Part Two - Sound (Spirited Away)

Part Two - Sound

Spirited Away

Hayao Miyazaki (2001)

In addition to Miyizaki’s beautiful animation, he has built the world of his film through music and sound effects. Corrigan and White state “sound engages viewers perceptually provides key spacial and story information and affords an aesthetic experience of its own.” [1] In Spirited Away we are given the world of the spirit bathhouse through a multitude of sound techniques. We are also engaged emotionally through the poignant orchestral music that is present through almost the entire film.

MLS of Chihro and Haku flying through the air.

An important aspect of the sound in Spirited Away is the orchestral music that permeates the film from beginning to end. Hayao Miyazaki employed the accomplished composer Joe Hisaishi who composed the emotive score and conducted the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra to bring it alive. “Hisaishi’s musical arrangement of the score features contrasting effects produced by the brass and string instruments, the former for dramatic and strident mood and the latter for a lighter and more whimsical effect.” [3] For example in a crucial scene towards the end of the movie, Chihiro has a flashback and remembers Haku’s real name in what is arguably the turning point of the film. The music at the beginning of the sequence is triumphant and stirring and through this non-diegetic sound we can appreciate Chihiro’s feeling of accomplishment along with her. Then as she remembers the crucial moment of the past the music all but disappears and this provides us with a point of emphasis and we understand how important this moment is to the narrative. It “provides rhythm and deepens [our] emotional response” [1] to what had occurred. In addition “silence and stillness relate to Japanese art forms” [3] which reminds us of the origins of the film.

While this act of placing the non-diegetic musical score in the film breaks the verisimilitude of the piece we readily accept this convention of film form because, despite this, it draws out our emotional response to the content more than if there were no music. Films flatten with lack of sound and the addition of an emotionally stirring score gives it more body and substance.

Mouse and Bugbird, as they are the focus the diegetic sound of their flying is louder.

Another important aspect of the sound in Spirited Away is the carefully crafted diegetic sound effects that create the whole world of the film.

The bulk of the film takes place in a bath house and to create the sounds for this specific setting Miyazaki and his sound engineer Mr Inoue went to the Kusatsu spas to record the natural sounds there. The also recorded the sounds for the kitchen in a restaurant. “In the studio sounds were added one by one to every small movement” [2] by Mr Noguchi, who has been adding sounds to animation for 20 years. Everything was thought about and engineered in detail because “virtually nothing appears onscreen that does not make its corresponding noise.” [1]

An example of this diegetic sound is when the transformed baby and eagle are flying around Chihiro. The buzzing sound they make gets louder and quieter the closer they fly to Chihiro’s head. This places us, the audience, into the narrative and makes us feel as though we are a part of it to. It is the small details like these that create the verisimilitude that helps us to closer analyse the important themes in the film.

Works Cited:
[Spirited Away. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli, Dentsu Inc, 2001. Film]
[1] Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White, The Film Experience, 3rd ed. Boston, New York: Bedford/St Martins, 2004, 2009, 2012. Print.

[2]Designing Sound. Web. 29 April 2015. <http://designingsound.org/2009/12/the-sound-of-spirited-away/>

[3]HSC Extension Course Support Materials. Web. 29 April 2015. <http://www.quia.com/files/quia/users/bakersensei/ext_japanese1.pdf>
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