Spirited Away, originally known in Japan as Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi , is an Academy Award winning 2001 film by the Japanese anime studio Studio Ghibli, written and directed by famed animator Hayao Miyazaki. Its original Japanese title can be translated as The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro or Sen and the Spiriting Away of Chihiro.
The film received many awards, including the second Oscar ever awarded for Best Animated Feature and the only winner of that award to win among five nominees (in every other year there were three nominees).

Synopsis

Chihiro is a 10-year-old girl who is moving to a new town with her parents. She is unhappy about the move and only considers how it will affect her, complaining about everything including her new school to the bouquet of flowers she was given as a parting gift from her friend wilting.

While trying to find a shorter route to their new home, Chihiro's father drives down a small road that ends at a mysterious building. Chihiro's parents are curious and walk through the dark entryway of the building. On the other side, they discover what they assume to be an abandoned theme park, which is later revealed as a borderland between the human world and the spirit world.

While strolling across a dry riverbed, Chihiro's parents smell food and follow the scent across a grassy plain to a small village full of restaurants. Although the restaurants appear empty, the tables are heaped with food. Chihiro's parents help themselves– with increasing gluttony– but Chihiro is reluctant to enter because she's afraid whoever made the food will catch them and be mad. When they offer her some food, she refuses and runs off. She discovers a large bathhouse and approaches a bridge leading to it. Before she can reach it, a boy, later revealed to be named Haku, approaches her and warns her that she must leave before night falls. At that moment, the sky darkens and the lamps of the bathhouse are lighted. Haku tells Chihiro to cross the river as fast as she can and says he will distract the others.

Chihiro runs back to the restaurant where her parents are still eating and discovers that they have transformed into pigs. She is terrified and tries to find her way back to the car. She is stopped in her path when she discovers that the grassy plain is submerged by a large body of water.

Chihiro's distress is compounded when she notices that she is becoming transparent. Haku finds her and gives her something to eat from the spirit world, so that she will not altogether vanish. He helps her sneak into the bathhouse, which is managed by a witch named Yubaba. He tells her that the only way she can safely stay there long enough to rescue her parents is to work in the bathhouse.

Chihiro, following Haku's advice, goes to the boiler room to ask the boiler man Kamajii for a job. He rebuffs her until one of his workers, an enchanted ball of soot, collapses under a lump of coal. Chihiro picks up the coal and carries it to the boiler. Although the coal is extremely heavy, she completes her task. Kamajii is pleased and decides to help Chihiro find a job by enlisting a young woman named Lin (Rin) to take the girl to Yubaba.

Chihiro discovers Yubaba to be a regal but monstrous woman. Chihiro asks for a job, despite Yubaba's repeated refusals. Yubaba eventually consents, on the condition that Chihiro give her name to Yubaba. The witch takes possession of Chihiro's name, grasping the signature from the contract and leaving Chihiro only one part of her two-character name on the paper. The kanji character with one stroke removed is pronounced "Sen."^[1] Now known as Sen, Chihiro is assigned to be Lin's assistant.

The next morning, Haku shows Sen that her parents are in a pen with other pigs. Haku gives Sen her old clothes and the card from her farewell bouquet of flowers. Sen reads the card and remembers her name. Haku warns her that Yubaba controls people by stealing their names; once they forget their names, as Haku forgot his, they belong to her.

The bathhouse brings out the dormant monster in No Face. Able to give mud the appearance of gold, he thrives on the greed of the bathhouse's employees. Eventually he becomes ravenous and eats everything in sight, including three bathhouse workers.

While No Face is transforming into a gluttonous monster, Haku returns to the bathhouse in the form of a dragon, pursued and attacked by a large flock of enchanted kirigami (paper) birds. Badly injured, he finds his way into Yubaba's office. Sen recognizes the dragon as Haku and goes to look for him, unaware that she is followed by one of the paper birds.

While looking for Haku, Sen encounters Yubaba's baby Boh, who wants to play with her. She escapes his grasp and finds Yubaba's servants, three disembodied heads called Kashira, trying to push Haku down a shaft. The paper bird that followed Sen transforms into Zeniba, Yubaba's twin sister, who was chasing Haku because he had stolen her seal. A spell is placed on the seal that kills anyone who steals it.

Zeniba transforms the baby into a mouse, Yubaba's harpy servant into a small bird, and the three heads to look like Boh, in order to fool Yubaba. Haku cuts the paper in two with his tail, which causes Zeniba's presence to disappear. He then falls down the chimney, taking Sen with him, but they land safely in the boiler room. Sen feeds Haku a piece of the river spirit's herbal cake, which causes him to spit out the stolen seal. On the seal is a black slug, which Sen destroys on the orders of Kamaji. She resolves to help Haku by returning Zeniba's seal and apologizing on his behalf. Kamajii gives Sen a train ticket and tells her how to find Zeniba.

Before she leaves, Sen returns to the bathhouse to confront No Face, who is calling for her in his delirium. She feeds him the remainder of the herbal cake, which causes him to regurgitate the food and three bathhouse workers he has eaten. His gluttony is cured once he follows her outside. Sen and No Face, accompanied by Boh and Yubaba’s flying servant, take a train to Zeniba’s home in Swamp Bottom.

Back at the bathhouse, Haku recovers from his wounds. When Yubaba learns that her baby is missing, she is enraged. Haku makes a pact with her to retrieve the baby, and in return, he demands that Yubaba send Sen and her parents back to their world. Yubaba accepts, on one condition: Chihiro has to correctly identify which of the pigs are her parents.

At Zeniba's cottage, Sen learns that the black slug she squashed was put in Haku by Yubaba, and allowed her to control him. Zeniba tells Sen that the only way the spell on her seal can be broken is by love.

Haku, again in the form of a dragon, finds Sen at Zeniba's cottage. Zeniba forgives him for stealing her seal and invites No Face to stay with her. Haku carries Sen back to the bathhouse, and while soaring through the air, Chihiro remembers that she and Haku had met before: When she was young, she fell into a river and survived because she was carried by the current to the shore. She was saved by Haku, who was the spirit of the Kohaku River. Upon remembering this, Chihiro tells Haku that his name is Kohaku, whereupon he is freed from Yubaba's control, and he and Chihiro profess their love for each other.

At the bathhouse, Chihiro must perform one final task to free her parents: She must choose them from a group of pigs. Empowered by her newfound courage, Chihiro accepts the challenge and correctly answers that none of the pigs are her parents. As a result, they are allowed to return to their world. Haku promises her that they will meet again one day.