Recently I noticed Hidoshi’s rant about the films of Hayao Miyazaki. And he’s certainly not the first to take on the mighty director. My intention here is not to try and answer Hidoshi’s points directly, so this post won’t reach the level of blog-to-blog discourse that some may be looking for. However, I thought I’d take the opportunity to give my brief opinions on the films of Miyazaki, for anyone that might care :) Feel free to discuss at will.
Miyazaki MODE I: Nausica
Loading ...
I read the title as “What about the Miyazaki HAMSTERS?”
Though it was not a Ghibli movie, what about Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro? It is still a Hayao Miyazaki film. I don’t think it falls in any of the categories you’ve mentioned.
Primeparadigm >> I think of Castle of Cagliostro as an example of Miyazaki working earlier in his career within someone else’s mode (the Lupin III franchise). Lupin has its own genre expectations. He’s not creating a work that originates completely with himself, and he’s not going to deviate as much from the spirit of the original source as he would later in his career with Howl’s Moving Castle.
It’s interesting to compare this with Mamoru Oshii’s work on Urusei Yatsura. In the TV series and the first movie, Oshii remains quite faithful to the original, but in the second movie there are both stylistic and thematic elements that are closer to those to be found in his later work. This is not really the case with Miyazaki and the Castle of Cagliostro.
I’d say that most of the Miyazaki critics I’ve read have been out of their depth; not just bloggers, either, but also professional critics. You manage to keep things pretty straightforward, anyway.
For what it’s worth (very little), I much prefer Miyazaki’s pre-Porco Rosso work to his later films. Yes, Mononoke is clearly a more refined, and possibly more mature and nuanced take on the big Miyazaki themes, compared to Nausicaa. Refinement and nuance are no substitute for originality and artistic passion, though, and that’s where I think Mononoke comes up short. Mononoke is still a great work of art, but it’s not quite the immortal cultural landmark that Nausicaa is.
I partly blame the heavy-handedness of Howl’s Moving Castle on Bush. Why? Because when the movie was in its early development stages, we invaded Iraq. Add that to how Miyazaki is somewhat of a pacifist, and now a grouchy old man, and you get the “WAR SUCKS” version of Howl. >.