9 Movies That Get Better The Deeper You Go

Studio Ghibli movies are the golden treasure of the animated world, offering beautifully constructed worlds and bizarre creatures alongside a whole helping of enticing, mouth-watering, delicious looking food. Yes, it's a cartoon, but the meals are something else, and the wonderful movie Spirited Away has them in glorious abundance.

When Chihiro's parents understandably get sucked into one such banquet, she must work for a supernatural park to earn their freedom, forced into labour at a bathhouse where all manner of strange beings come to visit. Whilst Spirited Away is primarily a children's film, that doesn't stop it from really digging deep into the Japanese symbolism behind its central plot. Nonsensical creatures become representations of old legends, the world of work and womanhood as Japanese experience is the tentpole of Chihiro's arc, and consumerism gets a good whacking via Miyazaki's feasting commentary.

And as a whole, many have argued that Spirited Away is actually the story of a young girl sold into prostitution in order to pay off her parent's debt, with the Ogami male clients and Yubaba's appearance linking in to a far darker story lurking under its dreamlike palette.