After the production and release of Princess Ghost, Miyazaki Hayao originally announced that he would close the book after the work was completed. However, at the end of 1999, Miyazaki Hayao unexpectedly returned and led the production of the animation masterpiece Spirited Away. Music is still composed by Joe Hisaishi. In Spirited Away, the contradiction between nature and human loss has become a recurring topic. Chihiro, the hero, wandered between cities, witnessing the lost images around him. Both he and they were forgotten by the world during the climbing life journey, lost their memories, lost their names and lost their way home.

From a simple point of view, this film tells a series of magical experiences during Chihiro's growth. But in fact, this is a spiritual fable about all mankind. When human beings are struggling to find a way out, they are all accidentally lost on the wrong road and begin to lose hope in the process of spiritual loss. To find the true self and make the final redemption, we can only hope for Chihiro's innocence. Disputes, deception, greed, laziness, exploitation, selfishness, hypocrisy ... all the ugly aspects in the adult world are eclipsed in front of children's clean hearts.

In Spirited Away's music creation, Joe Hisaishi ignored the early frivolity, but gradually slowed down the rhythm, interpreting the emotional world of Chihiro with the simplest notes and the most complicated and changeable string chapters. Piano, often in the form of monologue, is independent of the symphony space, giving people a sense of loneliness (listening to songs) out of the complex world. Although it is a delicate lyric, the sound of the keys has lost the childlike color in Gong's animation, but is full of sadness. For example, there is a chapter "One Summer", which was originally a monologue with the theme of "City of the Sky", but it was arranged in a classical atmosphere, and gradually gave birth to a lost artistic conception in his later years in meditation.

The music in the film is similar to "Princess Ghost", and it is becoming more and more adult. It seems that Joe Hisaishi's music creation, like Chihiro, has gone through different growth stages and gradually started to become old-fashioned. Many people are not used to this. They miss the naive and leaping My Neighbor Totoro era and Joe Hisaishi at that time. However, we don't realize that our own hearts are no longer simple, we no longer believe in dreams, and we are aging in a short time with a faint image of young memories. Spirited Away's music and pictures are actually like a complete life, coming and going, looking for what we have lost bit by bit. Joe Hisaishi's music is still full of care, forever, just like a hand that suddenly soothes your heart when you are heartbroken. It's warm and human.

Compared with Princess Ghost, Spirited Away's musical elements are richer and his expression techniques are more sophisticated, which shows Joe Hisaishi's solid and delicate style, and once again shows Joe Hisaishi's unique skill in capturing complex emotions with simple piano sounds. Elegant and beautiful piano music falls into naughty, lovely, interesting, hesitant, uneasy and sentimental thoughts from time to time with the plot, and always blends with the orchestral music that masters thrilling and strange adventures. What is more different from previous works is that Spirited Away's follow-up to classical music is particularly distinct, and many chapters have become the new favorite of repeated adaptation and interpretation on the music stage. The most popular theme song in this movie is "With You", which is a traditional Japanese folk song, written by Yumi Kimura and sung by himself, not by Joe Hisaishi. No wonder its genre is so obviously different from most of the soundtrack styles of movies.

Yumi Kimura studied in the United States in his early years. His major was not singing, but piano lessons. After returning home, she suffered the heaviest blow in her life because of an accidental injury to her spine. However, she did not give up on herself, nor was she disappointed with life, but stood up again with singing. Now, she always appears in various public welfare performances and activities of the Disabled Persons' Federation, and has the same beautiful and simple quality as Chihiro. No wonder her voice is favored by Miyazaki Hayao. Isn't Spirited Away's idea a difficult journey to find yourself again after a fall in life?

However, friends who are familiar with classical music should not be unfamiliar with the tune of With You. The harmony part of the song is obviously taken from Pachbel's Cannon, which belongs to the same clan except for a slight change in the beat. This theme song was specially included in the soundtrack of Spirited Away's film, and later a symphony version was specially produced. People say that although this piece has nothing to do with Joe Hisaishi, it has the same feelings as Joe Hisaishi, and of course, it also has the indelible classical image of Pachibel.