Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi

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Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi
The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro
("Spirited Away")

We see a closeup of a bouquet of flowers.  The card attached to the bouquet reads:

Genki de ne.  Mata aou ne.  Risa
Take care.  Let's get together again, OK?  Risa

As the bouquet moves aside, we see Chihiro -- looking depressed (because her family is moving to a new town) -- lying on her back in the back seat of her parents' car, holding the bouquet on her chest.

Gensaku, Kyakuhon, Kantoku - Hayao MIYAZAKI
Original Story, Script, Director

Seisaku Soushiki - Yasuyoshi TOKUMA
Executive Producer

We see a view of the highway outside the car window.

Ongaku - Jo HISAISHI
Music

The car is now driving down a single-lane dirt road.  Chihiro's interest is aroused by the sight of a strange-looking stone statue in the woods by the side of the road.  [Read more about the statue]

The car stops suddenly to avoid hitting a similar statue, which stands in front of the entrance to a tunnel.  Chihiro's father sticks his head out of the driver's window of the car [see Note 1], and looks up at the temple-like structure above the tunnel entrance.

Tunnel no mukou wa fushigi no machi deshita
On the other side of the tunnel was a town of mystery.

Chihiro stands between her parents outside of their car.

Chihiro: "I don't like it here.  Let's go back, Father!"

Chihiro runs back towards the car.

Chihiro: "Let's go back, Father!"

We see a small fountain.  Chihiro and her parents are now walking through a large vaulted space.  The scene dissolves to an outside view of a large red building set in a deserted grassy area.

Arienai basho ga atta.
It was an impossible place.

Arienai koto ga okotta.
Impossible things happened there.

Chihiro is standing outside of the red building with her parents.

Chihiro: "A town, in a place like this..."

Chihiro: "Eh?  Are we still going further?"

Her parents keep on walking into the ghost town.  Chihiro remains standing beside a tunnel gate exit.  Wind blows and leaves fly around.

Chihiro: "Father, let's go back!  OK?"

Chihiro and her mother walk in the empty ghost town.

Chihiro: "There's nobody here, is there..."

Her father waves to them from an open doorway.  Inside of a restaurant, plates piled high with food are shown; her parents begin to eat the food.

Chihiro: "Let's go back!  The people at the restaurant will get angry at us.  Mother, Father...."

Her parents pay no attention to Chihiro's warning, and keep on eating.  Chihiro goes outside of the restaurant alone, and looks around restlessly.

Chihiro - Rumi HIIRAGI
Haku - Miyu IRINO
Yu-baaba - Mari NATSUKI
Father - Tsuyoshi NAITOU
Mother - Yasuko SAWAGUCHI
Kamajii - Bunta SUGAWARA
(Voice Actors)

A large lantern, labeled with the circled character for "Abura" (oil), stands at the top of an outdoors stairway.  Chihiro walks toward the lantern and looks up at it.

The scene shifts to nighttime.  In the town, semi-transparent ghosts are walking in the street.

Chihiro: "No way!"

Through the windows of a building, we can see that ghosts are moving around inside.  Behind the kitchen counter of a restaurant, ghosts are seen cooking and serving.

Chihiro: "It's a dream!  It's a dream!"

Chihiro shakes her head and hits it with her hands in disbelief.  A large riverboat appears, decorated with many bright light balls and lanterns.  Chihiro stands alone by the riverside, and shouts desperately.

Chihiro: "Mother!"

Chihiro runs through the town and goes back to the restaurant, where her parents are still concentrating on eating the food.

Chihiro: "Father!"

Her parents ignore Chihiro, and continue to "pig out."

Chihiro: "Father, let's go back!"

Chihiro touches her father's back with her hands.  As her father turns around, we see that his face has became that of a pig.

Chihiro: "Let's go back, Father!"

Father-pig falls down from his chair with a loud crashing noise.  Chihiro shouts "Aah!!" and her shocked face and body reactions are shown in close-up.

On the balcony of the riverboat, invisible ghosts wearing paper masks and red straw capes walk toward the viewer.  The ghosts are then seen disembarking from the boat.

Chihiro (voice only): "This is a dream...  A dream..."

We see Chihiro's sneaker-clad right foot, which is becoming semi-transparent.

Chihiro (voice only): "Everybody, go away!  Disappear!  Disappear!"

A boy puts his hands on Chihiro's shoulders.  She is continuing to fade away.

Chihiro: "Aah!"

Chihiro looks up at his face in great shock.  The boy holds Chihiro's body.  Chihiro shakes her head.

Chihiro: "No... no, no!"

Haku: "Open your mouth.  Take this, hurry.  If you don't eat food in this world, you'll disappear."

Chihiro: "Nooo!"

Chihiro turns her face and tries to shove the boy away as he offers to feed her something resembling a small candy, but Chihiro's semi-transparent arm goes right through the boy.

We see many monsters -- wearing varied types of clothing -- marching on a breezeway located high up in the air, and entering a large building.

Haku (voice only): "Don't move.  You can get out using the side gate behind the building.  Go all the way down the outside stairs, alright?"

We see Chihiro slowly descending the rather steep and rickety wooden stairway, located high above the ground outside of the building.

Haku (voice only): "There, you'll find an entrance to a boiler-room.  Yu-baaba turns everyone here into an animal, unless they have a job."

Chihiro (voice only): "Yu-baaba?"

Haku (voice only): "As soon as you meet her, you'll easily recognize her.  She's the witch who rules here.  No matter how difficult a situation you face, be patient and wait for a chance, will you?  I'm on your side."

A step on which Chihiro is putting her weight breaks apart, and she falls.  A large bird with a human face is flying around, and looks down.

Chihiro (voice only): "How do you know my name?"

We see the boy ascending a stone staircase inside a building.

Haku (voice only): "I've known you since you were little.  My name is Haku."

Chihiro enters and walks through a machine room, where many large gears are turning.  The inside of the large building is shown; elevators are running up and down its vast, open interior, including an ascending elevator containing Chihiro.

Chihiro walks toward a large double door.  Eyes in the doorknob, which resembles a witch's face, move and the face talks.

Yu-baaba: "Don't you even knock?"

Three sets of doors open by themselves.  A large aquiline nose appears.

Yu-baaba: "Well, come in."

As Chihiro shouts "Waahh! Waahh!", she flies through the open doors as if a strong arm has grabbed the front of her shirt, lifted, and pulled her; the doors close behind her.  She rolls head-over-heels in front of a large fireplace.  Greenish human heads bounce on the carpet toward the viewer.

Yu-baaba: "Well... And such a shabby girl came here."

Chihiro stands up straight.

Chihiro: "Please let me work here!"

A piece of paper is shown, on which the four Kanji characters of Chihiro's full name are written: OGINO Chihiro.  We see Yu-baaba sitting at a work desk with her back to the viewer.

Yu-baaba: "Hmm, your name is Chihiro, right?  It's an extravagant name, isn't it?"

As Yu-baaba speaks, we see many different types of baths, and monsters are seen sitting in one of them.  Yu-baaba puts money into a pouch and keeps it.  A chef, wearing a large white paper mask, cooks a meal.  A woman wearing a Kimono carries a meal.  A large pigsty containing many pigs is shown.

Yu-baaba (voice only): "This is a world human beings should not enter.  It's a spa resort where hundreds of gods come to relax.  Nevertheless, what did your parents do?  They've eaten up our guests' food like pigs.  They got a reasonable reward for it.  You too will never be able to go back to your old world."

Chihiro's mouth is distorted as if her lips are being "zipped;" she pulls in vain at her cheeks.  A small flame rises from Yu-baaba's left index finger, as if her finger were a cigarette lighter.

Yu-baaba: "From now on, your name is Sen."

We see the paper again; three of the four Kanji characters of Chihiro's full name begin to lift away from the paper, and eventually disappear, leaving only the character "Sen" remaining.  Chihiro stands before Yu-baaba, trembling violently.

Yu-baaba: "Answer me, if you understand me, Sen!"

At last, we see Yu-baaba's huge face in close-up.

MIYAZAKI Hayao kantoku sakuhin
A Hayao MIYAZAKI Film

Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi

Chihiro wa hatashite
Jibun no na o torimodoshi
Ningen no sekushi e
Seikan dekiru no ka......!?
Will Chihiro ever be able to get her own name back, and return alive to the human world......?!

2001-nen 7-gatsu zenkoku Touhou yougakei road show
(To be released in) July 2001, at theaters of the Touhou Western chain nationwide

Note 1:  Chihiro's family's car is an Audi, which indicates that the family's standard of living is above that of the average Japanese family.  Also, Miyazaki himself drives a blue Audi closely resembling the one in the movie.
[View a photo of the Audi taken outside Miyazaki's private office, the Butaya; and read about a sighting of Miyazaki and his Audi by a Miyazaki Mailing List member.]

Translation by Mikiyo HATTORI and Tom WILKES; HTML design by Marc GREGORY.

Disclaimer:
©2001 TNDG, Nibariki, Studio Ghibli, and/or other appropriate copyright holders.
Translated and summarized without permission for personal entertainment purposes only.  The quotations contained in this summary are not, by any means, accurate word for word translations, and the translators are solely responsible for any mistranslation or misunderstanding.