This is the amusement town where spirits elsewhere in Japan visit in order to heal themselves. An old witch called Yubarba ("The Hot Water Hag") rules the big public bath in the town, which doubles as the banquet hall. Yubarba is very greedy. If you saw Laputa: The Castle in the Sky, you will be reminded of Dora, the greedy female captain of the flying pirate ship in the adventure movie.

Chihiro is accepted into the world on the condition that she works at Yubarba's public bath center as an employee. But Yubarba dislikes her name Chihiro ("A Depth of A Thousand Fathoms of Water"), and gives her a new name, Sen ("A Thousand"). Now her trials begin. Can Sen, no, Chihiro restore her parents to human form and return to the human world like Alice in Wonderland?

A Film For Ten Year-Old Girls
In 1997, a few months before the release of Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki surprised his fans with a sudden retirement declaration, only to withdraw it officially in February 1998. Apparently, it is because Yoshifumi Kondo, who directed the youth movie Whisper of the Heart in 1995, died after the Mononoke release. He was expected to be the successor to Miyazaki. In addition, My Neighbors the Yamadas, released two years after Mononoke, made only 820 million yen in distributor's revenue while the production cost was 2.4 billion yen. Studio Ghibli and its parent company Tokuma Publishing, whose fiscal situation had grown worse in these years, needed Miyazaki once more.

Then, what made Miyazaki decide to make a fantasy adventure whose protagonist is a ten year-old girl? He explains in an interview published in the theater program: "Studio manager Suzuki and I have friends and I'm familiar with their little daughters. For a few days every summer since the girls were 4 or 5 years old, they have come to visit me at my mountain cottage. [...] When they turned ten years old, I realized I had not made a movie for them. Kiki's Delivery Service was aimed at adolescent girls. [...] I started thinking [about] what kind of movie I should make, if I am making it."

Miyazaki says he decided to make a movie in which a typical ten year-old girl of today steps into a strange world, goes through many experiences and awakens to what's truly important in life. Through the experience, "her hidden adaptability and patience will appear. She will realize for the first time she has the power of life for good judgement and acting."

Our heroine Chihiro is the most unappealing girl among female protagonists created by Miyazaki (except Mei in Totoro). But Miyazaki designed such a girl intentionally. "Today, children are growing up spoiled, guarded and overly protected in Japan. They just live with less realization of life, and fatten their unhealthy ego. See Chihiro's slendar arms and legs, and her distorted and lifeless face. They symbolize the children of today."

Miyazaki emphasizes: "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi has no fighting scene or ESP battle, but I think it is an adventure movie. 'Good versus evil' is not the theme. This is the story about a girl who stepped into another real world where both good and evil exist. She will go through many experiences, learn how important friendship and dedication are, and return to the human world with her wisdom."

The Real Girl of Today?
One cannot overemphasize that Miyazaki is now much more popular and respected in Japan than the legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (1910-1998), let alone the Anime Godfather Osamu Tezuka (1928-1989). This film's release was a major social event in the land of the rising sun.

So you need not be surprised that Kamikakushi broke the Japanese box office record for best opening day held by Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace. If you went to the theater on the morning of the opening day, July the 20th, you would have found people already standing in a queue around (not just in front of!) the theater. Adults with their kids, school girls, junior high school boys, and so forth... They enter the theater, and chat happily in their seats waiting for the screening to start...

The film starts. Action scenes, humorous scenes, horrible scenes and so forth continue, and the audience's happy laughing and murmurs fill the hall. The running time is 2 hours 5 minutes. The movie ends and the hall is illuminated. You stand up and move toward the doors congested with people. If you are fluent in Japanese, and listen carefully to what is being said, you would find boys are saying, "Omoshirokatta kedo, naa..." (I admit it's very entertaining, but...), or girls saying to their parents, "Kore de oshimai?" (Did I miss something?)

Yes, I missed something. Kamikakushi is full of exciting events and adventures, but I felt it failed to give us something more important. Seeing reviews written just after the release, I found the reviewers were divided on Kamikakushi; some say it is a very entertaining movie, and the others (including me) say Miyazaki failed to have his intention thoroughly reflected throughout the film.

Why do you leave with such an unsatisfied feeling? I think it is partly because Chihiro is not really portrayed as an ordinary girl.