FILM

NO FACE IS A TRICKY CONCEPT

How Miyazaki catches the curiosity and horror of being 10

By Yangzhe (Sophia) Yu

Light Horror for Children

Hayao Miyazaki created Spirited Away for the ten-year old daughter of his associate producer, Seiji Okuda. In this way, the movie isn’t really for a mainstream audience, but an audience of one. It is why the main character, ten-year old Chihiro, seems so normal and alive. She is not cute, nor pretty, nor particularly charming, all qualities we are used to from Disney films. She’s just an ordinary Japanese girl and obnoxious in the way that children can be. Spirited Away is not a romantic story, but one about how Chihiro grows up and begins to understand the world.

I was about ten years old when I first saw Spirited Away. I can't remember all the details of my first viewing experience, but some of the characters — in terms of their design and character modeling — caught my eye and imagination. It’s easy to admire the technical expertise of the film, but at the time I only experienced the delight. However, that response was connected to Miyazaki’s superb technique which most viewers overlook, including the ten-year old me.

The most impressive and fascinating aspect of Miyazaki and his team’s work is the idea and design of No-Face, a spirit in the film. He is capable of reacting to emotions and ingesting people in order to steal their souls and physical traits. No-Face has no friends and covets neither enjoyment nor material objects; because of that he symbolizes the most primitive humanity. He has an important narrative and emotional function in Spirited Away. Most design work is characterological and geared towards the face. No-Face has no face and therefore eludes traditional animated notions of what a character is, which is, of course, Miyazaki’s point.

Kind of Spooky

No-Face appears in a semi-transparent state while shifting in and out of sight. His organs are visible, pulsating before our eyes, and his figure resembles that of a long, black tube. While it is unclear if No-Face has a physical body, Miyazaki shows that he can develop arms and legs. He even has the capability of leaving footprints, perhaps one of the erriest effects in the movie. His mask is ominous, expressionless, and has grey-violet highlights on his forehead. He has a soft grin of a mouth, which expertly hides his real one. Needless to say a mouth hiding a larger mouth is the stuff of nightmares, although strangely as with all of Spirited Away we don’t know whether to be scared or charmed. The mouth expertly straddles the line between the unsettling and fascinating.

We first see No-Face standing on the bridge watching Chihiro and Haku rushing to cross to the Bathhouse. They are trying to avoid any spirits that might have designs on them for being little kids. Already we’re in a world where little girls and spirits are at odds with each other. By how much, we’ll find out later, but Miyazaki lets us know that there is tension and conflict before tension and conflict begin. The spirit subsequently disappears and reappears again on the bridge the next morning, watching Chihiro pass from the normal world to his. The fact that she’s now alone heightens our concern.

What's a frog taste like?

No-Face is a ghostly presence until Chihiro lets him into the Bathhouse, worried that No-Face will get wet in the rain, but also because she thinks he is a customer. He emerges again next to the Foreman of the Bathhouse, stealing a bath token for Chihiro. She needs the bath token to get enough water. But what makes us stop for a moment and think is the fact that this ghostly adult is giving her money that he has stolen and allowing her entrance in to some place that she maybe shouldn’t be. That she thanks him makes it even scarier.

Of course, perhaps in the eyes of ten-year-old Chihiro, No-Face is not scary, and he's just a friendly adult helping her. No-Face subsequently steals more tokens, but Chihiro ultimately rejects his gifts, telling him that she only needs one. Disheartened, No-Face disappears, leaving the tokens to fall to the floor. No-Face is more like a child here, and can’t even communicate with a child. Chihiro's rejection is like a friend's refusal to play. He feels unwanted and disappears.

The next time No-Face appears is when the rest of the workers celebrate after the leaving of the unnamed river spirit. The spirit, a blue frog or an aogaeru, sits in a corner and watches as the workers fight and argue for the leftover gold on the ground. Learning that gold is important, No-Face baits the unsuspecting Aogaeru to come closer to him when the latter is digging for gold in the middle of the night. He swallows the frog spirit and gains his corruptive properties soon after.

With the negative qualities of the Aogaeru in him, No-Face demands a luxurious bath from the workers, throwing magically-conjured gold at them, ingesting large amounts of food, and getting larger and larger. Perhaps for the children at this moment in the film, No-Face is becoming less of a friend to Chihiro and more of a monster. If No-Face previously was a blank slate, he begins to learn new rules for survival and becomes something quite different and ominous.

Just an ordinary ten-year old girl

With his assumed large amount of wealth, No-Face becomes a sensation with the workers who constantly beg for tips from him. After witnessing Chihiro reject his offer of gold, No-Face drops the gold onto the ground in despair. Angered by worker insults, No-Face swallows two more of them, as his true nature is revealed to the horrified workers. The swollen body of the No-face is full of their swollen desires and filth. This is not a fun friend in any way.

No-Face is next seen throwing a tantrum in a guest room, asking to see Chihiro. With his offering of gold rejected a third time, No-Face is bereft when Chihiro says that he can never give her "what she truly wants". After being fed the last of Chihiro's emetic dumpling from the unnamed river spirit, No-Face regurgitates everything he has eaten, returning to his timid self and following Chihiro to Zeniba's place, where he learns to knit and sew.

Gold and Dreams make Nightmares?

This is a very interesting scene. No-Face spits out the frog worker he ate and then he returns to how we and Chichiro first saw him, quiet and mysterious. It seems No-Face not only spit out all the things he ate, but also the desire and impurity of humanity. As Chihiro leaves, Zeniba requests that No-Face stay away from the negative influence of the Bathhouse. No-Face is last seen with Zeniba and her Hopping Lantern bidding Chihiro farewell as she flies off on Haku's back. In the end, No-Face chooses a more peaceful life. Instead of being a villain, he is back to his original self and maybe Chichiro is too.

These series of strange No-Face transformations are what makes the film so unsettling. No-Face is not only a planar monster in an animated film, but his experience and his story bring different feelings to the audience. There is no fixed meaning attached to him and that makes Spirited Away a complex experience for any age.

©Yangzhe (Sophia) Xu and the CCA Arts Review