Wednesday, December 23, 2020

The Dojo's Ten Films that Encapsulate 2020

 

 


In this shit year, there has been many casualties both personal, (as of this writing over 325,000 dead from COVID-19) and industrial (various economic crises). One of those casualties has been the film and television industry. Even before the Coronavirus ravaged our planet, movie theaters and the film going experience has diminished. Today, movie theaters are on the life support of the big budget tentpole films of our monoculture.  Once COVID-19 became the 21st century plague, theater chains[1] across the country began the nebulous cycle of shut down, open with heavy restrictions on capacity, proximity, and amenities, until the infection rates rose, then shut down again. As the industry scrambled to figure out the best way through this crisis, there were fights between creatives and studio executives:  about pay, residuals, release dates, and control over the final product.  Then, in an industry shaking move, AT&T (parent company of Warner Bros Studios and HBO) decided to place all of their 2020 and 2021 slate of films on the streaming service HBOMAX, around the same time as its release in theaters. This decision seems prudent and practical given the context of COVID-19. With the world in lockdown a lot of the year, and the US going through a holiday wave of Coronavirus spikes, streaming has been a coping mechanism for a lot of people; Tiger King, The Mandalorian, LoveCraft Country, The Crown and the Great British Baking show; all are being consumed at a rapid pace through a variety of streaming applications. Pre pandemic, we consumed an average of 16 hours of streaming content a week. Since the lockdowns began, that number has increased to an average of 8 hours a day (This includes all content: tv, music, film). This change, along with the aforementioned shut down of theaters, has led to a 79% drop in the box office from 2019-2020. At the end of 2020, we’ll see the box office top out at 2 billion dollars compared to last year’s 10-billion-dollar gross. Thus, due to this cultural, social, and economic calamity, I cannot write a piece about the Top 10 Sociological films of 2020. Instead, I have decided to curate a list of 10 films that collectively encapsulate the events and feelings of 2020.   Enjoy!

 

10-Wildfires- Only the Brave (2017)


 

In January, and later in the year, wildfires devastated both Australia and the West Coast of the United States. Only the Brave is the story about the Granite Mountain Hot Shots who fought the Yarnell Hill Fire in Jun 2013.  While this story is about career fire fighters, a lot of the firefighting, especially in California is done through prison labor. Prisoners from men’s and women’s prisons work on the front lines for less than $2 an hour; and up until recently in California they could not get a job as a firefighter upon their release.  Much of the possible destruction of the 2020 wildfires were abated by those who have been discarded by many and monetized by heartless system.

 

9- Impeachment-All the President’s Men (1976)

 


The Impeachment trial of Donald Trump dominated the first few weeks of this year. Accused of an Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Justice by the House and was acquitted by the Senate on February 5, 2020 in a vote that was along party lines. A film that sums up this event of 2020 (yes, it really did happen in 2020) is the political thriller, All the President’s Men, that details the investigation into the Nixon’s Administrations involvement in the Watergate scandal.  Just as the Watergate investigation implicated behaviors of Obstruction and Abuse of power causing Nixon to resign before Impeachment proceeding could begin,  The Mueller Report (on the possible collusion in the 2016 election) determined that while there was a lack of sufficient evidence to prosecute Trump; predominately due to a lack of bureaucratic follow-through (meaning that Obstructionist behaviors were attempted, but never completed) rather than innocence.

 

8- COVID-19  * Double Feature*  Outbreak (1995) and Contagion (2011)




 

The deadliest disease of this generation, the Coronavirus or SARS-COVID2 (COVID-19) has ravaged the planet. Over 70 Million have been infected and 1.7 million people have died worldwide. Up until this ‘Outbreak’, a global deadly pandemic was always something of fiction, regardless of numerous health experts for decades emphatically expressing its inevitability. In the United States, preparedness was greatly compromised by the Trump administrations restructuring of the CDC response team, and politicizing public health measures.  The double bill of Outbreak and Contagion gives you a sense of ‘what we thought a global pandemic would be like” under the most extreme positions possible. Now, for Nostalgia sake, look back at what these films got right, and what they were wildly wrong about. The interesting question I have: if a virus was isolated in a small town, do you think there would be conversations about wiping out the entire town with munitions?...        

 

7- Quarantine- Groundhog Day (1993)

To protect the populace and slow the spread of the Coronavirus in the United States, on March 13, 2020 massive stay at home orders were implemented. Outside of those classified as “essential workers” many of the industries had to switch to working remotely from home or shut down entirely. Our current level of technology has allowed our economy to limp on, without being completely annihilated. However, this has exacerbated social class divisions (more on that later).   Groundhog Day was chosen for this list not as a literal representation of quarantine, but to represent the repetitious feeling that accompanies being stuck in your home for 9 months (and counting), and to add some levity to a list that is considerably dower.  For some of us, the continued repetition of daily life in our homes was a welcomed respite from various social mores, especially if you were economically stable. While for others, quarantine has intensified mental health issues, especially depression leading to an increase in rates of suicide since the March lockdown began.

 

6- Police Militarization- Do Not Resist (2016)

 I broke my own rule of choosing only narrative films that represent 2020, to include Do Not Resist in this list representing police Militarization. While the current organization of police militarization has been going on since the civil rights movements of the 1950’s, the recent protests sparked after the deaths of George Floyd.[2] caused tensions between the over equipped/ under trained police to boil over again with civilians. The film Do Not Resist was made after the Michael Brown murder by police in Ferguson Missouri and touches on the several factors that allow  police militarization to continue namely: the surplus of weapons generated by the Military Industrial Complex, the MCLEA Act and the 1033 program.

 

5- Murder of Black People by Police – Do The Right Thing (1989)


Police Violence against black and brown people has been an epidemic since the formation of posses to capture runaway slaves.  There is an imbedded cultural and systemic racism of the criminal justice system (which includes policing, prosecution, and punishment) and the overall antiblackness of the United States. Mind you, this antiblackness refers to the blackness within black bodies, as the US culture has attempted and has been successful at the appropriation of black culture.  The same could be said for my selection here, Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing. Not only does the police murder in the film seem prophetically like the death of George Floyd, but the film also gets appropriated by white critics as a stellar piece of cinema, without questioning or contemplation of what the film means; especially to the black experience.

 

4.  White Supremacy – Skin (2019)

White supremacy and racism have been the bedrock of the culture and structural organization of the United States since its inception.  With the election of Donald Trump, we have seen an increase in visibility and activity of hate groups, culminating in the protests Charlottesville. In 2020, during the presidential election, Donald Trump identified Antifa as a terrorist organization and would not denounce white supremacy during one of the debates. Instead, he told the hate group known as “The Proud Boys” to “stand back and stand by” which they interpreted as a call to action.  Skin, dives into the inner world of white supremacy that has been written about extensively by sociologists in the field Based on a true story, the film reinforces the idea that love can conquer hate, and is supported by data from the new-ish book Healing From Hate by Michael Kimmel.  

 

3- Threat of Nuclear War – WarGames (1983)

In Jun of 2020, North Korea vowed to increase its nuclear program, as peace talks failed. Around the same time North Korea blew up the joint liaison office they shared with South Korea. This, coupled with Russian hackers infiltrating US Nuclear Launch systems in December of 2020, increased the tension and threat level internationally, causing many people to believe we were on the brink of nuclear war. A similar sudden shift in Nuclear fear was dramatized in the 1983 film WarGames. A film about a computer hacker who gets into the Government network and accidently starts a nuclear war thinking it is a game. The dramatization was so close to reality that it lead to the creation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1984. It is important to remember that pop culture is soft power.

 

2- Presidential Election * Double Feature* Wag the Dog (1997) and Election (1999)

  


The year’s presidential election has reinforced divided political lines scouring them deep into our collective psyche. The country’s conservative base has devolved into a bunch of increasingly vitriolic race bating xenophobic conspiracists, meanwhile centrist democrats, fearing the loss of their own wealth and power, pushed out/against more progressive ideas and candidates in their own party to nominate the most milquetoast candidate rather than a radical. And even with that centrist choice that was supposed to appeal to all people, the race was close. So close that we can not call the Biden win a repudiation of Trump or Trumpism. After these 4 years, especially this last one 74 million people still voted for Trump. This means that Biden only won because of A. Trump’s (mis)handing of the pandemic and B. The overwhelming support and activism of black and brown folk  The films in this double feature point to the relationships between politics, media violence and the insider “horse trading” that often goes on.  While these films directly parallel the 96’ election cycle, many of the tactics were repeated and perfected in 2020. 

 

1-           Ignorance  Idiocracy (2006)

2020 marks the 10 year culmination of the anti-intellectual movement in the United States. Over the last decade we saw increases in Anti Vaccers, anti- maskers, climate change deniers, and a multiplicity of conspiracy theorists. While there has always been a level of animosity for the academy, often viewed as isolated individuals in their “ivory tower”, there was an acceptance of basic public school science facts. Since 2010 we saw that acceptance and trust in facts and the scientific process be both questioned and rejected by tens of millions of Americans.  There is a fundamental flaw that is created if you can not agree on objective truth. The minute we start breaking apart the foundations of acceptable ideas of reality, our society breaks down.  Idiocracy  while does not pin point the anti- intellectual movement as the catalyst for the destabilization of society, it does present a future that is hauntingly similar to some of the events of 2020. This is particularly disturbing as we seem to have gotten there a lot quicker as Idiocracy is set in the year 2500.   

 

 

 


 

There seems to be irrational hope for the future that 2021 will be better than 2020. Sometimes, a fool’s hope is all we can hold on to. Yet, for Academic Cinephiles like me who worship film, I just want to back to church. Stay Safe everyone and have a acceptable holiday season, sheltering in place and remotely connecting with friends and family. 

 



[1] This hit the already strapped Independent films even harder. Many of them are getting by through the resurrection of the drive-in  

Sunday, November 1, 2020

The Films of Hayao Miyazaki: Spirited Away



INTRODUCTION

                The eighth film in my retrospective on the films of Hayao Miyazaki is the ethereally sublime Spirited Away.  This film, like The Dark Knight  in Christopher Nolan’s filmography, is the film in Miyazaki’s body of work that has received the most analysis, critical praise, and award acclaim.  While the production of the film sees Miyazaki flirt with corporatization, the product of such a morally questionable bedfellow being both lucrative and anathematic, his thematic criticism of the economic system by which that partner sustains itself is such subtle shade, that it often goes unnoticed.  By using the trappings of the studio system for international distribution, Miyazaki is able to sew the seeds of doubt in the audience in order to question capitalism’s complete and utter viability.  




PLOT

 

10-year-old Chihiro, unhappy with her family moving, is reticent to check out an abandoned amusement park with her parents.  As a reluctant spectator she watches as her parents are taken over by a spell and transformed into pigs. Now trapped in the Spirit world with her name stolen, she must work off her debt in a bathhouse for wary gods. Yet, with the help of a young boy Haku, she hopes to free her parents from their transmogrification and thwart the witch that ensorcelled them both.

 


HISTORICAL CONTEXT

 

            Unlike his previous films which either blend together fantasy and the real world, or completely take place in a fictional world itself, Spirited Away does both. It bookends the fantasy world with reality. With this decision, Miyazaki is able to use the spiritual plain as a metaphor for growing up; a symbolic rite of passage that one must pass through. Pointing to the fact that even if there is no magic in “the real world”, the process of “growing up” does, at times, feel like sorcery.

 


Of Gods and Monsters II[1]

            Miyazaki’s second film to exclusively feature Shintoism and Kami (Spirits), Spirited Away anthropomorphizes and modernizes (to some extent) the spirit world. Thus, showing the spirit world as something that is tangible, while also having order, structure, and rules.  It is a place that values personhood, trades in identity, and abhors disruption. Yet, the overall plot of the film does not take place in the spirit world per-se, but in an oasis/ resort where the spirits vacation from the drudgery of their eternally monotonous and arduous existential existence. Which, given the state of some of these spirits, is far more grueling and traumatic than typically depicted in Western versions of the afterlife; that tend to focus on and value leisure and serenity above all else.

            Unlike Princess Mononoke, which features specific spirits (kami) that exist in the Shinto and Buddhist religions, Miyazaki is intentionally vague in his references, as he wanted to craft a story encompassing the essence of Japanese folklore, rather than provide an exclusive retelling of a specific story.  In this way, Miyazaki paints in broad strokes of Mystical divination. As Chihiro is entering the spirit world she passes through a torii, which is a gate that is often used in transition from one plain of existence to another.  Additionally, the bathhouse where Chihiro (Now called San after her name is stolen) works, embodies the Shintoist principle of spiritual purification. The spirits are rejuvenated once they leave the bathhouse.  Yet, specific spirits from Japanese folklore are not referenced or traditionally depicted. Instead, Miyazaki develops his own various creations. The most famous of these is “No-Face”, which in the film can be a surrogate for any number of different spirits, individuals or concepts, and has become the second most marketed character for Ghibli behind Totoro. 

            The other big mystical/magical aspect that separates this film from all of Miyazaki’s other work; is the way that it uses Kanji. Kanji is a Japanese form of language and writing that is based in pictographs. The “words or phrases” that are used often are a representation of a picture or a drawing that describes what the word means.  Thus, if you change the way that word/ name is written, you can give that word or name an entirely new meaning. This is what happens to Chihiro when the Witch Yubaba removes parts of her written name and binds her with a “new” name derived from the original. Through this action Miyazaki is representing the importance and power of language and identity.

While in a more western context, a person’s name is decidedly not their identity, and the meaning of their name is more so a quaint piece of trivia. In Eastern Spirituality; however, your name has characteristics that are designed to speak to your character, or in the case of infants, the character that you desire your children to have.  If one views the stealing, and changing of Chihiro’s name in this specific context, then what once was viewed as a simple contrivance to move the plot forward, becomes a horror show. Indeed, all the characters that are felled by this spell, often have their personalities change once they lose their identities. Because, with a new name their foundational pictograph has changed, and thus their overall characteristics. This is apparent in the film’s central conflict.

Before Chihiro gets bound by Ubaba’s magic, she is timid, unsure of herself and generally troubled.  When she is suddenly bound by the new name Sen, she begins to value community, hard work, and a sense of independence.[2] Because this film is clearly about the rites of passage individuals go through as they transition from childhood to adulthood, the change in her name could signify the traits she will exude as an adult. Thus, she seems to realize that with all of the freedoms and choices a person can have as an adult, that it comes at the cost of a lot of work and responsibility. Within this context, it is even more fascinating that when she is able to have her name restored, and be reunited with her parents, Miyazaki has her revert back to (some) of her old behaviors and quirks; with a deeper appreciation of the time she still has left as a kid. 

 


Production

            Miyazaki first got inspiration for this film when he would vacation at a summer lake house, with his friend and his family who had a preteen daughter. One day he came across some teen magazines she had lying around, and decided to flip through them, to see what “kids were into these days”. After which, he decided that girls of her age needed to be taught life lessons that he felt were absent in the reading material marketed to her. Therefore, he was determined to write a character and a story that girls of her age could look up to; tying the heroine to an interest he had in the spiritual nature of bathhouses.

            Back in 1996, during the production of Princess Mononoke, The Walt Disney Company secured the international distribution rights to all of Studio Ghibli films. Through this, they were hoping to corner the market on whimsical, family-friendly anime from Japan, and control the video distribution rights to most of their media.  Yet, when they found out that Mononoke was absent of whimsy, and antagonistic to families, they discarded it to Miramax who had no clue how to market the film.[3] Feeling blindsided by the tone of Mononoke, by the time production started on Spirited Away, Disney executives wanted assurances that the same thing wasn’t going to happen. Therefore, they decided to invest in 10% of the production cost for the right to first refusal for international distribution. This was an attempt to get more clout and control over the production process, rejecting a few other of Miyazaki’s ideas (based on books or other existing properties) until they accepted the idea of Chihiro and her journeys in the spirit world. 

            As production went long, and Miyazaki was having difficulty cutting the story down to a manageable length (the original story boards clocking the film in at 3 and ½ hrs)[4], Disney was questioning the value and direction of the project.  The film was only allowed to move forward after an impassioned defense by gross sexual assaulter John “Huggy Bear” Lasseter. Who, by Miyazaki’s own admission, was “a bulldozer”[5] in convincing the top executives at Disney to support the film. Lasseter promised that they would not see a repeat of the financial debacle of Princess Mononoke. He was correct.  For their small investment, the global success of Spirited Away allowed Disney to make money hand over fist.

             Spirited Away was the first Ghibli film to get the full Disney treatment as a part of the complete corporate machine. From the marketing to merchandise, Disney had their hands in every aspect of the presentation of this film. It was this complete synergy that allowed for the widest distribution for any Studio Ghibli film up to that date, flooding storefronts with t-shirts, plush toys, and assorted knickknacks, as well as aggressively pandering this melancholy analysis of achieving adulthood, to unsuspecting ignorant western white kids.

Begrudgingly, it also allowed for the film to be the Second Ghibli film in a row to be featured on the critical film festival circuit; which would eventually lead to Oscar gold.[6]  Many have cited the critical and commercial success of Spirited Away that changed the perspective of Japanese animated films in the rest of the world; paving the way for the future success of not only the subsequent Miyazaki and Ghibli films, but the more current soon-to-be classics like Mary and the Witch’s Flower, Weathering with You, and Your Name.

 

The Lost Decade

 

One of the most significant historical events that occurred during the production of Spirited Away, was the Japanese economic crisis from 1991-2001. The cause of this crisis was The Plaza Accord in 1985,[7] a joint agreement between several countries including the United States and Japan, to depreciate the US dollar in relation to the Japanese Yen. This caused an economic bubble in Japan that inflated stock and property prices, which eventually burst in August of 1990 when the Nikkei index dropped 50%[8]. The banks were eventually bailed out by the Japanese government, transforming several financial institutions into “Zombie banks”. These are any banks that have a 0% profit but continue to operate because their ability to pay off debt is shored up by financial regulatory agencies.   Yet, many industries, such as the automobile and electronic industries, were gutted; losing hundreds of thousands of jobs and replacing many of their salaried employees with temporary workers, without benefits[9]while the workers that still had a job saw their overall wages decrease by 13%.  Because this was all happening while Miyazaki was attempting to write, draw and structure Spirited Away, and simultaneously attempting to placate the Mickey Mouse monopoly monolith; he organized and infused the film with a strong, layered anti-capitalist critique.

              


SOCIAL CONTEXT

            In many of the lauded reviews of Spirited Away, many journalists and reviewers pointed to the blatant themes of the film, those of spirituality, environmentalism and as a coming of age story.  While this film is all of those things, it is more deeply a standing critique of the entire process of capitalism, and how it infects other aspects of our social world.

 

Capitalism: The Basics

·         Individuals own the means of production either through corporations or by the individuals themselves

·          Most goods and services are sold at “market” prices which are determined by competition. This competition is fueled by the profit motive.

·         Most people who work for pay, work for other people who own the means of production. Therefore, the majority of individuals are “Wage Laborers”

 

Capitalism is a wide-reaching economic system; and several nation states have developed a version of capitalism that suits their needs. It is a common way to organize economic structures, but that does not mean that it is the only economic system. As capitalism grows, it can transform into a political and social philosophy that encourages the development of, and barriers to public policy. This means that within certain capitalist systems (such as in the US) many of the social institutions, created to satisfy basic needs, are redesigned to fit within capitalism’s for-profit market economy. This results in many of these institutions, becoming privatized and reorganized to maximize profit. This is a process that intensifies through political deregulation on industry, which transmutes capitalism into what Emile Durkheim called “a social fact.”  Social facts, which are ways of thinking, values, cultural norms and attitudes that transcend any one person, that existed before anyone individual and will continue to exist for generations after. These social facts have a subconscious effect on an individual, who will not realize the influence being exerted by such social facts, unless they attempt to resist.  

Capitalism is an example of a social fact because we are socialized to the understanding of capitalism and our participation in it (Profit motive, working for wages etc.). People are often born into a capitalist system; thus, capitalism exerts a coercive power and control over them to participate in it as (the only) mechanism to achieve wealth and prosperity. We often do not support an individual that desires a modest income with no ambition to increase their social standing. To do so is seen as abnormal, immature, or reckless. These ideas become cross cultural, existing around the world at the same time regardless of values, norms, or customs. It creates a global capitalist economy that is near impossible to hide, ignore or circumvent.

 


Capitalism’s Critique (Basic)

Capitalism assumes that free markets create equal autonomy for workers. Under this assumption, free market workers, if they are feeling exploited, can quit and/or work for themselves. The reality is that most people work within capitalist organizations, businesses, and structures. Therefore, the work for a particular employer is voluntary, but a person cannot nix out of the entire system; they still must pay bills, and use financial capital to purchase life sustaining products (like food). They are trapped.

 

Additionally:

1.      Unregulated capitalism allows both organizations and individuals to generate mass inequalities of wealth, allowing real freedom to be limited for many people within this system of capitalism.

2.      A system built on the drive for capital (what is often referred to as the profit motive) incentivizes individuals and businesses to hide problems (especially involving consumer safety) to maintain high profits. This can lead to objectification of human beings, exploitation of labor, dehumanization and decision-making practices that are focused on short term gains, rather than long term solutions

3.      In operation, capitalism does not recognize the necessity of the public good.

4.      In a truly unregulated capitalist market, many of the social services that a government may normally provide becomes satisfied by an organization or company for a profit. Recent examples include: Healthcare industries, military and defense industries, schools and child care, and even prisons. 

5.      This privatization encourages behavior to deal with problems based upon turn over (quitting or getting another job), rather than on compromise. There is then a greater incentive for people to quit/ or be fired, rather than try and improve working conditions in the jobs and businesses that they have. This is what has led to the maintenance of various forms of discrimination and inequality in the workplace, because rather than change normalized discriminatory practices, many people who are a part of historically marginalized groups just decide to quit.

 

It is important to understand the basic functions and critiques of capitalism from a sociological perspective, before diving into the specific criticisms Miyazaki levees against it; deeper cuts of Sociological anti- capitalist theory involving Veblen, Bauman, and Marx.


 




Capitalism’s Critique (Miyazaki’s Characters)

 

Miyazaki opens Spirited Away with Chihiro and her parents walking through the ruins of a Japanese theme park[10]. As they continue to explore, Chihiro’s father remarks that before the crisis, there were a lot of these theme parks around. This is his reference to the economic depression that was going on during Japan’s “Lost Decade”. Here, Miyazaki set the stage for his anti- capitalist critique, using both the overall story, characters, and their narrative journeys to achieve this.

 




            Chihiro’s Parents

            Almost immediately after arriving in town, Chihiro’s parents are lured by their noses to what looks like a banquet. Regardless of the warning signs of the emptiness of the town, with no staff or chefs present, Chihiro’s parents sit down and almost compulsively begin to consume as much food as they can; encouraging their daughter to do the same.  After exploring the town and getting scared that they are the only ones there, Chihiro returns to her parents and is horrified to discover that they have turned into pigs. 

            A shallow anti-capitalist interpretation of this scene is that it is a representation of greed.  Chihiro’s parents embody the excessive gluttonous consumption of consumers (by being literally turned into pigs), a mindset that Miyazaki believes contributed to “The Lost Decade”, resulting in the ruin of the Japanese economy. While this is an apt comparison, this only scratches the surface.  If you look closer to how the family is dressed, and the products they have around them, they identify with what Marx calls Commodity fetishism. This is the idea that much of our identity gets wrapped up and represented by the products we purchase and use.  The parents, even before entering the town, engage in what Sociologist Thorstein Veblen (1994) calls conspicuous consumption.  Conspicuous consumption is the practices of purchasing products for the alure of status those products provide in the eyes of the public.  Thus, in a very Goffmanian way, individuals are trying to control how other people perceive them; by hoping that from the consumption of a product, one can glean the product’s status from it. 





            Chihiro’s parents are driving an Audi, moving to a new town, can hire movers, and begin to eat at a buffet without looking at prices, or seeing if the food is for anyone else but themselves.  This frivolous use of wealth, and sense of entitlement points to a sense of financial security (they will be able to purchase all of the food they eat) that is more than just comfortable; its excessive. Their ability to take vacations (leisure as Veblen puts it) is a clear act of conspicuous consumption continued as they walk through the “abandoned town” as tourists. In this way the transformation of her parents into pigs is about more than just greed. It is a representation of their status and self-worth.

Another example of this is commonly seen through the tourist renting of homes and apartments in particular neighborhoods.  Through this consumption, individuals attempt to have “authentic” experiences; ones that can raise their status. Typically, this gets quite problematic if it is used to create/achieve performative wokeness. Performative wokeness is the conspicuous consumptive practice of using social justice rhetoric, principles, or behaviors as only a means of self-promotion. Usually, this is the actions of drawing attention to oneself through the mechanism of social justice to enrich oneself.  Examples include sports teams taking knees during the national anthem or wearing BLM gear, without socially contributing in more substantive ways such as through marching, donations, and education. Andi Zeisler (2016) explains a specific type of performative wokeness she calls “Marketplace Feminism”, which is the commodification and fetishizing of feminism through backpacks, stickers, t-shirts, water bottles etc. without a more substantive component not rooted in status achievement. 

According to Zygmunt Bauman (2007), this type of consumption will ironically lead to a lack of identity. We will continue to consume without the process really having any value. Life becomes a shopping spree, where all aspects of life can be consumed and interacted with, on a fundamentally basic level (Commodification).  However, satisfaction is the enemy, because it leads to the solidification of an identity, which is not conducive to Capitalism nor product production. Instead, a consumer, in a consumer economy, solidifies their identity only momentarily through the collection of experiences and desires. This process becomes addictive: as represented by Chihiro’s parents’ inability to stop eating, and their subsequent transformation into pigs.

 


Sen 

To stay in the spirit world and have a chance at saving her parents, Chihiro must find work. She goes to the Sorcerer Yubaba and demands a job, for which she cannot be denied as the bureaucratic system of the spirit world demands. She begins to work and take up residence in a bathhouse that serves various gods.  While one interpretation of this is in line with understanding the mechanism of secondary socialization, and how it prepares individuals for adulthood; teaching us the basics of the value of work, in the process of becoming a law abiding productive member of society. This perspective misses the overall exploitative nature of labor that is inherit in that practice. The inequality is often masked under the guise of process, organization, structure and precedence.  A closer look reveals, Miyazaki is presenting a critique of capitalism’s natural labor exploitation.

According to Marx (1978), once the process of industrialization lost sight of a product’s use value (instead focusing on exchange value), the system of capitalism stopped valuing the worker and their working experience. When that happens, it inevitably leads to exploitation through such behaviors as long hours, low pay/slave wages, poor working conditions, violence and increased automation (replacing workers).  We see this in every industry that capitalism touches, they either privatize or exploit labor. Corporations even use migrant labor (workers not living in the country that the work is being done) to lower costs. Factory work and farm work are the largest exploited industries in the US, and rely on underpaid workers so much, that if all of the migrant labor were to be banned, these industries would collapse.  Additionally, there is deliberate distance that is placed between the worker and consumer, so that prices of the product remain high but the wages to the workers remain low; allowing the company to exploit both the worker and the consumer simultaneously.   

Like many migrant workers living in the US, Chihiro in the Spirit world needs to find work.  Yet, she does not have the background or identity as a spirit in order to do that. Going to Yubaba for a job positions Chihiro as an undocumented migrant laborer. She is then ensnared by Yubaba’s spell which takes away her identity, transforming her into Sen.  This can be analogous to the way migrant workers are trapped without papers to only engage in physical labor, regardless of their education, skills or experiences. Their legal papers are the Miyazaki equivalent of Chihiro’s true name. If they do not have it, then they cannot get out.  Once her name is stolen, and Chihiro becomes Sen, she begins to experience the exploited labor of the bathhouse, in a lot of the same levels of exploitation that Marx describes: Long hours, grueling work of washing spirits, and cleaning tubs.  The fact that she is also a child does not seem to faze anyone; as it doesn’t several US companies.  

 


No-Face

 

In The Grundresse, Marx discusses that Capitalism (driven by the Profit motive) cannot abide a limit. It instead creates a barrier that it must either circumvent or ascend. Thus, the success of capitalism is based upon innovation. While this is not necessarily a problem theoretically, in practice this creates behaviors that only see an expansion of the system, resulting in exponential capital growth.  This leads to capitalism taking on certain conditions that make it near impossible for the process to stop, such as Commodification. Commodification is the process by which everything in human life, including human life, is bought, sold, traded, or exchanged. From the very real social problems of human trafficking, to abstract ideas like the commodification of emotions, such as love and fear (through diamonds, chocolates, flowers or security systems, weapons, and locks, respectfully). The dangers of unregulated capitalism by this adherence to the profit motive, is represented in Spirited Away through the character of No-Face.  

The spirit known only as “No-Face”, is first seen on the bridge at the beginning of the film.  At first, the spirit seems harmless, fluid, and ethereal, passively existing without malice. It seems to only want adulation and attention from other spirits, while they in turn seem to treat him with a mild neglect. Unfortunately, he is let into the bathhouse by Sen (thereby removing the barrier), and, once inside, unregulated, it begins to display some of the dangerous practices of capitalism. He first consumes a frog, that Miyazaki has identified as a symbol of greed. The implication here being that when capitalism is unrestricted; it can catch greed. Once this profit motive gets greedy, there is no stopping it.  It begins to consume everything; product and person alike, without remorse or respect, leaving infinite amounts of gold in its wake. Eventually, the No Face spirit becomes a large gelatinous monster that continues to consume with complete disregard for anything else.  It is only stopped by Sen, who rejects capitalism (by rejecting the gold “No Face” wants to give her) and can use the results of her hard work and compassion to quell the beast.



Environmentalism   

There is an irreparable rift between Capitalism and the Natural Laws of Life itself.”- Marx

 

Since we as a culture have gained the ability to measure atmospheric CO2 in the 1980’s, the preservation, protection and prosperity of the environment has been of growing importance.  Initially under the moniker “Global warming”, as our understanding of the human impact on the environment was better understood, the term has since evolved to “Climate Change”. Besides this progression to a greater social understanding of the environment, and in the face of mountains of scientific evidence, the United States is still one of the few Industrialized Nations that still has a debate over the validity of human impacted climate change. One of the main reasons for this is our abusive love affair with capitalism.

                The periods of industrial revolution that saw the rise of capitalism (based in factory production) established the foundation of our understanding of capital, without the scientific ability to understand our overall impact/effect on the environment.  Before we gained this ability, we were using a more religious explanation/rationalization for our actions. Akin to the ancient belief system of Naturalism, many people believed that the earth was too vast, and humans were so insignificant, that it would not be possible for humans to affect the environment.  By the time we gained the ability to measure (a fraction) of our overall impact on the environment, a scant 200 years later; not only has a lot of damage already been done, but  forms of Cultural capital, set by the industrial revolution, are continually passed on from one generation to another; thereby maintaining this disastrous effect on our environment as a cultural norm, which results in the collective Human Capital of a population creating a systematic maintenance (and increase) of environmental destruction. In short: Industrialization and Free Market Capitalism has created value in cultural ideas, skills, and behaviors, that result in environmental destruction.

Maslin (2014) puts it brilliantly:

So fundamentally, Climate change challenges the very economic theories that have dominated global economics for the last 35 years. Hence is it any wonder that many people prefer climate change denial to having to face the prospect of building a new [economic and] political system that will allow collective action and more equal distribution of wealth, resources and opportunities. Pp171-172

 


        Haku

The character in Miyazaki’s Spirited Away that represents this intersection of capitalism and environmentalism is Haku, the shapeshifting river spirit.  At the beginning of the film, it is casually mentioned by Chihiro’s father that in order to build the amusement park, they had to pave over a river. This is before the audience realizes that this is Haku, and that action is what caused his spirit to be diminished enough to be captured and exploited by Yubaba.  Like many other CEOs that exploit public resources for profit ,  Yubaba steals Haku’s full name and then uses him as a resource for her own purposes (Stealing a cursed object from Zaniba). Chihiro giving Haku herbal medicine, and by giving him back his true name, breaks the dam on his spirit and he is set free.  Here, Miyazaki is promoting eliminating the practice of diversion and/or obstruction of natural resources.  While this environmental message seems to have caught on in other parts of the world, because the United States can’t quit capitalism; we have deluded ourselves into thinking we can be environmentalists and capitalists congruently.   

 

            Green Capitalism

According to Scales (2017),  Green Capitalism is a form of environmentalism that emphasizes the economic value of ecosystems and biological diversity, and attempts to reduce human environmental impacts by ensuring that the importance of environmental services is reflected in the way that markets operate.   This perspective sees that competition can lead to a more environmental and equitable future as long as we change our business mindset to be more ecofriendly.  There are several examples of this Ecological Modernization: Tax incentives to reduce the ecological impact ex: Rebate Systems (ex: Cash for Clunkers) Fear (carmageddon 405 construction in LA area), and renewal programs (paper companies planting trees to replace the ones they knock down).

            One could look at Spirited Away’s Bathhouse and the “stink spirit” sequence as an example of green capitalism. By allowing the “stink spirit” into the bathhouse, and agreeing to cleanse it, Yubaba engages in green capitalism. As the sequence continues, it is revealed that the “stink spirit” is actually a polluted river. Miyazaki makes sure to show through Sen’s efforts, just how labor intensive it is to completely clean up a river. Once the River spirit is revealed to be such, Sen is gifted with an ecological resource that aids her throughout the entire film.  The shallow metaphor being that there is “profit” and value in working with nature, rather than disregarding it, or trying to control it.   

            Unfortunately, this process of Green Capitalism can lend itself to “Greenwashing”, in which the company only changes its public perception to seem more eco-friendly, without making ideological or substantive changes. This is done through repackaging or relabeling of products, or emphasizing ecofriendly practices that a company already engages in. Additionally, through this pro-capitalist solution, the underline assumption/problem is that it does not challenge the fundamental anti environmentalism ideology that has been embedded in our Industrialized Capitalism. Therefore, we can not be as environmentally conscious as we could be; perhaps even not enough to save humanity.  Because at this point, it does look like we must be willing to sacrifice something for the planet, whether that be eating meat, fewer kids, or the phasing out of automobiles.

 


CONCLUSION

Spirited Away is a masterpiece.  It is also a referendum on how we have ignored the problematic intersections of capitalism and the environment. Yet, Miyazaki, through the journey of Chihiro, points to hope in the teaching of the next generation to be the leaders for this change. From recent data, Miyazaki seems to be right.  A majority of young people fundamentally reject the tenets of Capitalism and at the same time  support an environmental agenda.  We, the adults of today, need to foster these ideals and make sure when these children become of age, they don’t inherit a hellscape of epic proportions.  

 

 

REFERERNCES

 

Bauman, Zygmunt 2007. Consuming Life.  Cambridge: Polity Press.

Marx, Karl 1978. “Crisis Theory” in The Marx-Engles Reader 2nd edition edited by Robert C. Tucker. London: W.W. Norton and Company Pp 443-465  

Marx, Karl 1993 The Grundrisse London: Penguin Books.

Maslin, Mark 2014. Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction 3rd edition Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Scales, John 2017. “Green Capitalism” in The International Encyclopedia of Geography. Edited by Douglas Richardson, Noel Castree, Michael F. Goodchild, Audrey Kobayashi, Weidong Liu, and Richard A. Marston. Pp 1-8

 

Veblen, Thorsten 1994. The Theory of the Leisure Class. London: Penguin Books.

Zeisler, Andi 2016. We Were Feminist Once: From Riot Grrl to CoverGirl the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement. New York: PublicAffairs.

 

 



[2] Sociologically speaking, the change is name can be viewed as the part of the degradation ceremony at the beginning of the resocialization process the majority of people go through as they transition from a Primary (childhood) socialization to Secondary (Adult) Socialization.

[3] Spirited Away by Miyazaki". FPS Magazine. Archived from the original on 19 May 2014. Retrieved 24/10/2020

[4] To achieve a suitable running time Miyazaki reportedly cut out all of the sequences that he considered “Eye Candy”.  With the theatrical film already being a feast for the eyes, one’s mind reels at the possibility of a film even more spectacular in scope.

[5] Because as a sexual assaulter, he doesn’t know the meaning of the words “No.” or “Stop”

[6] Which Miyazaki was not present to accept

[8] Kunio Okina, Masaaki Shirakawa, and Shigenori Shiratsuka (February 2001): The Asset Price Bubble and Monetary Policy: Japan's Experience in the Late 1980s and the Lessons

[9] Even after the economy stabilized, the Japanese workforce is still 1/3 temporary unprotected disposable labor

[10] The Imagery here is a lot like Lapita from Castle in the Sky when the city was reclaimed by nature.