The Importance of Food in Spirited Away

Spirited Away is set in a world that shows the importance of food. Food acts as a facilitator for many of the scenes. It is an important part of the movie and that can result in evil or good. Food has healing properties that help the characters heal from the different conditions they find themselves. Food helps Chihiro twice when Haku offers her the magical fruit and magical rice. From the quote below, Haku offers Chihiro a magical fruit to stop her from disappearing. The picture below is an indication where the film depicts that food can also be evil. According to Goldberg, food is an important part of the Japanese culture, which might explain why it has been continuously featured in the movie.

“Open your mouth and eat this. If you don’t eat food from this world, you’ll disappear.”  These are the words of Haku to Chihiro, which shows the importance of food in the movie. As from the aforementioned quote, food has a positive impact. Chihiro needs to remain visible and strong to save her parents. Haku offers her food to stop her from disappearing. Apart from the above quote, there is another instance where Haku offers Chihiro food to remain strong.  

Fig 1: Chihiro parents turn into pigs, Spirited Away

At the same time, food can be evil if misused. As it is evident in the picture above, Chihiro’s parents turn into pigs after they consume food without the owner’s permission. Even at her young age, Chihiro knows it is wrong to eat food without any permission because they might get into trouble. However, her parents show greed, which leads to them turning into pigs eventually.

Works Cited

 Goldberg, Elyssa. ”Eat All the Food from ’Spirited Away’ in This Taiwanese Town.” Munchie, 14 Jan. 2018,                                                        https://munchies.vice.com/en_us/article/ezq9ek/in-jiufen-you-can-eat-your-way-through-a-miyazaki-film

Spirited away. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, performances by Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takeshi Naito, Yasuko Sawaguchi, Tsunehiko Kamijō, Takehiko Ono, Bunta Sugawara, Toho, 2001, Film.