She finds a towering, ornate building that she recognizes as a bathhouse (a spa resort) there's a train track running under it. The food is delicious, and Chihiro wanders away to explore while they eat. Mom and Dad are hungry and start eating, despite Chihiro's objections. Most are deserted, but the aroma of cooking leads them to the one restaurant that's well stocked with food-though it's mysteriously deserted. After wandering across a grassy landscape and a dry riverbed, they climb a stone staircase and come to a street lined with restaurants and shops. It gives Chihiro the creeps, but her parents persuade her to go in with them and look around. The road ends at a tunnel leading to an abandoned theme park. In sight of their new house, they take a wrong turn and follow a bumpy, decayed old road through the woods Chihiro sees an odd old statue through the trees as they drive by. Chihiro is whiny and unhappy about the move, especially when she notices that the bouquet her friend gave her as a good-bye gift is wilting. Ten-year-old Chihiro (voice: Daveigh Chase in the 2002 English dub) and her parents (voices: Lauren Holly and Michael Chiklis) drive to their new home.The synopsis below may give away important plot points. Her parents, however, are still waiting in the hotel's stockyard, and Chihiro must find a way to break the spell on them before they end up as the main course of some guest's dinner. Though the work is hard and the people strange, she does as well as she can.
He gets her a job working in a nearby building, which turns out to be a bathhouse for the thousands of Japan's gods and spirits. She is found by a mysterious boy named Haku, who promises to help her. As night falls, she is terrified to see the area fill with faceless spirits, but when she runs to find her parents, she discovers that they have been turned into pigs. Mom and Dad don't hesitate to sit down and dig in, but Chihiro senses danger and refuses. After getting out of the car and walking along a path for a while, they discover an open-air restaurant filled with food but with no workers or customers present. Chihiro must rely on Haku to save her parents in hopes of returning to their world.Ĭhihiro and her family are on their way to their new house in the suburbs when her father decides to take a shortcut along a lonely-looking dirt road. The owner of the bathhouse is the evil witch Yubaba, who is intent on keeping all trespassers as captive workers, including Chihiro.
At the center of the town is a bathhouse where these creatures go to relax. In addition, the theme park turns out to be a town inhabited by demons, spirits, and evil gods. She runs to the restaurant and finds that her parents have turned into pigs. She meets a boy named Haku who tells her that Chihiro and her parents are in danger, and they must leave immediately. However, Chihiro refuses to eat and decides to explore the theme park a bit more. When her parents see a restaurant with great-smelling food but no staff, they decide to eat and pay later.
They go through the tunnel and find an abandoned amusement park on the other side, with its own little town. Her parents decide to stop the car and explore the area. On the way to their new home, Chihiro's father makes a wrong turn and drives down a lonely one-lane road which dead-ends in front of a tunnel. During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.Ĭhihiro and her parents are moving to a small Japanese town in the countryside, much to Chihiro's dismay.