Slashdot Mirror
Miyazaki Talks to the Guardian
BrainGeyser writes to tell us The Guardian is running an interesting summary of an interview with Hayao Miyazaki, proclaimed 'God' of anime. In the interview Miyazaki discusses a wide range of issues from his distribution deal with Disney to the future of anime. From the article: 'There is a rumor that when Harvey Weinstein was charged with handling the US release of Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki sent him a samurai sword in the post. Attached to the blade was a stark message: "No cuts."' While it was actually Miyazaki's producer, Miyazaki did 'go to New York to meet this man, this Harvey Weinstein, and [..] was bombarded with this aggressive attack, all these demands for cuts. He [Miyazaki] smiles. "I defeated him."'
was it a Hattori Hanzo sword?
Which one of his movies should you rent ?
Of course, the "no cut" was because of that "marvelous" Warrior of the Wind. Or how to turn Nausicaa into an hollywoodian action-packed movie.
ID: the nose did not occur naturally, how would we wear glasses otherwise? (apologies to Voltaire)
I think Miyazaki has creativity in spades, but I'm curious why you're bashing on Lasseter. I've been impressed by his creativity ever since the early days of Pixar, and I've been even more impressed by his ability to bring interesting and nuanced stories to the big screen. Getting anything even remotely intelligent through the Hollywood system is extremely difficult.
So is your criticism of Lasseter based on the plot of his stories, or the animation of Pixar films, or something else? Maybe I'm missing something. Miyazaki is obviously fantastic, but I don't think that means there can't be any other creative people in mainstream animation.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
John Lasseter could learn a few things about creativity from this man.
What makes you think he doesn't? Check this article:
Lasseter noted: "Miyazaki is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time and he has been a tremendous inspiration to generations of animators. At Pixar, when we have a problem and we can't seem to solve it, we often look at one of his films in our screening room. Toy Story owes a huge debt of gratitude to the films of Mr. Miyazaki.
Does anyone find it ironic that the producer (or executive producer) of Pulp Fiction, Bad Santa, Kill Bill, Sin City, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Clerks, wanted to CUT something from a film? I coudn't have been that hard of a sell.
Right you are. I was a Disney addict when I was a kid, but as soon as I grew up I realized that Walt and all his heirs are evil. What put me over the edge was seeing Fantasia and realizing that he'd neutered all the satyrs!
Had no idea Miyazaki was such a tough S.O.B.
You should definitely read his description in the words of Mamoru Oshii of the "Ghost In The Shell" fame:
My first impression was that he was a really light hearted person. But when the conversation got heated, he was really merciless, and I was told many harsh things. -laughs- So it ended with the impression like "what a SOB!"
Every time I see a Miyazaki movie I'm reminded of what Disney used to be.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Just after I ran out of moderator points ... I am a nerd, enjoying the finer - japanese - arts of animation, you insensitive clod.
Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
The "no cuts" story is interesting. Had no idea Miyazaki was such a tough S.O.B. But I guess that goes with being a great filmmaker.
It stems from a 1980's North American release of Nausicaa that had been licensed by some fly-by-night American company. Re-titled "Warriors of the Wind", it was severely cut (running less than 66% of the original's time), utterly incomprehensible, and a total disaster. Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli were so pissed off that they asked fans to forget the existence of the film and adopted a strict "no edits" clause for any future foreign licensing deals.
I must say that I hope something was cut in the American release of Howl's Moving Castle.
It just played on campus last Wednesday. The film quality was pretty bad and the sound was absolutely horrible (I blame the distributer). The drawing had to be the best I think I've ever seen in any anime or Disney flick.
There was one major plot hole that pretty much the whole audience fell through though. At a point late in the movie, after they've alluded to one character having had a curse put on him, the main girl kisses this character and with a *pop* he turns into a real person and exclaims: "I'm the prince from the kingdom next door!"
The audience roared with laughter at that. There was absolutely no mention in the beginning of the movie about this missing prince (that we could hear, maybe it was the shitty sound) and at the very end we realized that he was the whole reason for the war that was the major plot element of the story.
I really hope there was something cut from the Miyazaki version. Or at least that there was something said that we collectively managed to miss.
Direct away from face when opening.
Now of course if you dramatize the Greek Myths, there are details a modern audience isn't going to accept. Naturally, you can't show these details. But you have to be true to the spirit of the story you're trying to tell. If there are parts of the story you can't tell honestly, you shouldn't tell them at all.
Mononoke's story line does not resemble Spirited Away does not resemble Porco Rosso does not resemble Castle in the Sky does not resemble Totoro does not resemble Kiki's Delivery Service.
The one thing that many Miyazaki cartoons have in common, though, is that kids can watch them. This is especially true for Kiki's Delivery Service, Totoro, Spirited Away, and Castle in the Sky Laputa.
This is why I say Miyazaki reminds me of the old Disney in that he's creating stories that people will remember.
--- Grow a pair, liberals... stop letting the Republicans bully you!
Re the vice-versa, it's interesting to speculate if and when Miyazaki will do something in CGI.
Miyazaki has been using CGI since at least Mononoke Hime, if not before. He just doesn't go overboard with it, and he uses it in a way such that it's not noticeable unless you're specifically looking for it.
Again, something I think Hollywood could learn from. Even in live-action films, CGI effects have taken on a life of their own. It used to be that special effects were used to make something look real that otherwise couldn't be done. Nowadays, CGI effects are used for the sake of the effect - there's not even any intent to make something look real, the intent is instead to draw attention to the effect.
In animation, the idea has always been to make something beautiful but to use the animation to tell a story. The visuals are subservient; the better they look, the better for the film, but the whole reason the visuals exist is to help tell a story. Once the visuals start distracting from that story, and people start paying attention more to the look of a film than the story it's telling, then the film is a failure. Miyazaki is one of the few remaining animation directors that seem to understand that animation is no different than live action in this regard - that film, including animation, is a medium for telling stories. It is not a CGI showcase. (Hollywood seems to have forgotten this fact in live-action films lately too.)
This is the way I feel about at least some of Pixar's films. I saw Toy Story and I just didn't get it. The comedy was way over-broad in that bad TV sitcom sort of way, and it seemed to me that the only real unique thing about the film was its all-CGI visuals. Most of the reviews I saw at the time spent a lot of time talking about the visuals and very little talking about the story, except for the comedy, which I just didn't even think was very funny.
(There are Pixar films I think are pretty good - I liked Finding Nemo, for example - but in general they just spend way too much time worrying about the technical aspects of their films and not nearly enough on telling a good story.)
But there have been CGI scenes in at least the last several of Miyazaki's films, when he's wanted to do something that couldn't be done by traditional hand-drawn techniques. He just doesn't believe in doing things for the sake of doing it, he believes in doing what needs to be done to tell the story he wants to tell. Miyazaki's films are great because he first of treats them as films and not simply as "anime" (or "animation", which is all that word means in Japan), and second of all because he understands what filmmaking is really all about.
I remember seeing Lasseter at the SF film festival giving open praise to Miyazaki and likening himself to a samurai trying to protect Ghibli properties from Disney.
Any criticism of Lasseter in this sense is totally wrong headed imo.
What, not enough tentacle rape for you?
They DO fuck with the movies, and I will NEVER forgive those cocksuckers for completely changing the meaning of the entire Castle in the Sky film.
The asshole main character is shooting essentially nuclear blasts at the ocean under Laputa, and in the dubbed and "hearing impaired" version of the subtitles, Shita says "No matter how many weapons you have... no matter how great your technology might be... the world cannot live without love." What a bunch of bullshit pablum, written by and for suburban born again christians in Beigeland.
The japanese and correctly translated subtitles version says "No matter how powerful your weapons or numerous your poor robots, you can't survive apart from the Earth."
BIG FUCKING DIFFERENCE. Miyazaki-san should sue Disney for breach of contract. And make them totally reissue every DVD sold. The extras even show the couple who write all the adaptations (except the one Neil Gaiman redid). They look like a couple of mormon evangelizers. Conformist blandofuckers. And we can see from recent events just how serious the consequences are for ignoring our environment. They should be dragged from their beige townhouse and driven over repeatedly with their own SUV.
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
Now, here's a brilliant example of what's wrong with US anime industry today. Probably one of the most respected directors in anime had to actually fly in and demand not to mess with his stuff. Forget keeping the material intact or respecting the creator's vision when our marketing research drones tell us we can "potentially" make 2 or 3 bucks more by screwing with it till marketing, rather than the creator, approves it.
I swear, if the industry was in charge of the mona lisa and marketing told them more people would buy prints if she was showing her pearly whites they'd paint right over the friggin thing!
Just import or pirate anime, at least that way you can avoid the marketroid version of whatever you're watching. Sadly, that is actually pretty much what is happening. And the companies wonder why they're hated and fansubs are loved.
Good heavens... someone with "Goth" in their nickname, accusing anime fans of belonging to an subculture with unattractive members and strange sexual practices?
Well, I started to watch anime because I find 'real' movies becoming increasingly disappointing. You also have to understand that not all anime is the same, there are many variations. I maybe only like 10% of all anime but it's still worth seeking out those 10%.
Some of the most brilliant directors have been the ones who are the biggest control freaks. Kubrick, for example, demanded extremely exacting control over every facet of his movies' creation. That's how he managed to keep his art intact and coherent.
Ridley Scott's work on Blade Runner shows a similar link between hard-nosed directorial oversight and strong art.
Miyazaki is, I think, one of the few Japanese directors who really gets to make the whole production his. If he needs a spare half-million for some complicated animation or a long sequence, he gets it, and then he gets it right.
He may seem like an asshole, but that's necessary to get lasting art. I just wouldn't want to be an in-betweener or designed on one of his productions. (Well, maybe...)
I totally agree with you.
There are heaps of differences between the correctly translated subtitles and the dubbed version in Princess Mononoke as well. For example when Moro is speaking of the attack of the boars, in the dubbed version Moro says something like:
"It's a trap. And a stupid one. But Okkoto won't listen. None of them will."
Whereas the correct translation is:
"It's a foolish trap. But Okkoto is no fool. He knows its a trap. But he will attack anyway."
Furthermore, the Japanese version has many silent scenes which are blabbered over in the dubbed version.
These and many other seemingly subtle differences give quite a different feel to the movie.
I acknowledge that dubbing is not an easy task. A direct translation would give very unnatural sounding dialogue. But my suspicion is that Disney's dumbing down on Miyazaki's movies is driven by the arrogant assumption that the audience is stupid and the story needs to be Americanised to make it accessible (and profitable.) They don't imagine that people may enjoy the story in its unaltered form, or that we may be interested in the perspectives on another culture. Yet its Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, which puts creative integrity first (before profit) that is successful, while Disney is in a downward spiral.
He was interviewed about this once:
Question: Why do you always choose a girl as your theme?
Miyazaki: I don't logically plan it that way. When we compare a man in action and a girl in action, I feel girls are more gallant. If a boy is walking with a long stride, I don't think anything particular, but if a girl is walking gallantly, I feel "that's cool." Maybe that's because I'm a man, and women may think it's cool when they see a young man striding. At first, I thought "this is no longer the era of men. This is no longer the era of taigimeibun." But after ten years, I grew tired of saying that. I just say "cause I like women." That has more reality.
The original quote was here: http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interviews/heroin es.html#s2. There's also a few more interviews about the subject there as well.
Cheers,
Paul