When I was thirteen, I saw the movie Spirited Away for the first time. I remember it was the summer holidays, and we didn’t have cable on our TV. So, I got hooked on online shows and animated movies, which I would watch with all my siblings on our computer. Up and Despicable Me were the rage that year. Anyhow, Spirited Away remained my favorite animated movie (after Howl’s Moving Castle).
The movie follows a young girl traveling with her parents in their car. In the middle of their journey, her parents decide to stop for some food, and there, in the middle of nowhere, they see a long table filled with amazing food. Of course, they decide to go for it, but Chihiro, their daughter, stops them since it’s in the middle of nowhere, and, well, that food could belong to anyone. Her parents do not listen to her, and the more they eat someone else’s food, the more insatiable their hunger becomes—just like wild pigs, which, surprisingly, they turn into. Chihiro’s struggle to return her parents to their original human forms starts from there. Her journey is so remarkably honest and pure that anyone watching could feel in awe of the truthfulness of her character, set in a place filled with selfish ways and a bottomless pit of greed to fulfill one’s own desires.
No-Face
During her journey, Chihiro meets No-Face. No-Face is really a no-face character—he doesn’t have any identity, form, or purpose. However, Chihiro’s kindness toward him gives him motivation: to please Chihiro. He helps her by giving her a bath token, and seeing how happy Chihiro becomes, he steals more for her. But she rejects them, saying that she needed only one—hence signifying the honesty of Chihiro’s character.
A rejected and disheartened No-Face subsequently observes that the spirits around him fight for gold. So, gold must be important—maybe. He doesn’t see any value in the gold himself, but seeing how it makes others bow down, No-Face wants the same. He eats the frog spirit and begins to demonstrate the frog’s qualities of greed and love for extravagance. So now, we see No-Face ordering luxurious baths for himself in the bathhouse, eating excessive amounts of food, throwing tantrums, and garnering others’ attention and praise by throwing gold around. The workers around him, of course, are influenced by him.
However, Chihiro isn’t. She denies his gold many times and finally makes it clear to him that he cannot give her what she truly wants. Angered, out of control, and highly volatile, No-Face chases after her, but she gives him an emetic dumpling, causing him to vomit all the food, spirits, and workers he has consumed—things that had made him so big and influential. Later, we see him as his original, calmer self, silently accompanying Chihiro to the good witch Zeniba’s house. There, he finds himself in a much better environment, where he knits and spins for Zeniba, eventually staying with her as he finds a new, useful purpose to live by.
Why No-Face?
The character of No-Face is not the most significant in the movie, but the lesson he gives is a powerful one. When he doesn’t have any real personality of his own, he takes on the traits of others around him—especially the negative ones. So, we see him becoming loud, obnoxious, and volatile. When he doesn’t have any real purpose, he becomes obsessed with pleasing Chihiro, which is a futile purpose to live by. When he sees that nothing he does pleases her, he tries to give her what seems to please others—money.
In the process, we also learn that the workers only notice and value him once he becomes wealthy. In fact, they begin to worship him—something we see in today’s world as well. However, all the money and attention from people and spirits don’t give No-Face a sense of peace or fulfillment. He only finds fulfillment once he starts doing something useful, like knitting, leaving his obsession with Chihiro behind.
This movie came out more than two decades ago, but it still perfectly depicts what is happening today—obsessing over pleasing someone, having no idea who you are or what your true values are, making money the sole purpose of life, and allowing people to love you only because of your wealth rather than who you truly are. These all seem to be the trends of today. However, all of this is nothing. You will feel it in your heart—the emptiness, the lack of peace and satiety. True contentment lies in following a purpose that gives your life meaning and adds usefulness to this world. If only we—and No-Face—understood this earlier!