Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki | |
|---|---|
| File:Hayao miyazaki drawing.jpg Animator Hayao Miyazaki, drawn by Tarnas. | |
| Born | January 5, 1941 |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter, character designer |
| Spouse | Akemi Ôta |
| Children | Goro Miyazaki Keisuke Miyazaki |
Hayao Miyazaki (宮崎 駿, Miyazaki Hayao) (Born January 5, 1941 in Tokyo, Japan) is a director of animated films and a co-founder of the animation studio and production company Studio Ghibli.
Miyazaki is the creator of many popular animated feature films, as well as manga. Although largely unknown in the West outside of animation communities until Miramax released his film Princess Mononoke in 1999, his films have enjoyed both commercial and critical success in Japan and East Asia. Miyazaki's Spirited Away is the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan; Princess Mononoke held the same title for a short period until the release of Titanic later in the same year.
Miyazaki's films are distinguished by recurring themes such as humanity's relationship to nature and technology, and the difficulty of maintaining a pacifist ethic. The protagonists of his films are often strong, independent girls or young women; the villains, when present, are often morally ambiguous characters and have redeeming qualities.
Miyazaki's films have generally been financially successful, and this success has invited comparisons with American animator Walt Disney. However, Miyazaki does not see himself as a person building an animation empire, but as an animator fortunate enough to have been able to make films with complete creative control. In 2006, Time magazine voted Miyazaki as one of the most influential Asians in the past 60 years.[1]
Toshio Suzuki, at a Studio Ghibli press conference on 2007-01-17, indicated that the title of the next Miyazaki film would be announced in March 2007.[2] During the March, 19th edition of Japanese news program “NNN Newsリアルタイム”, the film's title was announced as Gake no ue no Ponyo, literally "Ponyo on a Cliff."[3] It will be released in summer of 2008.
Biography
Miyazaki, the second of four brothers, was born in the town of Akebono-cho, part of Tokyo's Bunkyō-ku. During World War II, Miyazaki's father Katsuji was director of Miyazaki Airplane, owned by his brother (Hayao Miyazaki's uncle), which made rudders for the Zero fighter plane. During this time, Miyazaki drew airplanes and other aspects of flight, and developed a lifelong fascination with aviation which became a recurring theme in his artistic works.[4]
Miyazaki's mother was a voracious reader and an intelligent woman, who often questioned socially accepted norms. Miyazaki later said that he inherited his questioning and skeptical mind from her.[citation needed]
Miyazaki moved frequently throughout his childhood, in part because his mother was undergoing treatment for spinal tuberculosis from 1947 until 1955 .[4] Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro features a family whose mother is similarly afflicted.
Miyazaki attended Toyotama High School. In his third year there, he saw the film Hakujaden, described as "the first-ever Japanese feature length color anime",[5] and began to take an interest in animation. In order to become an animator, he had to learn to draw the human figure, because his work until that time had been limited to drawing airplanes and battleships.[5]
After high school, Miyazaki attended Gakushuin University, graduating in 1963 with degrees in political science and economics. He was a member of the "children's literature research club," said to be "the closest thing to a comics club in those days".[5]
In April 1963, Miyazaki got a job at Toei Animation, working as an in-between artist on the anime Watchdog Bow Wow (Wanwan Chushingura). He was a leader in a labor dispute soon after his arrival, and he became chief secretary of Toei's labor union in 1964.[4]
In October 1965, he married fellow animator Akemi Ota, who later left work to raise their two sons, Gorō and Keisuke. Goro is now an animator and filmmaker, as has directed Tales from Earthsea at Studio Ghibli. Keisuke is a wood artist who has created pieces for the Ghibli Museum and who made the wood engraving shown in the Studio Ghibli film Whisper of the Heart.
Films
Miyazaki first gained recognition while working as an in-between artist on the Toei production of Gulliver's Travels Beyond the Moon (Garibā no Uchuu Ryokou, 1965). He thought the original ending in the script was unsatisfactory, and pitched his own idea, which became the ending used in the final film.
Miyazaki then played an important role as chief animator, concept artist, and scene designer on Hols: Prince of the Sun (1968), a landmark animated film directed by Isao Takahata, with whom he continued to collaborate for the next three decades. In Kimio Yabuki's Puss in Boots (1969), Miyazaki again provided key animation as well as designs, storyboards, and story ideas for key scenes in the film, including the climactic chase scene. Shortly thereafter, Miyazaki proposed scenes in the screenplay for The Flying Ghost Ship, in which military tanks would roll into downtown Tokyo and cause mass hysteria, and was hired to storyboard and animate those scenes. In 1971, Miyazaki played a decisive role developing structure, characters, and designs for Animal Treasure Island and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves, earning credit for idea construction and organization for the two films respectively, as well as storyboarding and key animating of pivotal scenes in both.
Miyazaki left Toei in 1971 for A Pro, where he co-directed six episodes of the first Lupin III series with Isao Takahata. He and Takahata then began pre-production on a Pippi Longstockings series and drew extensive story boards for it. However, after traveling to Sweden to conduct research for the film, and meet the original author, Astrid Lindgren, they were denied permission to complete the project, and it was cancelled.[4]
Instead of Pippi Longstockings, Miyazaki conceived, wrote, designed, and animated two Panda! Go, Panda! shorts which were directed by Takahata. Miyazaki's first film as a director was The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), a Lupin III adventure film.
Miyazaki's next film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (Kaze no Tani no Naushika, 1984), was an adventure film that introduced many of themes which recur in later films: a concern with ecology, a fascination with aircraft, and morally ambiguous characterizations, especially among villains. This was the first film both written and directed by Miyazaki. He adapted it from his manga series of the same title, which he began writing and illustrating two years earlier, but did not complete until after the film's release.
Following the success of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki co-founded the animation production company Studio Ghibli with Takahata, and has produced nearly all of his subsequent work through it.
Miyazaki continued to gain recognition with his next three films: Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) recounts the adventure of two orphans seeking a magical floating island; My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro, 1988) tells of the adventure of two girls and their interaction with forest spirits; and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), adapted from a novel by Eiko Kadono, tells the story of a small-town girl who leaves home to begin life as a witch in a big city. Miyazaki's fascination with flight is evident throughout these films, ranging from the ornithopters flown by pirates in Laputa:Castle in the Sky, to the Totoro and the Cat Bus soaring through the air, and Kiki flying her broom.
Porco Rosso (1992) was a notable departure for Miyazaki, in that the main character was an adult male, an anti-fascist aviator transformed into an anthropomorphic pig. The film is set in 1920s Italy and the title character is a bounty hunter, who fights air pirates and an American soldier of fortune. The film explores the tension between selfishness and duty. The film can also be viewed as an abstract self-portrait of the director; its subtext can be read as a fictionalized autobiography.
Miyazaki's next film, Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime, 1997) returns to the ecological and political themes of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. The plot is centered on the struggle between the animal spirits who inhabit the forest and the humans who exploit the forest for industry. The film was a huge commercial success in Japan, where it became the highest grossing film of all time, until the later success of Titanic, and it ultimately won Best Picture at the Japanese Academy Awards. Miyazaki retired after directing Princess Mononoke.
However, while on an extended vacation, Miyazaki spent time with the daughters of a friend, one of whom became his inspiration for Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi, 2001). Spirited Away is the story of a girl, forced to survive in a bizarre spirit world, who works in a bathhouse for spirits after her parents are turned into pigs by the sorceress who owns it. Released in Japan in July 2001, the film broke attendance and box office records with ¥30.4 billion (approximately $300 million) in total gross earnings from more than 23 million viewings. It has received many awards, including Best Picture at the 2001 Japanese Academy Awards, Golden Bear (First Prize) at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival, and the 2002 Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
In July 2004, Miyazaki completed production on Howl's Moving Castle, a film adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' fantasy novel. Miyazaki came out of retirement following the sudden departure of original director Mamoru Hosoda. The film premiered at the 2004 Venice International Film Festival and won the Golden Osella award for animation technology. On 2004-11-20, Howl's Moving Castle opened to general audiences in Japan and earned ¥1.4 billion in its first two days. The English language version was released in the US by Walt Disney on 2005-06-11.
In 2005, Miyazaki was awarded for lifetime achievement at the Venice Film Festival. Later that year, it was reported that Miyazaki's next and final film project would be I Lost My Little Boys, based on a Chinese children's book.
Miyazaki's son Goro Miyazaki recently completed his first film, Tales from Earthsea, based on several stories by Ursula K. Le Guin. Throughout the film's production, he and his father were not speaking to each other, because of a dispute over whether or not Goro was ready to direct.[6]
In 2006, Nausicaa.net reported on Hayao Miyazaki's plans to direct his next film, as he has decided on its "mood." Little was known about the story, except that it was rumored to be be set in Kobe. Among areas Miyazaki's team visited during pre-production were an old café run by an elderly couple, and the view of a city from high in the mountains. The exact location of these places is censored from Studio Ghibli's production diaries. The studio has also announced that Miyazaki has begun creating storyboards for the film and that they are being produced in watercolor because the film will have an "unusual visual style." Studio Ghibli anticipates a production time of 20 months with a planned release date of summer 2008.
On 2007-03-19, during edition of Japanese news program “NNN Newsリアルタイム”, the film's title was announced as Gake no ue no Ponyo, literally "Ponyo on a Cliff."[7]. The release date remains summer 2008. A few scant details of the plot emerged. The story is said to revolve around a 5 year old boy, Sosuke, and the Princess goldfish, Ponyo, who wants to become human. Goro Miyazaki's has been chosen as the model for the main character Sosuke and important subjects of the film are things like "father", "mother" and "cliff". In addition Studio Ghibli President Toshio Suzuki mentioned "Almost 70 to 80% of the film takes stage on sea. It will be a director’s challenge on how they will express the sea and its waves with freehand drawing." Also, the film will probably not contain any computer generated imagery, or CGI, in direct contrast to Miyazaki's recent work such as Howl's Moving Castle.
Themes and devices
Narrative themes
Most of Miyazaki's characters have complex motivations, and while some can be better or worse than others, they are often capable of change. Many seemingly menacing characters are morally ambiguous, and while not necessarily protagonists, are not clearly defined as antagonists. The character Lady Eboshi from Princess Mononoke stands in opposition to the other main characters, and her ironworks knowingly exploit the nearby forests for raw materials. However, her character is not portrayed as an archetypal villain: she also provides a productive home for lepers and former prostitutes in her city. Princess Mononoke is resolved when Lady Eboshi's industrial city reconciles itself with its non-industrialized neighbors.
Some of Miyazaki's early films featured distinctly evil villains, such as Count Cagliostro in Castle of Cagliostro or Muska in Laputa: Castle in the Sky; other films are remarkable for having no villain at all, such as Kiki's Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro.
The influence of Miyazaki's early interest in Marxism is apparent in some of his films, such as Porco Rosso. In Laputa: Castle in the Sky, the working class is portrayed in an extremely idealized manner, with the male protagonist, Pazu, also being a working class child. Miyazaki claims to have 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.[8][9]
According to Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki holds the view that to be successful, companies have to make it possible for their female employees to succeed. This is mirrored in his films, as women are often seen working, such as at the bellows in Princess Mononoke, or building the plane in Porco Rosso.[10]
Visual devices
Several motifs recur in many of Miyazaki's films. Especially in later work, he deliberately paces his films to allow brief excursions into the animated environment. The image of wind blowing gently across fields of grass or grain has been used in several of his films, as has a close shot of a stone darkening with raindrops. Although subtle, these brief shots often help establish a larger reality of his animated worlds.
Miyazaki's films contain deep-seated references to the changing earth and environmentalism. In My Neighbor Totoro, the great tree tops a hillside in which magical creatures reside, and the family worships this tree. This ecological consciousness is echoed in Princess Mononoke with the giant primordial forest, complete with gigantic dragonflies, trees, flowers and wolves. In Princess Mononoke, Laputa: 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 protagonist(s). When battle scenes are shown in each, the militaristic music and ecological destruction is paramount to the endangerment of the inhabitants of the villages.
Flight, especially by characters, is a recurring theme in Miyazaki's films. In addition to the many aerial devices and drawings of Laputa: Castle in the Sky, this theme is found in Nausicaä piloting her Mehve in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind; Kiki riding her broomstick and watching dirigibles 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 being borne by Haku in his dragon form in Spirited Away; and Howl and Sophie soaring above their town in Howl's Moving Castle. In Porco Rosso, the protagonist, a man/pig, flies to a remote island to escape his duties, yet when the military is shown, it is with dark, foreboding flying machines, as compared to the protagonists' lighter, happier music and flyers. Miyazaki's self-professed passion for flight allows him to create very naturalistic depictions of flight in his films.
Influences
A number of Western authors have influenced Miyazaki's work, including Ursula K. Le Guin, Lewis Carroll, and Diana Wynne Jones. Miyazaki confided to Le Guin that Earthsea has been a great influence on all his works, and that he has kept her books on his bedside.[11]
Miyazaki and French writer and illustrator Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) have influenced each other and have become friends as a result of their mutual admiration. Monnaie de Paris held an exhibition of their work titled Miyazaki et Moebius: Deux Artistes Dont Les Dessins Prennent Vie (Two Artist’s Drawings Taking on a Life of Their Own) from December 2004 to April 2005. Both artists attended the opening of the exhibition. Also Moebius has named his daughter Nausicaa after Miyazaki's heroine.
Miyazaki has been deeply influenced by another French writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He illustrated the Japanese covers of Saint-Exupéry's Night Flight (Vol de nuit) and Wind, Sand and Stars (Terre des Hommes), and wrote an afterword for Wind, Sand and Stars.
In an interview broadcast on BBC Choice on 2002-06-10, Miyazaki cited the British authors Eleanor Farjeon, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Philippa Pearce as influences. The filmmaker has also publicly expressed fondness of Roald Dahl's stories about pilots and airplanes; the image in Porco Rosso of a cloud of dead pilots was inspired by Dahl's They Shall Not Grow Old.
As in Miyazaki's films, these authors create self-contained worlds in which allegory is seldom used, and characters have complex, and often ambiguous, motivations. Other Miyazaki works, such as My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, and Spirited Away incorporate elements of Japanese history and mythology.
Miyazaki attributed his inspiration to go into the animation field to the release of Hakuja den (Panda and the Magic Serpent), considered the first modern anime, in 1958.
Television
Miyazaki's work in television is less known than his films. In the 1970s he worked as an animator on the World Masterpiece Theater television animation series under Isao Takahata. His first directorial credit is for the television version of Lupin III in 1971; he was co-director (with Takahata) of the second half of the first television series, and director of two episodes of the second series. His first feature film was a Lupin III adventure titled Castle of Cagliostro.
Miyazaki's most famous television work was his direction of Future Boy Conan (1978), an adaptation of the children's novel The Incredible Tide by Alexander Key. The main antagonist is the leader of the city-state of Industria who attempts to revive lost technology. The series also elaborates on the characters and events in the book, and is an early example of characterizations which recur throughout Miyazaki's later work: a girl who is in touch with nature, a warrior woman who appears menacing but is not an antagonist, and a boy who seems destined for the girl. The series also featured imaginative aircraft designs.
Miyazaki directed six episodes of Sherlock Hound, an Italian-Japanese co-production which retold Sherlock Holmes tales using anthropomorphic animals. These episodes were first broadcast in 1984-85.
Manga
Miyazaki has illustrated several manga, beginning in 1969 with Puss in Boots (Nagakutsu wo Haita Neko). His major work in this format is the seven-volume manga version of his tale Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which he created from 1982 to 1994 and which has sold millions of copies worldwide. Other works include Sabaku no Tami (砂漠の民, People of the Desert), Shuna no Tabi (シュナの旅, The Journey of Shuna), The Notebook of Various Images (雑想ノート, Zassō Nōto), and The Age of the Flying Boat, which was the basis of his film Porco Rosso).
In October 2006, A Trip to Tynemouth was published in Japan. Miyazaki based it on the young adult short stories of Robert Westall, who grew up in World War II England. The most famous story, first published in a collection called Break of Dark, is titled Blackham's Wimpy. The rival Royal Air Force crews in the story fly Vickers Wellington Bombers, the nickname comes from the character J. Wellington Wimpy from Popeye comics and cartoons.
Filmography
Director, Screenplay, and Storyboards
- Future Boy Conan, 1978 anime series
- The Castle of Cagliostro (Lupin III), 1979 film
- Sherlock Hound, 1982 anime series
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, 1984 film
- Laputa: Castle in the Sky, 1986 film
- My Neighbor Totoro, 1988 film
- Kiki's Delivery Service, 1989 film
- Porco Rosso, 1992 film
- On Your Mark, Short animated music video featuring music by Chage and Aska, 1995
- Princess Mononoke, 1997 film
- Spirited Away, 2001 film (winner, Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, 2002)
- Howl's Moving Castle, 2004 (nominee, Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, 2005)
- Ponyo on a Cliff, upcoming summer 2008
Co-director
- Lupin III: Part I (ルパン三世 Rupan Sansei), Episodes 7, 8, 10, 11, 13-23, 1971 (with Isao Takahata)
Scene Design, Layout
- Heidi, Girl of the Alps (TV) (Arupusu no Shōjo Haiji), 1974 （director: Isao Takahata, character design & chief animator: Yoichi Kotabe）
- 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (TV) (Haha wo Tazunete Sanzen-ri), 1976 （director: Isao Takahata, character design & chief animator: Yoichi Kotabe）
- Anne of Green Gables (TV) (Akage no An), 1979 （work to 1-15 episodes. director: Isao Takahata, character design & chief animator: Yoshifumi Kondō）
Concept, Screenplay, Storyboards, Scene Design, Key Animation
- Panda! Go, Panda!, 1972
Screenplay, Storyboards, Scene Design, Art Design, Key Animation
- Panda! Go, Panda! and the Rainy-Day Circus (パンダコパンダ 雨降りサーカスの巻 Panda Kopanda: Amefuri Saakasu no Maki), 1973
Screenwriter, Storyboards, Executive Producer, Sequence Director
- Whisper of the Heart, 1995
- Pom Poko, 1994
Story Consultant, Key Animation, Storyboards, Scene Design
- Animal Treasure Island (どうぶつ宝島 Dōbutsu Takarajima), 1971
Key Animation, Storyboards, Scene Design
- Hols: Prince of the Sun, 1968
Organizer, Key Animation, Storyboards
- Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (アリババと４０匹の盗賊 Aribaba to Yonjūbiki no Tozuku), 1971
Key Animation, Storyboards, Design
- Puss in Boots (長靴をはいた猫 Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko), 1969
- Flying Phantom Ship, 1969
References
- ^ Morrison, Tim (2006-11-13). "Hayao Miyazaki: In an era of high-tech wizardry, the animé auteur makes magic the old way". Time Asia. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
{{cite web}}: More than one of|author=and|last=specified (help) - ^ Template:Ja icon "製作中ジブリ次回作３月に発表". Sponichi. 2007-01-17. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
- ^ "Ghibli World". 2007-03-19. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ a b c d McCarthy, Helen (1999-09-01). Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation. United States: Stone Bridge Press. ISBN 1880656418.
- ^ a b c Feldman, Steven (1994-06-24). "Hayao Miyazaki Biography, Revision 2". Nausicaa.net. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
{{cite web}}: More than one of|author=and|last=specified (help) - ^ "Coranto Archive: July 3, 2006 Hayao Miyazaki's Surprise Visit". Nausicaa.net. 2006-07-03. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
- ^ "Ghibli World". 2007-03-19. Retrieved 2007-03-19.
- ^ "Interview "The story won't end"". Nausicaa.net. Retrieved 2007-05-31.
- ^ "Profile: Miyazaki Hayao". Anime Academy. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
- ^ Birth of Studio Ghibli (from Nausicaä DVD). Studio Ghibli.
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)
- ^ Template:Ja icon "世界一早い「ゲド戦記」インタビュー 鈴木敏夫プロデューサーに聞く". Yomiuri Shimbun. 2005-12-26. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
Further reading
- Cavallaro, Dani (2006), The Anime Art of Hayao Miyazaki, Mcfarland. (ISBN 0-7864-2369-2)
- McCarthy, Helen (1999), Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation: Films, Themes, Artistry, Stone Bridge. (ISBN 1-880656-41-8)
See also
- Yuriy Norshteyn, a friend and animator praised by Miyazaki as "a great artist". [1]
External links
- The Official Studio Ghibli Site (Japanese)
- Miyazaki Information at Nausicaa.net
- GhibliWorld.com: The Ultimate Ghibli Collection Site Unofficial English language Ghibli site with news and merchandise
- Profile at Japan Zone
- Discussion about Miyazaki in The New Yorker
- Interview in The Guardian
- Criticism of Miyazaki by Mamoru Oshii
- Template:Nndb name
- Hayao Miyazaki at IMDb
