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Kamaji bangs the work surface, causing a chopstick to fall to the floor, but in a following shot both chopsticks are back in the bowl. See more...

The idea of having the bath house workers clean the river spirit in the bath house came from an experience Hayao Miyazaki had (when he was younger) where he helped clean a polluted river, and one of the items that was removed from it was a bicycle. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

Spirited Away (2001) - 1 question

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki, starring Daveigh Chase (add more)

Genres: Animation, Adventure, Family, Fantasy

The "questions" section is for any random questions that occurred to you while watching this film, or anything you didn't entirely understand, and which Google or the IMDb can't help with. Submit them as a question, and hopefully someone will answer (the bold comments in brackets) - check back regularly. If the answer is wrong, or missing information, please use the "clarify answer" option. Don't feel limited - want to know what music played in a certain scene? Whether this was the first film to use a certain effect? Here's the place to ask!

Questions

Question: On the DVD, there are two sets of subtitles. One follows what is being said closely and includes sound effects. The other follows the general idea of what the characters are saying, but the sentences are written differently. What is the purpose of the second one? Also, why do even the accurate subtitles show Lin as Rin, Zeniba as Zaneba and Kohaku River as Kalaku River?

Answer: This is probably because one track follows a near direct translation from Japanese, while the other subtitle track follows Japanese more loosely but is one that a westerner can relate to better. A normal western person who never had any experience with Japanese would be puzzled why there are sound effects in the text, that is because Japanese has a lot of specific sound effects for many thing, like the sound of someone walking and makes a quick stop, the sound of someone becoming shy etc. And as with Lin and Rin, these are pronounced the same way in Japan.

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