Culture news 22 years later, finally discover the big secret behind this character from Spirited Away (Hayao Miyazaki)
Spirited Away is Hayao Miyazaki’s best-known film and probably one of the most enigmatic. But 22 years later, it is time to finally lift the veil on one of its biggest mysteries.
Spirited Away, Miyazaki’s dreamlike
For a long time, Spirited away served as a standard-bearer for Hayao Miyazaki’s cinema, particularly because it was a huge success when it was released in 2001 (in Japan) and then 2002. Until 2020, it was even the biggest success in the history of Japanese cinema. It notably won the Oscar for best animated film and the Golden Bear for best film in 2002. And in the collective imagination, when we talk about Miyazaki and Ghibli, the first film which comes in the majority of cases It is exactly Spirited away. And this is not really a coincidence.
Spirited away is a film that crystallizes quite well the “Miyazaki style”between poetry, dreaminess and metaphor. As magical as it may seem, the fantasy world of Aburaya is in fact well anchored in reality. Through the dreamlike story of Spirited Away, Miyazaki attacks a society rotten from the inside because of hyperconsumption, greed, hierarchy and social barriers. In a way, Miyazaki is calling on Japan to reconnect with its roots in the midst of all this doldrums. It is by doing this that Chihiro will be able to escape Yubâba’s domination. The analyzes on Spirited away are numerous and we can only invite you to read them to discover another facet of this legendary film and the complex thinking of its director. What interests us today is this very specific point: the identity of Faceless.
カオナシとは一体何者なのでしょうか😳。宮﨑駿監督いわく「カオナシなんて周りにいっぱいい。ると思いますけどね」とのこと。自分を持たず、出会うもの、人によって変化するのがカオナシという存在なのです😌 pic.twitter.com/UX6LEVawAA
— アンク＠金曜ロードショー公式 (@kinro_ntv) January 5, 2024
Who is the Faceless One?
The character of Faceless has for a long time raised many questions. Many saw him as a victim of hyperconsumption and capitalism, a glutton who thinks he can buy everything with all the gold he owns. And when his gold is no longer of any use to him, he goes completely crazy. A credible analysis, especially when we know the ideals of the director and one of the hidden meanings of Spirited Away. But the primary meaning of this character is quite different. And it is not another analysis that decrees this but rather the director Hayao Miyazaki himself.
On the occasion of the cinema slot of the Nippon TV channel (Kinyo Roadshow) devoted to Spirited Awaythe channel shared a certain amount of information about the film on its X account (formerly Twitter). And among them, we find the official meaning of the character Faceless, which few people knew until now: “There are many people like the Faceless One among us… He’s the type of person who wants to relate to others but has no self-awareness. They are everywhere.” The Faceless therefore represents all those people who adapt their personality according to their interlocutor in order to attract their good graces. It is thus the indifference of young Chihiro which will drive crazy this chameleon accustomed to obtaining everything he desires by simply changing the tone of his voice.