A New, Foreign Place Can Make You or Break You: 7 Cautionary Life Lessons from Spirited Away
& Howl’s Moving Castle; on Not Losing Yourself vs Capitalism; Ryan Holiday's High Standards of Editing Stuffs Out; NCT127's Lemonade; Distilling Down Beating Distractions; Seth Godin's Quick No
Finally, after dealing with distractions, I am in a better place to move forward and write about Miyazaki’s magnum opus, Spirited Away (2001).
We all have come across this quote, somewhere….
“Current mood: Move to a new city and start a new life.”
The phrase has been used so much that we glorify, or romanticize entering the unknown.
But there is a 50-50 possibility to “that new city”, or “that new life”, or whatever that is foreign.
A new, foreign place would either make you or break you.
In comparison to Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpieces,
A new place that can make you is when Sophie entered Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl was rumored to eat hearts) in the Wastes. Previously—prior to her moving into Howl's—she was an insecure young adult who was working as a hatter. But once she was bewitched into an old lady, she became confident and didn’t care about her appearance. And when her mother came to visit her later on, telling Sophie that they can all live together again, Sophie refused with “but I’m happier here”.
Now that we’ve got the former out of the way, let’s focus on today’s topic, which is the latter:
A new place can also break you..
which is Yubaba’s Bathhouse in Spirited Away.
So here are 7 cautionary lessons from the film (spoilers ahead):
Sometimes you want to escape the tiger’s den, but you end up entering a crocodile’s den
not that I know which is scarier but yeah you get what I mean.
In Spirited Away, Chihiro found herself lost in a foreign world. It felt like a tiger's den, as she lost her parents (her backbone), who were turned to pigs upon giving in to gluttony (a sin in the foreign world). Unable to find the way out, she resorted to seek a temporary alternative so she would survive there and figure out how to leave the foreign world together with her parents later onwards: by entering the crocodile's den, Yubaba's Bathhouse, and deciding to work there.
A new place can be a tiger's den or a crocodile's den. The savannah or rivers at first may look or calm, but you don't know if there's a predator lurking behind, sleeping, waiting to unleash its claws and catch you at the right moment.
A huge trap.
Selling your soul is the last straw
Once you're inside the crocodile’s den, it doesn't stop at only catching you, but it also wants your soul, exerting a greater hold on you.
Upon signing the contract to work at the Bathhouse, Yubaba took Chihiro's name, and gave her a new name called Sen.
This act of stealing her name is essentially stealing her soul.
Selling your soul to a cause that feeds the greed of others, degrades your sense of self. The more you lose your sense of self, the weaker you become, and the more you tend to forget who you really are.
When you lose your identity, you’ll become easily enslaved... to anything!
You mirror the company you keep.
Besides Chihiro, an interesting character in Spirited Away is No Face.
No Face is a person that has no sense of self. He/she (I don't know the gender but let's just say 'he' in this scenario) has no backbone, and had already lost his identity. Hence, No Face.
Around Sen, who is kind and pure, No Face reciprocates kindness.
But around the gold-motivated workers in the Bathhouse, No Face reciprocate greed by eating the workers.
It’s the same concept as good people rub off good energy on you; and bad people, vice versa.
The people in the same boat as you will give you strength.
..to endure life in the crocodile’s den. They are a source for you to seek refuge, and comfort in dealing with the harsh world. They’ll remind you of who you really are.
These people are Haku, Lyn, and Kamaji.
And they will become your biggest obstacle to leave.
You’ll want to bring them with you.
But you can’t.
When it’s time to leave, you’ll have to be strong. As Haku said to Chihiro upon her departure from Yubaba’s world: “never look back.” Because we all have different journeys in life.
It is hard to escape a greed-motivated (aka rat race) world
Speaking of greed—a motivation, or emotion common in the adult world..
I've noticed that Miyazaki’s protagonists are mostly children because they are innocent beings who have no idea of what is greed, and why "responsibilities" are somewhat tied to them.
Chihiro’s comrade, Lyn, who once mentioned she will get out of the Bathhouse one day, as they were overlooking the vast ocean that separates the “Bathhouse world” from "other worlds" is a symbolism of how responsibilities-tied adults have it hard to leave the harsh den because they are ridden with commitments. And to an extent, they stay because of comfortability in the current horrible circumstances.
What I mean is, being isolated (or realistically speaking, busy) to one horrible place for a long time, can make you ignorant (not that it's your fault) of what the outside world is, and if there are indeed better places than the one you're at.
Not knowing how things beyond the horizon may scare you to even step out.
The ocean isolates the Bathhouse on its own. Yubaba's workers have no clue on what's beyond the seas, and wouldn't even dare to step out.
Feeling betrayed makes you wary of the new people in your life.
We all come from a point of mistakes in our lives where we may have given our trust to the people undeserving of it, the people who we have not gotten to know deeply yet. And upon betrayal, which scars us, we are more likely to distrust a new person (who may turn out to be good beings).
At worst, it makes leaving even harder because the last time you left in hopes to go away from a tiger’s den, you entered a crocodile’s den and got stuck there instead.
As your head may jump to conclusions (based on past experiences), and present another worst-case scenario: that there’s a possibility the next destination may be an anaconda’s den.
So was Chihiro’s initial assumption on Zeniba, Yubaba’s twin.
The only way to escape the crocodile/tiger/anaconda's den: to have bullets prepared.
The journey to get out of a toxic, greed-motivated environment is not as easy as it seems. It can be impossible.
But it is possible.
To get out, you must first, eliminate the greed, or the “wants that don’t matter”, and be ready to face incoming obstacles with bullets prepared.
Chihiro had to encounter several obstacles. Which are (1) How to identify her parents who were held as hostages (and as pigs) against her; and (2) how to get the train—the only transportation — tickets that transport her out of isolated Bathhouse.
Examples from Miyazaki's main characters:
In Howl’s Moving Castle: Sophie, left the hat shop and went to Howl's Moving Castle in the Wastes with cheese and bread for sustenance in case there’s no food upon her days of journey to the Wastes.
In Spirited Away: Chihiro brought the one-way tickets, which were so hard to obtain for the train that runs on water to Zeniba's Cottage located oceans apart from the Bathhouse.
The cheese, bread, and one-way tickets are bullets that give courage to these characters so they can finally muster the bravery to leave the place that trapped them.
These bullets may be impossible to obtain, or could only be attained after overcoming several hurdles. But the only way is to be brave and persevere in getting these bullets, as they will arm you with the courage to let go and leave.
The realistic scenario can look like this:
“But I need the money to sustain a living? And to pay my debts?"
The bullet here may be that you'll have to (1) downgrade your lifestyle; or (2) save for extra cushion; or (3) move back in with your parents; or (4) upskill in other areas that you see potential growth and exploration in the future. Greed, like the latest phone, isn't necessary.
Sometimes, it’s not as clear as black and white. Only you know what type of bullet you'll need.
Sometimes, a new place makes you, after it breaks you.
While you may be scared of the potential entry to an anaconda's lair post-crocs-den, don't be! Because your newfound maturity—from the past experience at the crocodiles’ den—will surely be the north star to guide you, and arm you whilst navigating along the unknown territories.
Which part resonated with you the most? Share with me!
Current Obsessions
NCT 127’s Lemonade > Sticker #justmy2cents
Han Jisung’s playlist. If you missed out on Han Jisung’s article, check this out.
Bang Chan’s vlog; Bang Chan embarrassed by SKZ; SKZ award entrance; SKZ’s Domino performance
Serious Things
Seth Godin’s “You are not for everyone”
Another way of putting your anger to good use is how Sophie channeled her anger to the Witch of the Waste by cleaning Howl’s dirty castle — Some things you get a clearer understanding of when you watch it again, and again, and again.
#wordoftheweek: Bequeath, meaning hand down by will.
I usually see this term in historical pieces, but never took the time to truly internalize what it really means, until now.
Recently Finished
“If you leave manuscripts lying on the floor, it shows how high standards you have,” Ryan Holiday on Jordan Harbinger’s show. —and I was struggling about editing stuffs out of articles!
996 Work Culture. Horrifying. The embodiment of this tweet.
I haven’t watched Alice in Borderland but there’s something intimate about this Q&A interview. Like I’m now a part of a secret club.
Elsewhere
According to #farinsighters, the key to beating distractions is to settle them. One way of settling it is by writing about it if you can’t find a solution to it.
From Kitty City
Just discovered I made a cameo in this vlog
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[Animation images courtesy of Studio Ghibli]