Miyazaki Countdown Part 8 - Spirited Away

Hello everyone and welcome to Some Like It Scott's second Countdown miniseries on 2023, a podcast first focusing entirely on the works of Japanese animator, Hayao Miyazaki: the Miyazaki Countdown. To honor one of the living legends of animation, the countdown crew of Scott, Scott, and Jay will watch all 11 of Miyazaki's films to-date, rewinding all the way back to his directorial origins with 1979's action-adventure heist thriller LUPIN III: THE CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO, all the way to his then-final film, 2013's biographical epic romance drama, THE WIND RISES. Join us each week over the next 11 weeks, as we build up to what is Miyazaki's self-proclaimed now-final film (we'll see...), the fantasy epic, THE BOY AND THE HERON.

In Part 8 of the Miyazaki Countdown, Scott, Scott, and Jay discuss Hayao Miyazaki's most acclaimed film to-date, the 2001 Academy Award winning animated fantasy film, SPIRITED AWAY. SPIRITED AWAY tells the story of a 10-year-old girl named Chihiro, whose family are traveling to their new home in a new city. Chihiro's father takes Chihiro and her mother on a detour as they near their new home to explore an abandoned amusement park, and while there, they find a restaurant curiously fully stocked with prepared foods. Hungry, Chihiro's parents ravenously begin to consume the food, making Chihiro uncomfortable and leading her to explore the nearby attractions, including a bathhouse. Approaching the bridge to the bathhouse, a mysterious boy, named Haku, appears to Chihiro and begs her to leave before nightfall. Rushing back to warn her parents, Chihiro finds only pigs where her mother and father were before, and panickedly fleeing the impending nightfall, Chihiro is stopped in her tracks when an ocean of water blocks her path back to the amusement park entrance. Stuck in this unknown and scary fantastical world, Chihiro must adapt quickly to her new surroundings and navigate new potential allies and enemies, all while finding a way to rescue her parents and return to the real world. The countdown crew give their thoughts on what many consider Miyazaki's greatest film, including the numerous themes of environmentalism, consumerism, and traditional cultural values, in addition to discussing Chihiro as a potential evolution in Miyazaki's lead character archetype and the reversion back to a smaller-scale narrative from the expansive PRINCESS MONONOKE. (Oh yeah, and an absolutely ludicrous Joe Hisaishi score, though what's new.)