![]() ![]() As viewers we get the feeling that he could fade away at moment, never to be seen again. He stands on the middle of the bridge, nearly transparent. It’s no secret that Spirited Away (and most Ghibli films for that matter) seeks to highlight the nostalgia we have for the past, and No-Face is no exception. While we don’t believe that No-Face is literally a Noh performer, we do believe that he may represent a longing for the past. We have no idea how long he’s been there, but with the way people ignore him, you’d think he was some old stone relic from a bygone era. He stands alone and stares blankly as Chihiro passes him by. For instance, it’s easy to see that No-Face is lonely from the moment we first meet him on the bridge. Now, No-Face might not be putting on a one-man show in the bathhouse, but the way he moves and is positioned allows us to envision what he must feel like at any given moment. You might find it hard to believe, but this is one mask. Noh masks stoke the audience’s imagination, allowing them to infer meaning and emotion based on how the actor moves and tilts the mask. In fact, they’re meant to do quite the opposite. However, you’d be wrong to assume that their purpose is to conceal the actor’s emotions or face from the audience. Like No-Face’s mask, the ones worn by Noh performers bear neutral expressions. In this traditional Japanese stage drama, the main performer wears a Noh mask, much like the one No-Face dons himself. It’s also a symbol of an enduring Japanese performing art called Noh. But this mask serves as more than just a fashion statement. When people think of No-Face, the first thing that likely comes to mind is his trademark white mask. Relic of the Past There's some history behind that mask. With Spirited Away now available on Max, alongside the rest of the Ghibli library, we’ve decided it’s time to put a face to the figure behind the mask by dissecting No-Face’s various appearances throughout the film. We can’t help but wonder who or what No-Face might be or might have been –a spirit, a human, or something else entirely? Miyazaki has remained mum on the subject for years, which means it’s up to us to solve this mystery. Despite No-Face’s limited screen time, he manages to steal every scene he’s in. From frog attendants to stink spirits to a bird with the head of an old woman, there’s no shortage of unique characters to take in.īut no doubt the character that leaves the biggest impression on viewers is the sullen and silent No-Face, the enigmatic tube-shaped spirit with a Noh mask as a face. The film not only offers us a much-needed break from life’s everyday stressors, it also presents us with a colorful cast of memorable characters. In fact, it is the highest-grossing film of all-time in Japan, and it’s easy to see why. All rights reserved.Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki’s fantastical tale about a girl named Chihiro who finds herself transported to the Spirit Realm, is hands down Studio Ghibli’s most successful film. These findings further suggest that the FIE can be generated by a contextually induced face percept at the face detection stage rather than the face identification stage.Ĭopyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. We found that faceless stimuli that generated a large inversion effect were rated higher for the existence of a face than faceless stimuli that generated small or no inversion effects. In Study 2 participants rated the extent to which they detected a face in stimuli presented with or without faces briefly followed by a mask. These findings remarkably show that in contrast to the well-established configural explanation for the FIE, the FIE does not necessarily depend on the processing of internal facial features, but can be also triggered for faceless stimuli presented in body context. Results show inversion effects as large as the FIE for faceless heads with full or minimal body context, but not for faceless heads without body context, headless bodies or bodies viewed from the back. In Study 1 participants performed a sequential matching task for upright and inverted faces, faceless heads with full, minimal or no body context, headless bodies and bodies viewed from the back. Here we asked whether faceless stimuli with or without body context may induce an inversion effect as large as the FIE. Recent findings suggest that face mechanisms can be activated by faceless stimuli presented in the context of a body. ![]() Numerous studies have attributed the face inversion effect (FIE) to configural processing of internal facial features in upright but not inverted faces.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |