Spirited Away tells the story of 10-year-old Chihiro, a girl in the midst of a move to the suburbs who wanders into a strange town and finds a world of spirits ruled over by the mysterious Yubaba.
Into the boiler room! Chihiro encounters the old arachnoid Kamaji and his bizarre army of soot balls who keep the hot water running. Chihiro tries to help but she's not really suited for this kind of work. When Lin the slug girl comes to deliver lunch, though, Kamaji tells her to take Chihiro with her. Lin introduces Chihiro to the bizarre bath house wonderland where she works, and to her boss, the giant-size matriarch Yubaba.
After a demonstration of her powers, Yubaba renames Chihiro Sen, and puts her to work. Sen goes through a gruelling first day of scrubbing floors and being made fun of by the other workers for being human, but she forges on.
In the middle of the day, while everyone's asleep, she sneaks outside to meet Haku...
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's most beloved animation directors. In 2005 he was awarded the Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, and his Studio Ghibli received the festival's Osella Award for overall achievement in 2004. Miyazaki's films include Spirited Away, winner of the 2002 Academy Award (R) for Best Animated Feature Film, as well as Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo, all of which have received great acclaim in the U.S. Miyazaki's other achievements include the highly regarded manga series Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and Starting Point: 1979-1996, a collection of essays, interviews, and memoirs that chronicle his early career and the development of his theories of animation. Both are published in English by VIZ Media.
