Advertisement
Asian cinema: Japanese films
LifestyleEntertainment

Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning anime Spirited Away is now a West End hit, as live shows sell out at the London Coliseum

  • Three-hour play adapted from the classic Miyazaki film Spirited Away features Japanese actors performing in Japanese with English subtitles
  • British audiences have been impressed with the stage production and ‘breathtaking visuals’, and its original run has been extended by five weeks

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
The live version of Hayao Miyazaki’s hit anime Spirited Away has found new fans in London’s West End. Above: Mari Natsuki, 72, as Yubaba (left), Kanna Hashimoto (centre), and other cast members receive the audience applause during a curtain call at its London premiere at the Coliseum. Photo: Toho
Kyodo

A stage adaptation of the Oscar-winning Japanese anime Spirited Away that premiered in Tokyo in 2022 has become popular with audiences in London since its sold-out opening at a major theatre in the British capital earlier this month.

Advertisement
Japanese animation giant Studio Ghibli on Monday received an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival for contributing to the genre’s creativity through global hits such as Spirited Away, marking the first time an institution was awarded rather than an individual.
“Alongside the Hollywood greats, the Japanese studio embodied by two superb storytellers, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, and a host of cult characters, has unleashed a fresh wind on animated film over the past four decades,” the organiser said.

The studio was launched by the pair in 1985, following the success the previous year of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, directed by Miyazaki – who would go on to win two Oscars, including for Spirited Away – and produced by Takahata, his confidant and rival.

Cast members of the stage production of Spirited Away, bottom right, receive a standing ovation at the London Coliseum. Photo: Toho
Cast members of the stage production of Spirited Away, bottom right, receive a standing ovation at the London Coliseum. Photo: Toho

Featuring members of the Japanese production’s cast performing in Japanese with English subtitles, Spirited Away runs until August 24 at the London Coliseum, the West End’s largest theatre, which seats roughly 2,400. The show’s original limited run was extended by five weeks because of popular demand.

Advertisement

The three-hour play tells the story of a young girl named Chihiro who stumbles into a fantastical spirit world with her parents while the family is on the way to a new house.

Advertisement