Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away (Studio Ghibli Official) was released on July 20, 2001. Its appeal has endured long after its extraordinary box-office success.
Here, I summarize Spirited Away and introduce my thoughts on its mysteries, with links to fuller discussions. By a plot summary, I mean telling the whole story. If you want to avoid spoilers, stop partway through and watch the film first.
*This is a translated version. The original (Japanese) is available here.
- Detailed Synopsis & Character Map
Ten-year-old Chihiro enters another world with her parents, who are turned into pigs. Working at the bathhouse, she meets allies, faces trials, grows, and eventually rescues her parents and returns to the human world. Below is a more detailed account, with a character map. - Questions and Interpretations
We consider why Yubaba takes names, Zeniba’s contract seal, Chihiro’s final test, the theory that Haku is her brother, and the phantom-ending urban legend. These are readings of the film, rather than settled answers to every mystery.
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Spirited Away (2001): Synopsis (Spoilers)
The Main Plot Points
Here are the main stages of Spirited Away:
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The Wrong Turn
While moving to a new town, 10-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents take a wrong turn and stumble into a seemingly abandoned theme park. -
Parents Turned into Pigs
Chihiro’s parents eat the food in the mysterious town and are turned into pigs, leaving her alone. -
The Boy on the Bridge
Trapped in the spirit world, Chihiro is rescued by a mysterious, magical boy named Haku, who instructs her on how to survive. -
Work at the Bathhouse
Yubaba takes Chihiro’s name and calls her Sen. She begins work at Aburaya, the bathhouse for spirits. -
Unlikely Allies
She forms a bond with Lin, a tough senior worker, and Kamaji, the multi-armed boiler man who secretly protects her. -
Haku in Danger
Haku is gravely injured after stealing Zeniba’s contract seal on Yubaba’s orders. -
The Train Ride to Swamp Bottom
To save Haku’s life, Chihiro boards the spirit train to Swamp Bottom to return the stolen seal and beg Zeniba for forgiveness. -
The Final Test
Chihiro faces Yubaba’s last test and wins freedom for herself and her parents. -
Return to the Human World
Chihiro returns with her parents. The storyboards suggest she cannot recall her experiences, although the growth they brought her remains.
Complete Character Map
The Deeper Meaning of the Narrative
Spirited Away follows a girl who grows through work in an unfamiliar world. That does not mean labor alone explains everything she gains there.
She escapes, but the storyboards suggest she no longer remembers the experiences themselves. The film does not state this explicitly. Zeniba’s remark that we do not forget what has happened, only fail to recall it, lets me see that forgetting as something other than loss: Chihiro’s growth need not disappear.
No-Face offers an illuminating contrast. I see him as a being unable to speak in a voice of his own: initially almost wordless, eloquent after swallowing others, and quiet again after returning them. Perhaps we hesitate to define him because we recognize something of ourselves in him. To me, that contrast makes Chihiro’s growth more vivid.
With those questions in mind, here is the story in more detail.
Detailed Synopsis
The Tunnel to Another World
Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino lies in the back seat of her parents’ car on the way to their new home. Looking at the flowers from her former classmates, she complains about the move. Perhaps, even if she had agreed to it beforehand, the reality makes her want a little reassurance from her parents.
Her father takes a wrong turn and, instead of going back, drives on through the woods. Perhaps he wants to change the mood in the car. They come to a stop in front of a strange tunnel.
Her parents enter on foot despite her request to turn back. Chihiro reluctantly follows, uneasy in a way she cannot explain.
Beyond the tunnel lies a grassy plain. Her father guesses that the buildings ahead belong to a theme park abandoned during the economic bubble. Ignoring Chihiro’s protests, her parents follow an appetizing smell into what looks like a remarkably substantial town.
They find a restaurant with food set out but no one attending it. Her parents begin eating, reasoning they can pay later. Chihiro declines.
While they eat, Chihiro explores. On a bridge before a large bathhouse, a boy in white suddenly tells her to leave and uses magic to buy her time.
Annoyed by his imperious manner, she runs back. Where her parents sat are pigs wearing their clothes.
She looks for her parents in streets now crowded with strange beings.
The grassy plain has become water, blocking her way back. She tells herself this is a dream and wills it to vanish—only to notice that she herself is disappearing. A ferry arrives with more uncanny passengers.
The boy finds her and gives her food from this world. Her transparent body becomes solid again. Freed from that immediate fear, she remembers her parents, and he promises she will see them again.
To remain here and help her parents, she needs work. Haku directs her towards the bathhouse, whose mistress Yubaba is bound by an oath to give work to anyone who asks.
As they cross the bridge, she must hold her breath. A frog startles her into speaking, but Haku helps her escape discovery and sends her to Kamaji in the boiler room.
After a precarious descent, she reaches Kamaji, who tends the boiler with the soot sprites.
He is too busy to offer her work. She keeps asking until he entrusts her to Lin, who takes her upstairs to Yubaba.
Chihiro finally stands before the imposing witch.
Yubaba tries to frighten her out of wanting a job. An uproar from her child interrupts them, but Chihiro persists until Yubaba agrees to a contract.
Chihiro’s repeated request, “Let me work here,” is one of the lines that best captures her determination at this point in the story. For the original Japanese and English translation, see our Spirited Away quotes guide.
She writes her full name. Yubaba takes most of it away, declaring that she will now be called Sen.
Haku escorts her to the workplace, but his manner is now cold and arrogant. The difference is so marked that she wonders whether he is a different person.
The staff want nothing to do with a human, and responsibility falls to Lin. In front of others she is brusque; alone, she praises Chihiro for handling Yubaba. Perhaps Haku feels something similar. Either way, Chihiro has found someone here who recognizes her effort.
Work and the River Spirit
The next morning, Chihiro wakes early—or perhaps has scarcely slept. Facing a lonely, incomprehensible life of work, she is anxious. Haku comes to take her to her parents.
He points out two pigs. Seeing what her parents have become, she resolves to restore them. He also returns her clothes and the card bearing her real name, warning her not to forget it.
She works alongside Lin. The tasks seem deliberately difficult, but at least they give her a reason to remain.
She also lets a silent visitor, No-Face, into the bathhouse.
A foul-smelling guest arrives. Even Yubaba tries to keep it away, but it must be admitted. Chihiro is assigned the unpleasant task of helping it bathe and discovers something like a thorn in its body.
Yubaba understands what has happened and orders everyone to help pull it out. A mass of discarded rubbish comes free.
The visitor is a river spirit whose body has been polluted with waste. It thanks Chihiro and departs, leaving her a strange bitter dumpling. Her first successful task appears to win her recognition from Yubaba and the staff. That night, she dreams of failing to find her parents among the pigs.
Haku’s Injury, No-Face’s Rampage, and the Journey to Zeniba
The next day, a lavish guest causes an uproar: No-Face offers gold to attract the staff and swallows a frog, acquiring its voice.
He grows larger, eating and asking for Sen.
Chihiro sees a wounded white dragon pursued by paper figures. Recognizing Haku, she calls to him as he flies towards the bathhouse.
She rejects No-Face’s gold and follows Haku upstairs. There, Yubaba seems ready to dispose of him. He has stolen a contract seal from Zeniba, her twin sister, and is badly injured.
A remaining paper figure turns into Zeniba, who has pursued him. She transforms Boh into a mouse and Yubaba’s bird into a small flying creature. Haku destroys the paper figure, evading her attack, but falls towards the boiler room with Chihiro.
Kamaji says something inside Haku is consuming his life. Chihiro thinks of the river spirit’s dumpling and gets him to swallow half.
He spits out the seal and a black slug, which Chihiro crushes. For now, his condition settles, though he is still unconscious.
She decides to return the seal and ask Zeniba to help him. Kamaji says she lives at Swamp Bottom, six stops along the railway. He cannot promise a way back, but Chihiro is determined.
First she must deal with the disturbance caused by the guest she invited in. She gives No-Face the dumpling she had saved for her parents. He follows her, vomiting what he has swallowed, and becomes quiet again. She takes him with her. Kind of her, really.
Chihiro, No-Face, the mouse, and the tiny flying creature take the train across the water.
At Swamp Bottom
After a long journey, they arrive. Zeniba is much kinder here than she seemed in Yubaba’s room.
She accepts the seal, serves tea, and tells Chihiro that in the end she must solve her problems herself. Worried about Haku and her parents, Chihiro declines to stay overnight. Zeniba gives her a handmade hair tie; No-Face remains to help her.
Something arrives outside. Chihiro opens the door and finds Haku in dragon form.
Zeniba does not reproach him, but tells him to take Chihiro safely back.
On his back, Chihiro recalls falling into a river as a small child. It was called the Kohaku River, and hearing the name lets Haku remember his own.
He is Nigihayami Kohakunushi, the river spirit. Perhaps their meeting on the bridge was fate.
The Final Trial
Back at the bathhouse, Yubaba sets a last test: identify Chihiro’s parents among twelve pigs to win their release.
Yubaba lines up a dozen identical pigs in the courtyard. She demands Sen point out exactly which two are her parents.
Chihiro looks and realizes that her parents are not there. Challenged by Yubaba, she stands by her answer.
Her contract disappears. She has passed the final test, and the bathhouse celebrates.
Haku leads her back but says he cannot go any farther. They part with his warning not to look back.
Her parents wait near the tunnel, hurrying her along as though nothing has happened.
She resists the urge to turn towards Haku and enters the tunnel with them.
Outside, the car is covered with leaves and its interior is dusty. Chihiro looks back at the tunnel. The scene does not tell us exactly how much time has passed.
It looks like a dark, empty opening, as though something important has been left beyond it. Her parents call her to the car. Zeniba’s hair tie glints.
That is my summary of Spirited Away. It may seem long for a synopsis, yet it leaves out a great deal. This is a film, after all: if you have not seen it, please do.
Spirited Away: Questions and Interpretations
Why Does Yubaba Steal Names?
Yubaba taking Chihiro’s name is one of the film’s central devices. Because she controls the bathhouse, and the trailers primed us to see a stolen name, we readily accept it in those terms.
Outside that framing, calling a girl named Chihiro “Sen” might simply be called giving her a nickname—whether we approve of it or not.
The similarities and differences between assigning a nickname and taking a name are what interest me. They offer a way into my own reading of Yubaba’s behavior, rather than proof of a single intended meaning.
Read the full analysis: Why Does Yubaba Take Names?
Why Does Yubaba Want Zeniba’s Contract Seal?
One puzzling detail is why Yubaba wants Haku to steal Zeniba’s contract seal.
The sisters seem hostile, so perhaps it is simply spite. For another reading, I take two clues: Zeniba says they are two halves of a whole, and Yubaba must give work to those who ask.
Those hints lead to my interpretation of the attempted theft. There is room to disagree; I explain the reasoning in more detail below.
Read the full analysis: Yubaba, Zeniba, and the Stolen Seal
How Does Chihiro Pass the Final Test?
When I first saw the film in a cinema as a child, I briefly wondered how she knew. The ending felt convincing enough to carry me along, but the question stayed with me.
After thinking about it, I found that reading the scene as the cancellation of a contract made the pieces fit together. That is my interpretation, rather than an established magical or legal rule. I discuss it, and the bitter dumpling, below.
It is not the result that troubles me; it is how Chihiro reaches it. Perhaps comparing my reading with your own will be interesting.
Read the full analysis: Chihiro’s Final Test and the Bitter Dumpling
The “Dead Brother” Theory Regarding Haku
Haku is devoted to Chihiro, yet Lin tells us that the bathhouse staff dislike him. His two very different faces make Chihiro wonder whether there are two of him.
That strangeness, together with her mother’s apparent coldness, has led to the theory that Haku is Chihiro’s dead older brother.
It can be a persuasive reading, but it is not an officially established account. A childhood friend, or simply the river spirit the film names, offers another way of thinking about him. I explore the brother theory and comparisons with Night on the Galactic Railroad below.
Read the full analysis: Haku’s Identity and the Brother Theory
The Phantom-Ending Urban Legend
Ghibli films attract plenty of urban legends. Most do not strike me as very interesting: the Totoro legends, for example, offer little surprise or discovery.
The phantom ending of Spirited Away, however, is fascinating.
The rumor describes Chihiro arriving at her new home, meeting the movers, and finding a small stream that reminds her of Haku. This is distinct from the actual ending, in which the family leaves the tunnel, finds the leaf-covered car, and drives away.
The new-house and stream scenes are not in the released film. What interests me is how convincingly a description can conjure a memory of images we have never seen. The theory of why that happens is my interpretation of the urban legend.
Read the full discussion: The Phantom Ending and the Uncertainty of Memory
How accurately do you remember the ending of Spirited Away?
The images used in this article are from Studio Ghibli Works Still Images.
Can you name the movie before the scene comes into focus?
Put your visual memory to the test with a blurred Studio Ghibli scene.
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