Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki’s 2001 Japanese movie Spirited Away also reckons with the true power of name identity. In the movie, a young girl named Chihiro is swept into a spiritual realm after her parents are kidnapped, and must work at a magical bathhouse to win their freedom from the house mistress Yubaba. 

When she first signs her work contract, Chihiro’s name is literally taken from her by her new mistress through magic, until only a fractional kanji character of her name remains; owning her name characters, Yubaba owns her connection to the human world, and any passage back. With the new name ‘Sen,’ she becomes more immersed in the fantasy and begins to lose grip of the person she once was. Her only confidante in the spiritual world is Haku, a mysterious boy who cannot remember his original name either. Without that key information, he only had Yubaba’s construction of an identity to live off of, and by forgetting his true name, he has also lost any previous memories. During her first day of work, Haku warns Chihiro that if she fully forgets her true name also, she will be forever trapped without any lingering ties to her humanity. When analyzing this cinematic motif, scholar Ando Satoshi states that "being called Sen signifies her lost, or dispossessed, identity; and she almost forgets her own name when she is talking to Haku early one morning in the flower garden and when she yells ‘I’m Sen’ to her parents in the pigsty." Just that quickly, she is as rootless as she is nameless, trying to forge a new identity and life with the name she has left. 

As a metaphor, the loss of her name represents a greater loss of a psychological past: the film suggests our memories are associated with name and sense of self, and cannot exist without some self-sustained frame of conscience. The metaphor also implies that we must retain our personal values regardless of the external pressures around us; while in the public eye, she must be the false character of Sen, but in her own mind, no one can take the name ‘Chihiro’ away from her. By protecting her name within, Chihiro is also protecting her own beliefs and the intrinsic values that make up her own being.

The reclamation of identity through personal name is the crux of the movie, and when Chihiro’s love helps Haku remember his name, he becomes ultimately free, regaining control of his own identity and self-worth, and breaking Yubaba’s spell. When Chihiro also remembers her name and her original desire to find her parents, she suddenly finds the internal courage to leave the bathhouse and stand up to Yubaba. She aligns herself with Yubaba’s good sister Zeniba, who reminds her to always believe in her purest principles. Preparing to win back her parents, Chihiro tells Zeniba “I just want you to know my real name [before I leave]! It's Chihiro!” to which Zeniba replies “oh, what a pretty name! Be sure to take good care of it, dear!” By sharing her real name with someone who cares for her, Chihiro is empowering herself, and allowing someone else to know her true identity. Much like The Handmaid’s Tale, revealing a true name is one of the most intimate secrets a person can have, and Chihiro is brave enough to expose it to Zeniba.

While a children’s movie, Spirited Away addresses the fear of losing one’s true self through the act of name taking, and the courage it takes to believe in oneself despite the pressures of society.