Miyazaki Reviews (Part Two)

From my personal DVD collection

Last time, I reviewed the first five feature-length animated films written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, and now I will put my take on his other five films: Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo.

 Porco Rosso (1992)

In 1992, Miyazaki released Porco Rosso, a film based around Marco Pagot (an World War I ex-fighter ace who works as a full-time bounty hunter). However, a curse, which was put on the main character, turn him into a anthropomorphic pig, and due to this, he is known as Porco Rosso ("Red Pig" in Italian). Throughout the film, Porco goes out to bring air-pirates into custody, and he suddenly gets into a duel with an American pilot, Curtis. At one point, Porco goes into Italy, which in the time period the film is based on is being run by the then-fascist government, and befriends his mechanic's granddaughter, Fio, who eventually becomes his engineer.

This is probably one of the few Miyazaki films that is fully based around both aviation (which Miyazaki is a fan of) and politics (due to the anti-fascist themes in the film). Also, the film seems to only get little attention, even though it's a Miyazaki film. However, I found the film very entertaining, and very comical when it came to the scenes involving both Porco and Curtis.

Princess Mononoke (1997)

1997 was the year when Miyazaki released what I believe is one of his best works: Princess Mononoke. The film is about Prince Ashitaka, whose right arm is cursed after killing a demonized boar, and San, a young woman who was raised by wolves and attacks the local village of Iron Town (run by Lady Eboshi) due to her hatred of humans. Throughout the film, Ashitaka tries to prevent Lady Eboshi and Jigo, a mercenary monk, from killing the Forest Spirit, which takes form of both a spiritual giant and an elk.

The film itself was a hit in Japan, and it won the Japanese Academy Prize for Best Picture. It was also a violent film, which showed decapitations, dismemberment, and other graphic images. Due to this, the film was given a PG-13 rating in the United States. At one point, Miramax was about to trim out some of the most graphic scenes until Studio Ghibli sent them a katana (a traditionally made Japanese sword) with a simple message, "No cuts." The themes of the film were very pro-environmental, which is one of many themes that Miyazaki put into his films since Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

  
 Spirited Away (2001)

After Miyazaki took a couple of years off from making Princess Mononoke, he created his next big hit, and what a hit it was. Spirited Away is about Chihiro, who ends up in a world full of spirits after her parents were turned into pigs after eating enchanted food, and her journey from working at a bathhouse for spirits, owned by Yubaba, to saving the life of a spiritual boy named Haku. Throughout the film, a strange being by the name of No-Face quickly becomes a major customer at the bathhouse after Chihiro lets him in, and we are soon introduced to Yubaba's son, Boh, and her twin sister, Zeniba.

Spirited Away eventually became an award-winning success for Miyazaki. It won the Japanese Academy Prize for Best Picture and Best Song, the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.

Howl's Moving Castle (2004)

A couple years after the success of Spirited Away, Miyazaki written and directed Howl's Moving Castle, which was based on the novel of the same name by Diana Wynne Jones. The film is based around Sophie, a young hat maker who is turned into a 90-year-old woman after being cursed by the Witch of the Waste, who becomes a cleaning lady for Howl, a wizard who saved Sophie early on in the film from the Witch of the Waste's minions. Sophie then lives with Howl and his young apprentice, Markel, in his moving castle that is powered by the fire demon, Calcifer. On her journey, she also meets a scarecrow in which she calls Turnip Head (due to his head being only a turnip with a face on it), and confronts Madame Suliman, the magical advisor of the King in the film. 

Even though it's a good film and it got an Oscar nomination, it was, in my opinion, one of Miyazaki's confusing films due to how the third act is played out, and how Sophie's age kept changing through the scenes near the end of the film. But, it still played out as a good story with unique characters.

Ponyo (2008)

Years after Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazaki released Ponyo (fully titled Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea in Japan), and it was his first film since My Neighbor Totoro that was aimed for younger audiences. The film is based around a goldfish, Ponyo, that eventually turns into a human girl after falling in love with Sōsuke, a five-year-old boy who rescues her after she gets her head stuck in a jar. But, this leads an unbalance with nature in which Ponyo's wizard father, Fujimoto, and the spiritual Mother of the Sea, Granmamare (who is Ponyo's mother), tries to prevent.

Basically, the film is a retelling of Han Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid", except it is a more obscure story than the actual fairy tale. However, this causes the film to lack more in storytelling, but the film still remains to be very entertaining with its animation and design.

To end it all off, Miyazaki created a collection of films that keeps both his fans and animation fans entertained, and with the U.S. release of his final film, The Wind Rises, coming up next month, I think the best way to end this post is to watch the official trailer.

Until next time.

Written by Nolan Schmidt