Final Paper Idea

my idea for the final paper is to talk about miyazaki in the context of magical realism. perhaps drawing information from interviews as well as other portrayals of magical realism and comparing them. i feel like doing that might tease out ideas about what makes miyazaki unique and to try and understand his role as an auteur in film.

some brainstorming:
cagliostro- rings=magic?? believed to be, but they really only have mechanical power.

nausicaa- the alternate reality where there are massive insects and flying gliders. the power of the ohmu when they extend their feelers.

castle in the sky- the castle in the sky, the technology of the flying island and its former people (robots, underground passages, disappearing walls, the great cube that holds everything together), the levistone that sheeta has.

my neighbor totoro- the totoros, catbus, flying top, super fast tree growth

kiki's delivery service- witches/spells

porco rosso- pig face, power of love (fio's?) to change that.

princess mononoke- gods/cursed gods, power of curse

spirited away- bath house/spirit realm.. but also the normal world? haku bridges the two worlds because he is a river spirit that actually came into contact with chihiro before they met again in the bath house. does that validate the magical world or the bath house? is miyazaki saying that in this alternate reality within japan, magic is around and it's just hidden? what reveals it?..

howl's moving castle- magic users, calcifer as fire demon/suspended shooting star, spells/curses, love as having magical power

ponyo- the mother/father, ponyo herself is magical (probably because parents are magical), the power of love as magic in itself (perhaps to show a bridge between reality as we, the viewers, understand it vs. the magic of the world miyazaki is depicting).

"magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. These magical elements are explained like normal occurrences that are presented in a straightforward manner which allows the "real" and the "fantastic" to be accepted in the same stream of thought." -wikipedia

in this case the bridge between the real and the magical (specifically to accentuate that bridge) is the magical power of love. that is something that most people have a sense of and miyazaki uses that as a tie into non-magical people doing magical deeds.

Ponyo on the Cliff (By the Sea)

Ponyo... Miyazaki...
So there are the obvious Miyazaki traits and messages. Big boats in the ocean pollute it and drag massive nets through it, killing so many fish by burying them in trash and mud. But most of the film is not that at all..
There is a half fish/half girl that wants so badly to be human that she uses her father's half -filled magic well that he was storing to take of the Earth with the ocean. By summoning that magic she has the ability to sprout limbs and eventually change into a little girl. But the power that she conjures puts most of the surrounding humans into great danger because it acts out half of her father's plan to cover the world in ocean. Ponyo is totally unaware that she has put so many people in danger and just wants to see Sosuke. This kind of annoyed me, just seeing how short sighted Ponyo is and that there are no repercussions of any kind.
Also, the logic of the film was a bit hard to understand at first. I didn't really get why the moon was going to crash into the Earth or why it was so urgent that Ponyo either be a fish or a girl.
That would also be hard being the mother. She just gets another child dumped on her. No questions asked. That seemed totally wrong to me. This girl has been a fish for all of her life until the last two days. Now this woman needs to figure out how to raise her and pay for years of education, housing, and food. Harsh.
For me, this is Miyazaki's weakest film. I'm not really sure what he's going for with the story. But the visuals and textures are sooo good!
The fact that there are above water sounds, like splashing etc. under the water is pretty interesting. Not quite sure what that means, maybe alluding to bridging the gap between human capacity and living in the ocean. Also the food and the steam seemed so real and tasty/hot. That was really well done.
Final note: youngest Miyazaki "romance"

Howl's Moving Castle

More ambiguity.
So the spell that was cast on Sophie... it's left unknown exactly what it is. This seems pretty intentional, because throughout the film I (the viewer) was trying to figure out, along with Sophie, what happened to her and how she can fix it. Is the spell that she was made to look old? Or is it that she was made to reflect how she feels at heart? The second one seems to go more in line with what ended up being the remedy, to experience love. But why does she love Howl so much? That I don't really understand. He's interesting and friendly, but he is pretty vain and cowardly (not that that makes someone unlovable). I just wonder how she felt so close to him. Although maybe it was what the women were talking about at the beginning of the film when they said that Howl makes girls fall in love with him...? That could have happened, or it could have been that Howl was opening up his world to Sophie, probably one of the few that he ever has. She felt that and reciprocated by opening up her heart.
I enjoyed the film, for the most part. Just little things got me with Hean just switching sides and the crystal ball thing at the end... come on. And Turnip Head being the prince of the neighboring kingdom.. it's just too neat! I preferred the ending to Princess Mononoke, it felt more real. But not everything has to be real!
Not much to say about this one really.. I liked it and it's a good story about opening up and embracing the moment.

Spirited Away

This film has only gotten deeper watching it over and over – especially in this class. Watching Miyazaki films all in a row as we are doing seems to seriously magnify his intentions.

The parents are so blind to their approach to life, their daughter’s feelings, and even their own bodies. The parents from the beginning don’t listen to Chihiro when she’s sad. They don’t know the house they are moving into. It’s pretty unclear why they are moving at all, but that’s the point! Everything is so anonymous and dead in the human world that Miyazaki is portraying. There is no character in the paved roads and day jobs that is so prevalent in the spirit world that Chihiro eventually gets sucked into.

I think it is important that there are two river gods in the film. They seem to come to the bath house because they have been damaged by the humans. There is the god that comes and seems like a stinky sludge god at first because he has been so polluted by humans, presumably. He is cleansed and renewed thanks to Chihiro and she gets a ball that is (also seemingly) not for humans. This ball is then used to revive the other river god! What? I don't quite get the connection, but ok. It seems acceptable and like I don't really need to question it while the film is showing this to me, but in taking a step back it is confusing.

Anyway, back to the river gods. Haku is also there because he is a wayward spirit in need; his river has been dammed up and he needs somewhere to go and gets lost as a human/shapeshifter person who wants to learn magic, to be powerful. Perhaps this is Miyazaki talking about the anger that the natural world would feel if it had a brain and emotions. Hence it would want power to fight back.

I don't have much more to say that we didn't cover in class.

Princess Mononoke

I have definitely seen Princess Mononoke a LOT of times. The first time was when I was in fourth grade in theaters. This film has been around with me for the majority of my life. Yet when we watched in class the last couple of weeks it felt different. I have seen it both with subtitles and with the dub a number of times. There are a large number of differences, most notably:
sub: Oracle
dub: wise woman
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sub: deer god
dub: forest spirit
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sub: the scar will seep into your bones
dub: the scar will spread across your skin
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sub: this gruel tastes like water
dub: this tastes like super donkey piss
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sub: this world is a curse
dub: you say you're under a curse? well so is the whole damn world
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sub: I knew you'd go
dub: see you there my friend
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sub: what about the ones who fell?
let's form up and move out.
dub: they're dead. let's get the living home.
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sub: i'm sorry
dub: i've failed her
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sub: it is said that the blood of the deer god cures disease. it could cure the lepers and your curse.
dub: (not mentioned)
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sub: he's gone
dub: farewell stranger
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sub: take this. my last arrow's broken
dub: take this. where I'm going they won't be necessary
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sub: moro's head moved by itself
dub: I told you a wolf's head can still bite

so there are some pretty subtle differences, yet they could be indicative of a larger difference in the reading of the characters. these notes may not make sense if you don't recognize the scenes.
apart from that though, I noticed some particular things about the deer god. Notably, in accordance to the yin-yang thing pointed out in class are some of the other dualities surrounding the deer god. During the day he has the body of a deer and the face of a man, but at night he has stands and has a man-like body but the head of a deer. Also, once its head is cut off whatever it lays on dies, but once the head is returned and it falls whatever it lays on grows very quickly. What does this mean? Is it just part of the god's powers? Or is this more reflexive of its treatment?- almost in a karmic or golden rule way.
Also, it's interesting that it was so widely believed that the head of the deer god would cure diseases and curses just like it made sense to even kill the deer god to begin with. Both follow the same backwards logic. One can't take the magical healing powers of a creature by killing it! Just like the apes tried to do with Ashitaka when they wanted to eat him! It is the same logic that San laughed at! When Ashitaka and San actually do touch the head the curse spreads all over their bodies. That is what would have happened to the emperor or the lepers, etc. As the "beasts" grow stupider is that reflective of the humans as well? (as in that with the reign of humans, do other creatures reflect the humans' stupidity?)

Porco Rosso

I'm just gonna jump right in here. So even though this film seems like it's supposed to present Gina as the main interest for Marco, I think she is the main thing that maintains Marco's pig face. He is going through survivor's guilt due to his experiences in the war with losing his friends and seeing all the planes ascending to heaven with him in the middle ground. He is scarred. He likes Gina and was the best man at her wedding! But two days later her husband dies and there is nothing that Marco can do but go back down there to face reality. At this point Gina really likes Marco but he feels so undeserving of any love or openness and that manifests itself in his pig face. He feels dirty, yet his morality is so strong that he can't even shoot at Curtiss's plane if it's not the engine. He walks a jagged line. Yet Fio is the one who can really unpack his emotional baggage!
She asks him about his past and makes it come out. She gives him the affection that he can not ask for. As she opens up Marco's emotions she gets a glimpse into his real face and eventually unmasks him completely!
This seems like a strange film for Miyazaki to have done in a way. Mostly just because it's really uncharacteristic. It doesn't deal with the nature/technology tension, nor does it focus on independent children, specifically girls. Fio is more of a sidekick/secondary character to Marco. This time we see an emotionally crippled man in the spotlight. Also, Humphrey Bogart references..? And specifically in 1929 Italy. And directly dialoguing with fascism. Again.. why? I don't know. But to focus on a pilot makes sense because Miyazaki probably wanted an outlet for his more than interest in planes and aviation to flourish. All of his films have been pretty much leading up to directly dealing with planes.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Right.. Kiki's Delivery Service. Not an original Miyazaki story. This film was adapted from a chapter book of different adventures + some connections and twists by Miyazaki. What does this movie talk about that hasn't been said before in Miyazaki's films? I'm not sure. Kiki, from the beginning is pretty flustered by her new move to Koriko and not knowing anybody and still being pretty adolescent. Her growing stress and insecurity causes her to lose her magical abilities. So of course as she opens up her heart to the boy that wants to get to know her, Tombo, and an artist that helped her previously, Ursula, she gains her powers back. Tombo brings up Kiki's insecurities about meeting new people and feeling like she's given proper attention in light of Tombo's friends being around him. Ursula teaches her that sometimes people get thrown off, but that doesn't mean the magic isn't there. The magic is always inside of waiting to be connected to.

This story goes back to what we were talking about with Totoro and the cinema of assurance/de-assurance. This film is sooo assuring. I never thought for a moment that there wasn't going to be a happy ending. The overall feeling is pretty light, there is no hint at anything ominous. Yeah, Kiki loses her powers and can't do her job and can't talk to her cat friend, Jiji, but as a viewer it is pretty apparent that everything will be fine. Even when the news reporters are covering the blimp losing air with Tombo hanging on to a rope for his life the news reporters are not that bleak. Bertha even thinks it's exciting.

I don't feel like I really got much out of this film except for maybe a point about magic related to Kiki and Ursula. Ursula kind of represents a form of non-obvious magic, the magic of artistic creation and the ability for humans to create so well. The force that is driving that creativity, Ursula relates to Kiki's magic. I find that a pretty interesting point. What are the magical things around us today?