Dissecting an Environmental Movie: Spirited Away

It is undeniable that modernisation and globalisation has led to a host of environmental problems in Japan. I thought it would be interesting to look at some Japanese movies to analyse how environmental messages were translated to its people. Hence, I have selected a famous movie 'Spirited Away', released in year 2001 and became a box office hit instantly. A year later, the movie won the Academy Award for best animation (BBC, 2014). It is thus relevant for us to analyse the movie and uncover how media can shape people's view of nature. I have attached a Youtube link here so do watch it! :) Just click on the Photo to load the movie.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY3FAujwmDk

Director Miyazaki Hayo illustrates the environmental consequences of development in a modernizing Japan through his movie, Spirited Away. In the movie, Chihiro was caught in a dystopia world as a result of her parent’s greed in consuming ‘free’ food. This excessive consumption ‘debt’ was later ‘paid’ off by Chihiro through her labor in a bathhouse serving wandering spirits. During her stay, Chihiro encountered a tsunami of events that magnified environmental pollution surreally. This post seeks to evaluate the human-nature relationship portrayed in Spirited Away and uncovers some subtle hints that Miyazaki attempted to highlight about the political ecology in Japan.

Excessive consumption has herald Japanese culture in today’s capitalist economy. Consumptive practices, being a prominent characteristic in most capitalist societies (David, 2001), originated from the West and was introduced into Japan during the industrialization period, driven by globalization forces. Traditional food consumption pattern is witnessing a shift towards the Western style of eating, where dairy and meat consumption is favoured (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, 2010). This was presented in the movie where the food ‘buffet’, that Chihiro’s parents ate, mainly consisted of meat. Before they indulged in the meal, Chihiro’s dad proclaimed that the meal could be paid with his credit card. This signifies yet another capitalist perspective of our environment, human domination over nature (An Anarchist, n.d.). In this psychology of domination, nature is “regarded as a mere resource, an object, a raw material to be exploited as ruthlessly as slaves on a latifundium"(Bookchin, 1980). This concept proposed the notion that humans can exploit nature because we can ‘afford’ to own it. Following the polluter-pay principle (United Nations, 1997), the ‘debt’ incurred by Chihiro’s parents were later ‘paid’ by her. This reflects the nature of anthropogenic pollution whereby a lag time (The Environment Dictionary, 1998) exists before true environmental impacts are felt, and our future generations are forced to address these problems.

Understanding how nature has been commoditized and measured by fiscal currencies then propagates another capitalist argument; with money, one can escape from environmental degradation (Wolters, 2013). As seen from the movie, Chihiro managed to detach herself from the land of the spirits after she has regained her identity and was reunited with her comparatively affluent parents (Miyazaki, 2001). The haunted land with widespread pollution, which Chihiro entered, was nothing more than a nightmare. This is identical to Japan’s attitude towards its exportation of waste. It has been reported that Japanese multi-national companies has relocated its environmentally damaging factories overseas, in particular Malaysia (Furuoka and Lo, 2005). Such migration of pollution hides the ‘wastes’ from Japanese citizens and trivializes the environmental impacts. Its people, just like Chihiro’s parents, can then continue their daily life routine, as pollution does not reach them. Hence, Japan being a developed country with the third highest Gross Domestic Income (GDP) (IMF, 2014) globally has adopted a negligent and monetary approach in addressing problems associated to nature.

Miyazaki seeks to remind his audience of the hidden pollution occurring in the country’s backyard by using cartoon characters such as the Stink God. The Stink God was actually a river deity composed of accumulated detritus, sludge wastes and even abandoned bicycles. Its river body was only cleansed after Chihiro pulled out a ‘thorn’ from the spirit’s body. Was Miyazaki then suggesting that modern civilization’s detritus (Napier, 2006) was a thorny issue? Perhaps, but he is positive that the river can be remediated and nature does contain healing purposes. Throughout the movie, nature was seen to be therapeutic with wonderful cures against spells. The Stink God after it was freed from pollution offered Chihiro a pill that can break curses. Also, Haku hailed forces from nature to revitalize Chihiro’s soul during their running spree (refer to Image 1). Thus, nature is seen as pristine and beneficial to man if only it was not polluted by human activities.

Image 1: Haku hailing natural forces as a remedy for Chihiro (adapted from the movie ‘Spirited Away', 2006)

In conclusion, the movie Spirited Away has drawn an ambiguous relationship between mankind and nature. In this age of capitalism, human has commoditized nature and imprudently consumed natural resources. In addition, mankind’s refusal to address waste pollution will only postpone the environmental crisis to our next generation. Hence, the movie is a good reminder for people to be more responsible over our own actions and to treat this delicate environment with utmost respect.   

References

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. The Japanese Consumer Behaviour, Attitudes and Perceptions toward Food Products. (2010, April 14). Retrieved October 6, 2014, from http://www.ats-sea.agr.gc.ca/asi/5428-eng.htm#c

From An Anarchist Webpage: “capitalism causes ecological destruction because it is based upon domination (of human over human and so humanity over nature)” and “capitalism is the vehicle through which the psychology of domination finds its most ecologically destructive outlet” from

D.4 What is the relationship between capitalism and the ecological crisis? (n.d.). Retrieved October 6, 2014, from http://www.anarchy.be/faq/secD4.html

BBC News,. 'Spirited Away Maker Studio Ghibli Halts Production'. N.p., 2014. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.

Bookchin, M. (1980). Toward an ecological society. Black Rose Books Ltd, p. 41.

David Larsen, “South Park’s Solar Anus, or, Rabelais Returns: Cultures of Consump- tion and the Contemporary Aesthetic of Obscenity,” Theory, Culture and Society, Vol. 18. No. 4 (2001), p. 67.

From The Environment Dictionary: “The time between the occurrence of a phenomenon and its resulting effect.”, taken from

Kemp, David D. 1998. The environment dictionary. Routledge. London.

From the Movie: Chihiro’s parents drove a shiny Audi as they were travelling to move into their new house. This shows that the family is doing economically well and has the means to upgrade their quality of life.

From the United Nations: “The polluter-pays principle is the principle according to which the polluter should bear the cost of measures to reduce pollution according to the extent of either the damage done to society or the exceeding of an acceptable level (standard) of pollution.”, taken from

Glossary of Environment Statistics, Studies in Methods, Series F, No. 67, United Nations, New York, 1997.

Furuoka, F., & Lo, M. (2005, April 25). Ejcjs - Japanese Multinational Corporations and the Export of Pollution: The Case of Bukit Merah. Retrieved October 7, 2014, from http://www.japanesestudies.org.uk/articles/2005/FuruokaandChiun.html

IMF World Economic Outlook, April 2014 - knoema.com. (2014, April 1). Retrieved October 7, 2014, from http://knoema.com/IMFWEO2014Apr/imf-world-economic-outlook-april-2014

Napier, S. J. (2006). Matter out of place: Carnival, containment, and cultural recovery in Miyazaki's Spirited Away. The Journal of Japanese Studies, 32(2), 302.

Wolters, E. (2013, August 12). 6 Things Every Environmentalist Needs to Know About CapitalismCritical-Theory.com. Retrieved October 7, 2014, from http://www.critical-theory.com/environmentalist-capitalism/