A Place for My Ideas

Spirited Away (2001) and Socialism

Many insightful reviews of this Hayo Miyazaki’s wonderful film already exist, e.g. Amy Harlib’s distinguished article, which I enjoyed, or Peter Bradshaw's article for The Guardian.

Of course, I like the film’s animation style, story, and fantastic soundtracks, especially the Sixth Station that has been one of my all-time favourite soundtracks.


Spirited Away (2001)

But as a Marxist, it also has other meanings for me. Hayao Miyazaki used to be an active Marxist with clear and aloud agendas. Animation films like “Castle in the Sky (1986)” are the testament to his political idea and his dedication to causes such as Welsh miners’ strike.

Hayao Miyazaki, especially after the collapse of the Berlin Wall, has been identified himself as socialist instead.

I think this is a prevalent issue with Marxists especially in Japan. They learnt their agenda just after the WW2 in Soviet and Chinese’ way which is infamously orthodox and is in direct contrast with Western European communism presented by intellectuals such as Sartre or Trotsky. But that’s another topic.

The Spirited Away follows many left-wing agenda:

The proletariat is not perfect in Spirited Away, in direct contradiction to socialist realism and Cultural Revolution’s teachings. They are greedy, bureaucratic, and petty. But this is not the whole story.

The Spirited Away clearly pointed out many socialists agendas:

  1. Turning labour to nameless entities, and lost in the crowd. Dehumanization of labour clearly explained here. It reminded me of the Chaplin's Modern Time's intro but in animation form!


A Scene From Chaplin's Modern Time of Workers Going to Factory

  1. The issue of work as a clear identification for the growth of character. The Chihiro has to work, and this work will save her from all other harms and stops her, gradually, to be spoiled dull version of herself at the beginning of the film or even worse: to be like that Yubaba's boy who resembles all yuppie class kids.

  2. The solidarity of labour at the end of the film. They understood their hero, one of themselves though outsider at the beginning, and supported her. Here, it is important to mention one of the best characters: Lin which reminded me “Sheeta” from the Castle in the Sky (1986).

It can be argued that the last major scene of the Spirited Away, Chihiro's Test by Yubaba, gives a glimpse into the environment that careers and societal roles became secondary and workers demonstrated their solidarity even briefly. The momentary and reluctant hug between Chihiro and Yubabo, though more like a manifestation to the Miyazaki's new believes in Social Democracy instead of Marxism, can be interpreted as the distinct sign to a world that was possible without exploitation and alienation.

Nonetheless, I have to be realistic. I don’t believe, as I elaborated in one of my previous posts, people with political agenda should mirror their opinions in cultural works. I have to be careful here. Spirited Away (2001) is not a communist animation film, definitely in comparison to the Castle in the Sky (1986).

Yubaba, the ruthless capitalist owner of the bathhouse in her 19th-century custom who owns her workers' names (or part of their souls), is not pure evil. Hayo Miyazaki gave up on the existence of pure villains long time ago, more obviously in Princess Mononoke. The Spirited Away doesn’t try to present an alternative to the bathhouse system or status quo. It doesn’t tackle the idea that bathhouse, run by labour, can be an alternative. They were presented as greedy and petty in their small worlds. Chihiro left the system, but the system stays as it is.

Somehow it reminded me of the Orwell’s quotation on Dickens’ works:

“And so far as social criticism goes, one can never extract much more from Dickens than this, unless one deliberately reads meanings into him. His whole ‘message’ is one that at first glance looks like an enormous platitude: If men would behave decently the world would be decent.”


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