It was her promise to save Haku that gave her strength. When Haku was at death’s door as a punishment for stealing Zeniba’s cachet, Chihiro decided to go to a faraway place to apologise to Zeniba on behalf of Haku. I was really impressed by this quote from Zeniba, a warm-hearted witch in the spiritual world, spoken to Chihiro who was bewildered by familiarity with Haku. ‘Once you do something, you never forget. I didn’t realise that I would never finish my promises, because all I did was neglect them.īut Spirited Away reminded me that it’s those promises which empower us to keep the toxicity of adulthood at bay. Thoughts such as, ‘Nah, I was too busy today’, ‘Now is not the time’, ‘Maybe I’ll do it over the summer break’, have become my catchphrases. We seem to always be swept up in the ordinary, hasty, tiring flow of work and study, and leave our promises behind. As usual, I compromised on holding up my plan. I was thinking about writing something to express myself for years, but my study load has always been an obstacle. I’m now lying on my bed, playing the movie’s closing track, ‘Always with me’, and writing my first blog. Yesterday when my friends randomly chose Spirited Away to watch together, I suddenly remembered my promise, knowing it would now be kept and done. Over time, this promise I made to myself 10 years ago became just another memory, one of those things that happened but that fade from our minds before long.

I promised myself that I would definitely watch it someday. When I was 10 years old, I refused to watch Spirited Away. I thought I will watch it later when I’m wise enough to be able to understand it. Originally published October 22, 2021 on

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