Rumi Hiiragi

Listen to the effort in Chihiro’s responses in Spirited Away (2001): Rumi Hiiragi lets her sound unsure even when she is finding ways to cope. Her growing confidence is persuasive because the voice still belongs to an inexperienced child, not somebody who has suddenly acquired an adult’s composure. Hayao Miyazaki gives her work to do in a spirit bathhouse, and Hiiragi makes that resourcefulness feel learnt rather than conveniently supplied by the story. We were moved by Chihiro working there, because her effort matters and is never made to look easy.

Before Chihiro, Hiiragi had played the young lead in the television drama Suzuran (1999) and appeared in its film spin-off in 2000. Her subsequent work moves between live-action television and further voice roles for Studio Ghibli. She played Kasumi Aoi in Nobuta wo Produce (2005), then returned to Hayao Miyazaki to voice a young mother in Ponyo (2008). In From Up on Poppy Hill (2011), directed by Goro Miyazaki, she voices Sachiko Hirokoji. The return to animation was in smaller roles, so Chihiro remains the performance on which we would base a recommendation, rather than making sweeping claims for everything she has done.

Our reservation concerns the film around her: Spirited Away wanders, and its pace asks for patience. Chihiro’s immediate need to manage the task in front of her gives us something to follow through that wandering, with Hiiragi keeping her uncertainty understandable. The fantasy can be frightening, but her performance keeps our concern with the inexperienced child who has to get on with things. She does not need to make Chihiro precocious to hold our attention. Start with Chihiro, and allow the film the time it asks for.