“Spirited Away” Film Analysis
(Mise-en-scene Analysis)
By Geraldine R. Niño of BSIT – 1C
Films can bring us beyond unexpected.
Movies is my healer and therapist in sorrowful times. It cherishes unidentified
sensation here in my heart and mind as I watch it through. Honestly, Spirited
Away is one of my favorites that it keeps me entertained over and over
again. I was 12 years old when I watched this movie for the first time. ‘Spirited
Away’ directed by Hayao Miyazaki, was the first ever fantasy film and most
well-known film of Studio Ghibli released last 20th day of July 2001.
The plot of the story is focusing in a ten-year-old girl named Chihiro Ogino and
her parents on the process of moving to a new home. Moreover, her father
decided to detour his family and have a shortcut in going to their new home. But
all of sudden, out of nowhere they entered into the world of spirit.
At first, the calm and pastel like
environment grab my interest towards this movie but as the story deepens, I
invested my curiosity about the young master named Haku who had a mysterious
appearance and the hidden clues behind the hand-drawn animated film. The visual
dynamics of this film is very smooth in every transition made by the film
maker. Scenes are the building blocks of the film sequence that gives life to
the story and because of this it makes me feel that I was inside of it. The
scenes are fascinating in colors, optical effects, lightning and polished
animations. Optical effects such as the fade in/out, slow-motion and swish pan
is present in the film that gives a dramatic impact to viewers’ eyes. Since the
colors are pastel-like, the vibrant, brightness, exposure, contrast and
highlights are pretty stabilized throughout the film. Furthermore, when it
comes to the editing the editor is very professional in rhythm, tempo and
pacing in every scene transition. In staging and drawing the accuracy of
volume, weight, balance and anatomy of characters’ physical appearance is flawless
with the combination of shadows, angle and lightning effect. Staging is a
powerful tool of the storyline that drags the audience attention to the story.
In addition, staging background and animation should work together so it isn’t
obscuring the animation. The movie used solid drawings, they just only
balance the shadows and lightning effects to give a defined vector of
traditional two-dimensional (2D) animation. The character voices were laid out
very pleasant in timing and spacing. While the background music and sound
effects was furnishing our emotions to sway in every scene of this film. I
really love the way they portrayed every character most especially the voice of
Chihiro and Haku. Principles and elements of traditional 2D animation is exist
in this film that resulting to invest the interest of the viewers towards this
movie.
The hidden clues in this movie were
show off in some scenery and also in the background audio. Miyazaki
embroidered mystery to glittered spices in the movie for the audience to eager
more about the film. First, I will reveal the mystery that I found in the movies’
scenery. Every time the exposure and brightness go off or low the scenery
becomes intense and next something bad will happen to the main character. With
a proper use of lighting setup such as brightness, shadow and color they offer
a way to control the viewer’s emotions, and this is one of the vital elements
of the movie. And then the second mystery, behind the background audio when the
brightness reduced the beat of the music increases and resembles intense or
suspense in the film. In the other hand, when the music is calm and charming it
symbolizes some sort of resolution in the problem of the main character or
resting in the movie scene. And lastly, hidden messages in the song lyrics of
Spirited Away entitled ‘Always with Me’ the song holds everything in the movie
including the setting, the emotions, the culture, the theme, etc. According to
the song, they always dreaming about the past, maybe they forget each other but
not the feeling together. As soon as they meet again the feeling inside of them
was awaken.
This film engraved a big part of my life as I grow up. It taught me many things like how to value a friendship, family, community and culture. In this film, the culture of Japanese was reflected and the anomaly of the people desires. Yobaba represent a corrupt ruler of their community, while Haku and Chihiro symbolizes the great love. Therefore, this film is not just for entertainment it is also a tool for ringing our souls in the true color of our world. Yes, it is a fantasy film, but also reflects the true identity of the people surrounds us.
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