Spirited Away: The Insufficiency of Western Capitalism Part I

Contrary to popular opinion, animation is not limited to mind-numbing, simplistic narratives which only serve as a source of entertainment for young children. Indeed, animation can be an incredibly expressive artistic medium. Renowned Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki’s recent masterpiece, Spirited Away, is one such animated movie which showcases the medium’s hidden potential to subconsciously or consciously shape our epistemological outlooks. After all, the manipulation of the viewer’s thought process via a stylized experience is the apex of any artistic medium. Spirited Away follows a young ten year-old girl named Chihiro Ogino as her family moves to a new neighborhood. Chihiro soon finds herself abandoned in a world of spirits and monsters after she and her family venture into a seemingly abandoned amusement park where her parents are morphed into pigs by a witch named Yubaba. With some help, Chihiro begins working in Yubaba’s bathhouse in order to find a way to free herself and her parents before returning to the human world.

While marketed in America by Disney as a coming of age narrative, Spirited Away is much more valuable as a critical commentary on modern capitalism in Japan. This message comes as no surprise from director Hayao Miyazaki whose previous films, including “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,” often feature powerful messages about capitalist-driven ecocide. However, Spirited Away is unique, serving as Miyazaki’s first effort at exposing the power dynamic capitalism has forged between Japan and the West from a historical perspective. An analysis of Spirited Away via a Marxist lens is valuable insofar as it allows us as viewers to more comprehensively understand how the film depicts modern capitalism. Through such depictions, Spirited Away sheds light on how we as individuals should operate within a system of global capitalism, the dangers associated with monetary power hierarchies, and the insufficiency of capitalism as a sustainable and desirable framework.

THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE WEST

Perhaps most of all, Spirited Away soberly exposes the consequences associated with Japan’s early integration into the web of global capital. Just as Chihiro and her family, the viewer is pulled back to an era of modernizing Japan, the Meiji era (1868-1912), by Miyazaki as the camera passes the gates into the spirit world. The warp is stylistic, becoming immediately noticeable as Chihiro and her family stumble into a run-down bazaar featuring a Meiji-characteristic mixture of Japanese and Western architecture. During the Meiji period, Western influence began to crack Japan’s national, political, and economic solidarity, occurrences spawned from Commodore Perry’s infamous “negotiations” in 1853. As Japan opened its economy to Western nations, global capitalism became invariably rooted within its borders. Beyond an economic level, Japanese social modesty began to give way to a new sense of industrial-driven greed and materialism.

For many, including Miyazaki, Japan’s integration with the West represented a significant loss of cultural identity, bestowing upon Japan a perpetual role of international dependence. In Spirited Away, Miyazaki heavily emphasizes the importance of having a proper name as a prerequisite for identity. When Chihiro approaches Yubaba looking for work, Yubaba agrees only after pillaging her name with her magic, replacing it with her own creation: Sen. Sen, meaning 1000 in Japanese, is indicative of how Chihiro’s individuality and intrinsic worth have been reduced to a monetary value by Yubaba. Name is the foundation of individuality, and indeed, we experience an omnipresent danger of losing our identity as members of modern capitalism. Just as Chihiro, Japan forever lost its cultural identity post-integration. Spirited Away showcases such loss, emphasizing a modern disinterest in ancient values in contemporary Japan and depicting previously noble Shinto spirits, yaoyorozuno kamigami, as mere consumers within the Yuya.

Within the Yuya, or spirit world bathhouse, Yubaba’s dominance over its inhabitants symbolizes the power dynamic between the West and Japan. There is a noticeable divide between Yubaba and her workers. Yubaba’s luxurious office, replete with jewels and gold, is decorated with Western décor, including Victorian wallpapers, exotic carpets, and European woodwork. Even Yubaba herself sports a blue, Western dress while her workers are clad in Japanese bathhouse uniforms and kimonos. The workers’ quarters are shockingly minimalist and humble, designed along the lines of Japanese architecture additionally. Not only does Yubaba dominate her workers monetarily, but her magic aids in her coercion. Apart from powerful spiritual patrons, representing wealthy nations whose patronage primarily benefits Yubaba, Yubaba has a monopoly on magic within the Yuya. This dominance is indicative of Japan’s powerless position in relation to the West; no matter how economically powerful Japan becomes, it will always psychologically be dominated by the West.