Spirited Away

damn, i don't want to work and pay taxes and participate in capitalism and have a mortgage and endlessly consume until i perish :( Possibly one of the saddest endings Miyazaki has ever made. An aching longing to feel like a kid again. The eternal pain of knowing that you can never relive your childhood. There's just nostalgia; a painful mourning of what once was. In this lens, it doubles as a poignant piece of social commentary of contemporary Japanese society too. Japanese people after their recession in the 90s were trapped in mindless consumer capitalism. Forever stuck in a cycle of working long days and nights with no optimism for their future. Their only sense of joy came from looking back to Japan's rich and colored past. Which Miyazaki also critiques as shown with the animalistic nature the characters in the bathhouse behave. Even the past wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, it was also full of greed. However, the ending always presents an inkling of optimism. Perhaps it is because our protagonist, Chihiro, is so young. A film that calls out to the Japanese youth. A film that poses as a warning to not fall into the pitfalls of endless consumerism while also being a cautionary tale of the dangers of succumbing to nationalistic nostalgia. This is why Spirited Away is the greatest "kids" movie of all time. There is such a delicate balance between its childlike wonder and its deeply mature themes. It tells a tale that is so deeply "adult" in a way a child could understand. There is tragedy in its messaging, but hidden underneath the longing despair of never being able to go back, it looks towards the youth for hope.