Question about train scene in anime Spirited Away

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PumaMan's Avatar
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10-15-10
In the anime Spirited Away (2001) there is a train scene towards the end. On the train are some travelers, somewhat "see-thru", black colored, each with a bag or two (like they've been away a while), and sort of sad or tired looking. Some (all?) get off at a stop and go down a stair right into the water. There is a sign at the station but it isn't translated. Does anyone know what the station sign says? Or who these travelers are?

It really is one of the most beautiful and thoughtful scenes in the movie.

Here is the scene. The station/sign is about 2:25 into this video:

&p=D7AD496D648840A5&playnext=1
Last edited by PumaMan; 10-15-10 at 02:35 PM.



linespalsy's Avatar
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10-15-10
I'm about to head out for the weekend. If nobody else answers by Sunday or Monday I'll check out the clip on my DVD copy. I can't read the characters that are in shadow on that sign in this small window, and they blur too much when I put the low-res youtube video in full screen.

I'm pretty sure it's just the name of the station, but if I can read the sign when I check out the dvd I'll tell you what the name "means".



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10-15-10
I'm also curious who those passengers are. It was stated earlier in the movie, by Kamaji the boiler man I believe, that the train used to run both ways but now only runs one way. (I'm ignoring the obvious question: How do the trains get back to the station to start their one-way trips? Buy hey, it's Spirited Away. )



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10-15-10
After looking further, I found these explanations:

http://nakama-britannica.animeuknews...spirited-away/

Here's a possibility:

It’s the scene involving Chichiro's train ride across what seems like an endless ocean, populated by shadows of working-class humans, on their way to the afterlife. It’s a slow, reflective, almost silent moment; a quiet pause in the action that evokes Ozu and Ray’s Apu Trilogy. A moment of pure visual poetry that would never be caught dead in a Hollywood studio picture.



linespalsy's Avatar
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10-17-10
Originally Posted by PumaMan
(I'm ignoring the obvious question: How do the trains get back to the station to start their one-way trips? Buy hey, it's Spirited Away. )
Maybe it goes around the world?

I had a look at the scene when I got home tonight. All the sign says is Numa (swamp) Hara (plain) so it seems to be a place-name/description. It seems to be out in "the sticks."

At first when I watched the scene I was thinking the people on the train are like phantom versions of an every-day Miyazaki world like Kiki's Delivery Service. I don't know if you can take it that literally though. I'm planning to rewatch the whole thing soon, it's been about 7 years.

Oh yeah and the sign over the little tunnel the ghosts are entering says "deguchi"="exit."

It could be the resolution of my dvd/tv but the smaller characters on the "Numa Hara" sign just looked like jibberish characters to me.



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11-14-17
Another theory, a favorite of mine, is that these are the ghosts of those who died on their way out of Hiroshima, after the first bomb from the american forces. They had enough time to make it to Nagasaki, before the second bombs fell. The sense of hope they felt, after suffering such a tragedy, only to be ended so tragically made a permanent impact on the spirit world.
When a nuclear bomb hits, it's so bright that the light itself scorches the earth and all materials that can see it, including people, who would block the light from reaching the train behind them. Thus, it leaves their "shadows" on the train.
Miyazaki is very prominent about his love for Japanese culture, and the tragedies they've suffered, so this makes a lot of sense, and even if it's not right, i feel like it's very tragic and a good representation.