Styles and themes of Hayao Miyazaki: Difference between revisions
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#redirect [[Hayao Miyazaki#Themes]] |
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{{Original research|date=January 2010}} |
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[[Hayao Miyazaki]] is a prominent [[Japan]]ese filmmaker and producer whose [[animation|animated]] works are characterised by several recurring themes and motifs. |
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Many of these recurrent features are notable for being so uncommon in the medium, for example the lack of evil or [[villain]] characters, the advocacy of [[pacifism]] and prominence of [[feminism]]. Other features are more notable for being personal idiosyncrasies, such as the obsession with [[flight]] and the symbolism of [[water]]. The formal emphasis placed on these various elements constitutes a running discourse that transcends the individual works and creates a larger, ongoing meta-narrative. |
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== Good and evil == |
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Most of Miyazaki's characters are dynamic, capable of change, and not easily caricatured into traditional good-evil [[dichotomies]]. Many menacing characters have redeeming features, and are not firmly defined as antagonists. In ''Princess Mononoke'', Lady Eboshi destroys the forest for industrial raw materials without the concerns for animals' life; however [[Leprosy|lepers]] and former [[Prostitution|prostitutes]] that she shelters have great respect for her. The film culminates in reconciliation, rather than the vanquishing of some irredeemable evil. This theme is unusual for an animated film, as most films in the genre clearly divide good and evil.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} |
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Miyazaki stated in ''Spirited Away'', "the heroine [is] thrown into a place where the good and bad dwell together. [...] She manages not because she has destroyed the 'evil,' but because she has acquired the ability to survive."<ref> |
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{{cite book |
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| last = |
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| first = |
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| authorlink = |
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| coauthors = |
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| title = The Art Of Miyazaki's Spirited Away |
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| publisher = Viz Communications Inc. |
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| date = 2002 |
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| location = |
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| pages = 15 |
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| url = |
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| doi = |
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| isbn = 1-56931-777-1 |
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| author = Alvin Lu, editor ; introduction by Hayao Miyazaki}} |
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</ref> |
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Miyazaki has explained that the lack of clearly defined good and evil is because of his views of the 21st century as a complex time, where old norms no longer are true and need to be re-examined. Simple stereotypes cannot be used, even in children's films. Even though Miyazaki sometimes feels [[Pessimism|pessimistic]] about the world, he prefers to show children a positive world view instead.<ref name="Ghibli_the_Miyazaki_Temple">{{cite video |
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| people = Yves Montmayeur |
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| title = Ghibli The Miyazaki Temple |
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| medium = Documentary film |
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| publisher = |
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| location = Paris |
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| date = 2005}}</ref> |
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Some of Miyazaki's early films featured distinctly evil villains, as in ''Castle of Cagliostro'' or ''Castle in the Sky''; other films are remarkable for having no villains at all, as in ''Kiki's Delivery Service'' and ''My Neighbor Totoro''. Some of these have a strong flavour of traditional [[Japanese culture]] and ancient [[animism|animistic]] spiritual beliefs. |
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==Environmentalism== |
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Miyazaki's films often emphasize [[environmentalism]] and the Earth's fragility <ref>http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:167694~T1</ref>, especially in the context of critiquing development and pollution.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} |
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In ''My Neighbor Totoro,'' the great tree tops a hillside on which magical creatures reside, and the family worships this tree. This ecological consciousness is echoed in ''Princess Mononoke'' with the giant primordial forest, trees, flowers and wolves. In ''Spirited Away'', Miyazaki's environmental concerns surface in the "stink spirit", a river spirit who has been polluted and who must be cleansed in the bath house. Miyazaki explains in the DVD commentary that the inspiration for this scene was a personal experience of his own when he helped to clean a polluted river near his home. This theme is also reflected in the story of the river spirit [[Spirited Away#Cast and characters|Haku]], whose river had been destroyed by a building project. In Miyazaki's most recent film, Ponyo, Ponyo's father shows a strong dislike for humans and their filth. This is evidenced by the disgusting condition of the bay area where Sosuke lives and the net catching nothing but garbage that also forces Ponyo into a glass bottle. |
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In ''Princess Mononoke'', ''Castle in the Sky'' and ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,'' the ecological paradise is threatened by military men and violent state-controlled armies. In each film, the conflict between the natural way of life and the military destruction of culture, land and resources is central to the plight of the protagonists. When battle scenes are shown in each, the militaristic music and ecological destruction is paramount to the endangerment of the inhabitants of the villages. |
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[[Image:MEHVE - Nausicaa of the valley of the winds.jpg|right|thumb|[[Nausicaä (fictional character)|Nausicaä]] flying her Mehve over the Valley of the Wind]] |
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In an interview with ''[[The New Yorker]]'', Miyazaki claimed that much of modern culture is "thin and shallow and fake", and "not entirely jokingly" looked forward to an apocalyptic age in which "wild green grasses" take over.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://web.archive.org/web/20060524092154/http://www.newyorker.com/online/content/?050117on_onlineonly01 |title=The Animated Life |date=2005-01-10 |first=Margaret |last=Talbot |publisher=[[The New Yorker]] |quote=He's said, not entirely jokingly, that he looks forward to the time when Tokyo is submerged by the ocean and the NTV tower becomes an island, when the human population plummets and there are no more high-rises. |format=via the [[Internet Archive]] |accessdate=2007-06-07 }}</ref> Growing up in the [[Shōwa period]] was an unhappy time for him because "nature — the mountains and rivers — was being destroyed in the name of economic progress."<ref name="japan_times_2008_dec" /> Nonetheless, he suggests that adults should not "impose their vision of the world on children."<ref name="midnight">{{cite web|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/hayao_miyazaki.shtml |title=Midnight Eye interview: Hayao Miyazaki |accessdate=2007-06-07 |publisher=[[Midnight Eye]] }}</ref> |
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==Love== |
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Many of Miyazaki's films deal with the power of love. In Miyazaki's films, the power of love is enough to break curses set upon people. In "[[Spirited Away]]", Kamajii tells Haku that Chihiro saved him from Zeniba's curse using the power of her love for him. In "[[Howl's Moving Castle]]" Sophie's confidence in herself and her love for Howl breaks the curse laid upon her by the Wicked Witch of the Waste. In "[[Porco Rosso]]" he becomes human again when he is kissed by Fio. In "[[Whisper of the Heart]]" Shizuku's love for Seiji makes her follow her passion of writing and write the book while Seiji is away in Cremona, Italy. In "Ponyo", if Sousuke's love for Ponyo was true then the world would be saved. |
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==Pacifism== |
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Both ''Nausicaä'' and ''Princess Mononoke'' feature strong anti-war themes. Ending the humans' hateful war with themselves and nature becomes the driving force of Ashitaka in ''Princess Mononoke''. In the manga version of ''Nausicaä'', Miyazaki spends much time depicting the brutality and suffering of war in graphic detail through most of the story. The post-apocalyptic world is filled with remains of the old civilizations that ended with wars and the destruction of the environment. In ''Laputa: Castle in the Sky'', the military is portrayed as mindlessly and needlessly violent, greedy, and heavyhanded. In ''Howl's Moving Castle'', Howl's negative view of the war is clear and he refuses to join the fight in any official capacity. Despite this, he frequently participates on the magical plane of the war as a demon bird battling "hack" wizards, in hopes he might have a positive impact. |
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In 2003, when ''Spirited Away'' won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Miyazaki didn't attend the awards show personally. He later explained that it was because he "didn’t want to visit a country that was [[Iraq War|bombing Iraq]]".<ref>{{cite news |
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| last = Alex |
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| first = Pham |
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| title = Comic-Con: Miyazaki breaks his silent protest of America's actions in Iraq with visit to the U.S. |
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| publisher = Los Angeles Times |
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| date = 2009-07-24 |
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| url = http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/07/comiccon-miyazaki-breaks-his-boycott-of-us-.html |
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| accessdate = 2009-07-24 |
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}}</ref> |
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==Flight== |
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[[Flight]], especially [[Aviation|human flight]], is a recurring theme in Miyazaki's films. He thinks of flight as a form of liberation from [[gravity]] and how it keeps you stuck in one place.<ref name="Spirited_Away_QA">[http://www.theblackmoon.com/Deadmoon/spiritedaway2.html US Spirited Away premiere press Q&A]</ref> The Studio Ghibli 2002 short film ''[[Imaginary Flying Machines]]'' is completely devoted to the wonders of flight and is voiced by Miyazaki himself. |
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In addition to the many aerial devices and drawings of ''Laputa: Castle in the Sky,'' which is a flying city, this theme is found in [[Nausicaä (character)|Nausicaä]] piloting her Mehve and the airborne armies in ''Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind'', Kiki riding her broomstick and watching [[dirigible]]s fly over her city in ''Kiki’s Delivery Service'', the large Totoro carrying Satsuki and Mei across the night sky in [[My Neighbor Totoro]], Chihiro riding on Haku's back when in his dragon form in [[Spirited Away]] and Howl and Sophie soaring above their town in [[Howl's Moving Castle]]. The protagonist in [[Porco Rosso]] is a pilot and the film is focused on flying, airplanes and aerial combat, as well as the connection between flight, Ascension and the afterlife. |
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Interestingly, one of Miyazaki's most successful films, ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'', does not contain a flying sequence, or any flying characters. However, it could be argued that the scenes in which Yakul leaps across large rocks and ledges are moments of "flight". |
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==Politics== |
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The influence of Miyazaki's early interest in [[Marxism]] is apparent in some of his films, such as ''Porco Rosso''. In ''Castle in the Sky'', the working class is portrayed in idealized terms. In ''[[Future Boy Conan]]'', the ideologies of the friendly town High Harbor and the antagonistic nation Industria are reversed from their source in the ([[Cold War]]-era) [[Alexander Key]] novel ''[[The Incredible Tide]]'' on which the series is based—the originally Communist Industria becomes a runaway capitalist state, and the capitalist High Harbor becomes a farming commune. |
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Miyazaki abandoned Marxism while creating his manga ''Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind''. He states he "stopped seeing things by class, as it's a lie that one is right just because he/she is a laborer."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/afternausicaa.html#main|title=Interview "The story won't end"|publisher=Nausicaa.net|accessdate=2007-05-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.animeacademy.com/profile_miyazaki_hayao.php|title=Profile: Miyazaki Hayao|publisher=Anime Academy|accessdate=2007-02-19}}</ref><ref name="miyazaki_feminism">{{cite video|title=Birth of Studio Ghibli|medium=from [[Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (film)|Nausicaä]] DVD|publisher=Studio Ghibli|quote=Miyazaki is a feminist, actually. He has this conviction that to be successful, companies have to make it possible for their female employees to succeed too. You can see this attitude in ''Princess Mononoke.'' All characters working the bellows in the iron works are women. Then there's ''Porco Rosso.'' Porco's plane is rebuilt entirely by women. ([[Toshio Suzuki (producer)|Toshio Suzuki]]) }}</ref> However, Miyazaki still holds some [[socialism|socialist]] ideas and is critical of [[capitalism]], [[globalization]] and their impacts on modern life.<ref name="neppu_nov_2008_interview"> |
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{{cite news |
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| title = Hayao Miyazaki interview on the 1954 [[Animal Farm (1954 film)|Animal Farm animated film]] |
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| work = Neppu (Studio Ghibli’s monthly report magazine) |
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| language = Japanese |
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|date=November 2008}} ([http://www.ghibliworld.com/news.html#3103_02 Summary at GhibliWorld.com]) |
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</ref> |
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<br clear="both" /> |
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==Feminism== |
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Miyazaki has been called a [[feminism|feminist]] by Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki, in reference to his attitude to female workers.<ref name="miyazaki_feminism" /> This is evident in the all-female factories of [[Porco Rosso]] and [[Princess Mononoke]], as well as the matriachal bath-house of [[Spirited Away]]. All of Miyazaki's films are populated by strong female protagonists that go against gender roles common in Japanese animation and fiction,<ref>{{cite book |last= Napier|first= Susan J. |authorlink=Susan J. Napier |title= [[Anime from Akira to Princess Mononoke: Experiencing Contemporary Japanese Animation]] |year= 2001 |isbn= 978-0312238636 |publisher= Palgrave |location= Basingstoke }}</ref> from pirate captains to industrialists. Even in lighter films such as [[Kiki's Delivery Service]], all of the leading characters are professional women such as artists (Ursula), bakers (Orsono), fashion-designers (Maki) and witches (Kiki and Kokiri). |
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==Children and childhood== |
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{{quote box|quote=...children's souls are the inheritors of historical memory from previous generations.|source=Hayao Miyazaki}} |
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Many of Miyazaki's works deal with childhood. For example, ''My Neighbor Totoro'' has two young girls who, unlike adults, can see the spirit world, and in ''Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea'' a boy befriends a magic creature from the sea. Both ''Kiki's Delivery Service'' and ''Spirited Away'' deal with growing up. |
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Miyazaki has expressed strong feelings about childhood, saying that it's a paradisical time when "you're protected by your parents and unaware of the problems around you". His views of children in the modern world are a bit worried, though, as he wonders about their dependence on the "[[virtual]] world" and the lack of contact with the natural world. Because of this, he creates his films inspired by children near himself, with an aim to "understand their world".<ref name="japan_times_2008_dec">{{cite web|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20081204r2.html |title=An audience with Miyazaki, Japan's animation king|date=2008-12-04 |first=Mark |last=Schilling |publisher=[[The Japan Times]] |quote= |accessdate=2008-12-04 }}</ref> |
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==Water== |
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Water, or, more specifically, retrograde fluidity, is a recurring theme in opposition to the Ascension symbolism of flight (cf. [[Porco Rosso]]). Miyazaki’s characters are often on the verge of discorporating into liquid entirely: from the stink-demon, to the river dragon spirit Haku in [[Spirited Away]] and the God-Warrior at the climax of [[Nausicaa]] to the globular henchmen of the Witch of the Waste in [[Howl's Moving Castle]]. This theme is pivotal throughout 2009's [[Ponyo]]. This conflict between the two themes of flight and watery dissolution is best embodied in the sea-planes of [[Porco Rosso]], the heroes being able to navigate through both worlds. Water symbolically represents the contradictions of entrapment and freedom, life and death.{{Citation needed|date=July 2010}} |
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Miyazaki has stated his warm appreciation for [[Shinto]] water purification rituals, and these have been cited as the inspiration for the role of water in [[Spirited Away]]: the characters of Haku the river dragon and the polluted river spirit; the setting and function of the bathhouse itself <ref name="Water">http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol8No2/boydShinto.htm . Journal of Religion and Film, Boyd and Nishimura, Vol. 8, No.2, October 2004.</ref>. Rain as an element is also a key plot device in both [[Kiki's Delivery Service]] and [[My Neighbour Totoro]]. |
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== References == |
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{{Reflist}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Wikiquote}} |
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* [http://www.ghibli.jp/ The Official Studio Ghibli Site (Japanese)] |
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* [http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/miyazaki/ Miyazaki Information at Nausicaa.net] |
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* [http://www.japan-zone.com/modern/miyazaki_hayao.shtml Profile at Japan Zone] |
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* [http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1569689,00.html Interview in ''The Guardian''] |
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* [http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=51 Anime News Network] |
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{{Hayao Miyazaki films|state=expanded}} |
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{{Studio Ghibli people}} |
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Miyazaki, Hayao, Styles and themes}} |
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[[Category:Studio Ghibli]] |
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[[Category:Themes of author's works]] |
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Latest revision as of 13:54, 20 May 2023
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