
seems to be a subtle hint at the modern capitalistic world where there are huge gaps and
distinctions in power among different individuals, classes. Yubaba is the only one who does
paperwork, lives in luxurious rooms, and owns jewelry. She is the bourgeoisie who owns the
capital to hire lower-class laborers; the other spirits in the film. Moreover, she symbolizes the
western power dominating the rest of the world. In the first ten minutes of the film as Chihiro’s
father explains that the boom was responsible for the production of many of these theme parks
– and the bust responsible for their abandonment. Chihiro’s parents transforming into pigs is a
clear metaphor for greed, excessive consumption, and short-term pleasure seeking, all of which
are vices that accompany a bubble economy. These kinds of vices are not reserved for the
humans either, as the spirits working in the bathhouse also succumb to material pursuits, most
notably in relation to the gold nuggets offered by the No Face.

After watching the entire movie again, I feel that another theme of this film could be a form
prostitution. When Chihiro signs her contract her name becomes Sen. Using different names
was a common practice when working. All the bath workers who attend to the guests are all
women and all the guests are male gods further suggesting the sexual side of this metaphor. At
first we only see No Face following Chihiro around and watching her. Soon, as he enters the
bath house, he begins to get bolder and helps her retrieve one of the bath tokens. When she
accepts, he takes it as a form of encouragement bringing her more bath tokens but getting
disappointed when she refuses to take more. Later on we see No Face again try to give Chihiro
gold multiple times instead but each time she refuses to take it. In this entire scenario I believe
that the gold is what acts as the prop that brings this entire implication together.

The movie begins with a wide angle shot of Chihiro and her parents walking up a small hill into
this spirit world and the film ends with them all walking down the hill together. This gives
finality to the movie that the characters end up right where they began.