I had always wondered about “No Face”, the character with a pale, ghost-like, expressionless face, that reminded me of a monster from my worst nightmare. What about this face that was so haunting?
Chihiro and No Face in Spirited Away
In Spirited Away, No Face is a wandering spirit. It is unwanted, even in the spirit world. No Face has no friend, no family, and no story. One day it meets Chihiro, the girl who is trapped in the spirit world and who let No Face into the bath house where all the other spirits gather to indulge in their otherworldly pleasures.
No Face, with its empty shell of an existence even in the spirit form, tries to buy friendships by giving other spirits as much gold as they want, and eventually feeding on their greed, only to find itself ever hungrier for more friendship. No Face’s bottomless pit of hunger eventually forces it to devour the very people it wants to be friends with, and with that it takes on their personalities and characteristics. Yet, No Face continues to be hungry for more.
As I continued to get to know No Face in the movie, I came to realize what disturbed me about this character. No Face has an empty face. Its empty face represents its lonely, empty soul. No amount of friendship can satisfy its hunger because these friendships feed off each other’s emptiness.
Only when Chihiro breaks its vicious cycle of greed that No Face is released from its vicious cycle of suffering, and eventually finds true companionship.
No Face exists within us
The haunting quality of No Face is real. When life is reduced to a lonely, empty existence, that’s pure suffering. No one wants to suffer; worse, suffer it all alone. No Face symbolizes a part of us that we don’t want to acknowledge. The irony is that the more we try to run away from No Face within, the hungrier we become. The hungrier we become, the more we try to fill in this bottomless pit of hunger with things or relationships that we don’t need, and the deeper this feeling of loneliness and emptiness within.
Yet, there’s hope. I believe that for every No Face out there in the world, there is also a Chihiro. Some people may be more fortunate than others, as they may have more Chihiros in their past and/or present lives.
And…bringing it back to art therapy
As an art therapist, I do believe that the therapeutic relationship is meant to be the Chihiro in every client’s life. Like Chihiro in the movie, art therapists function as a bridge for clients to realize their meaning and purpose. When No Face finds meaning and purpose, it is able to let go of Chihiro.
That’s the beauty of healing relationships, not just in art therapy but in everyday life.