(Spirited Away (2001

Ten-year-old Chihiro Ogino and her parents are traveling to their new home when her father takes a wrong turn. They unknowingly enter a magical world that Chihiro’s father insists on exploring. While Chihiro’s parents begin to devour the food at an empty restaurant stall, Chihiro finds an exquisite bathhouse and meets a young boy named Haku who warns her to return across the river before sunset. However, Chihiro discovers too late that her parents have turned into pigs and she is unable to cross the flooded river, becoming trapped in the spirit world.

Haku finds Chihiro and has her ask for a job from the bathhouse’s boiler-man, Kamaji, a yōkai commanding the susuwatari. Kamaji refuses work for her and asks the worker Lin to send Chihiro to the witch, Yubaba, who runs the bathhouse. Yubaba tries to frighten Chihiro away, but she persists, so Yubaba gives Chihiro a contract to work for her. Yubaba takes her name and renames her Sen (千). While visiting her parents’ pigpen, Sen finds a goodbye card addressed to Chihiro and realizes that she has already forgotten her name. Haku warns her that Yubaba controls people by taking their names and that if she forgets hers like he has forgotten his, she will not be able to leave the spirit world.

Sen faces discrimination from the other workers because she is still a human and not a spirit. While working, she invites a silent masked creature named No-Face inside, believing him to be a customer. A ‘stink spirit’ arrives as Sen’s first customer, and she discovers he is the spirit of a polluted river. In gratitude for cleaning him, he gives Sen a magic emetic dumpling. Meanwhile, No-Face tempts a worker with gold, then swallows him. He demands food and begins tipping extensively. As the workers swarm him, hoping to be tipped, he swallows two other greedy workers.

Sen discovers paper shikigami attacking a dragon and recognizes the dragon as Haku transformed. When a grievously injured Haku crashes into Yubaba’s penthouse, Sen follows him upstairs. A shikigami that stowed away on her back transforms into Zeniba, Yubaba’s twin sister. She transforms Yubaba’s baby son, Boh, into a mouse, creates a decoy baby and turns Yubaba’s harpy into a tiny bird. Zeniba tells Sen that Haku has stolen a magic golden seal from her, and warns Sen that it carries a deadly curse. Haku falls into the boiler room with Sen and Boh on his back, where Sen feeds him part of the dumpling with which she intended to save her parents, causing him to vomit both the seal and a black slug, which Sen crushes with her foot.

With Haku unconscious, Sen resolves to return the seal and apologize for Haku. Sen confronts No-Face, who is now massive, and feeds him the rest of the dumpling. No-Face chases Sen out of the bathhouse, steadily regurgitating everything he has eaten. Sen, No-Face, and Boh travel to see Zeniba. Yubaba orders that Sen’s parents be slaughtered, but Haku reveals that Boh is missing, and offers to retrieve him if Yubaba releases Sen and her parents. Yubaba agrees, but only if Sen can pass a final test.

Sen, No-Face and Boh meet with the now benevolent Zeniba, who reveals that Sen’s love for Haku broke her curse and that Yubaba used the black slug to control Haku. Haku appears at Zeniba’s home in his dragon form and flies Sen and Boh to the bathhouse. No-Face decides to stay behind and becomes Zeniba’s spinner. In midflight, Sen recalls falling in her youth into the Kohaku River and being washed safely ashore, thus revealing Haku’s real identity as the spirit of the Kohaku River. When they arrive at the bathhouse, Yubaba forces Sen to identify her parents from among a group of pigs in order to break their curse. After Sen answers that none of the pigs are her parents, her contract combusts and she is given back her real name. Haku takes her to the now dry riverbed and vows to meet her again. Chihiro crosses the riverbed to her restored parents, who do not remember anything. They quietly walk back to their car, which is now covered in dust and leaves. Before getting in, Chihiro takes a last look back.