Miyazaki

[Guest peringaten]

Hayao Miyazaki - what a film maker! One of the finest auteurs in any filmic medium.

Castle of Cagliostro, Totoro, Nausicaa, Spirited away, etc. - ALL masterpieces of the creative arts (plus Joe Hisaishi's scores blow me away too).

The only Miyazaki film i've yet to see is Porco Rosso - gonna get this one soon though - can't wait!

Anyone else dig this guy's movies?

[Guest sevenhooks]

Love em.

I forgot that TCM was showing ONLY YESTERDAY tonight and didn't TIVO it!

If anyone did let me know!!!

[Guest sammofan]

I love his films too. They have a magic quality that you don't find anywhere else.

[Guest limubai2000]

I own them all including the shorts on DVD from various countries. Howl's for me was good but a tad of a letdown. Mononoke is still my favorite cuz that's the first Miyazaki I saw, Nausicca is my 2nd fav.

[Guest peringaten]

I know what you mean about Howl's - the ending was perhaps a bit sugary, but it was still pretty great - i think it's gonna be a grower on me! That staircase scene was mind-blowing.

I HAVE to see Miyazaki's movies in Japanese or they just lose part of their surreal quirkiness.

I saw Howl's in the cinema dubbed and it just f*cked it up.

Billy Crystal as Calcifer - Man that just messed up the whole vibe - it ain't Disney!!

Nausicaa - just rediscovered this one - had it for years in its cut dubbed version retitled 'Warriors of the Wind' and still loved it.

Just caught it uncut (like an extra 45 minutes of footage or something ridiculous!) and original soundtrack...

I was just in heaven - like discovering a new movie!

Mononoke was great - i was actually a bit surprised at the beginning - the guy losing an arm (weren't expecting that from Miyazaki) but i'd probably put it a bit lower down on my fav's list. Although those little white forest sprite thingys were CLASSIC Miyazaki!!!

My favourite has to be Totoro though - his beautiful masterpiece!

The set pieces with Totoro himself are breathtaking (that music as well!) - when they're waiting for the bus and it's raining and the shots with the umbrella and then the Catbus turning up - pure genius!

I LOVE Castle of Cagliostro too (first Miyazaki i caught) that film rules - the bit when he's running down the roof of the building - yeah! and the car chase at the beginning - what a movie debut!

Laputa's great as well - the ending is something else.

Spirited Away's got to be the uber-Miyazaki movie - so many elements from his earlier work are in there - the running scene (C of C), the lift scene (Totoro), etc.

It's perhaps a little too stuffed and loses the thoughful pacing of his other works, but is lovable for the same reason - there's just so much to enjoy and mess with your mind going on constantly - the movie's nuts.

Not so keen on the other Studio Ghibli stuff for some reason - you can just tell the ones Miyazaki directed - they've just got that golden, master's touch!

I heard he's planning on only directing a few more and is then gonna retire. Shame, but at the same time it means he's really gonna channel his energies into them - i can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

All these remarkable world-beating movies, but maybe his greatest masterpiece is yet to come - that's a scary proposition - he's gonna do something truly mind-blowing i can feel it. The guy is a true artist in every sense of the word.

BTW at the same time as Mononoke went into production so did another movie he was chanelling his efforts into regarding the life of a catapillar!! Though to concentrate on creating such works of art he had to scrap it to save his energy for Mononoke.

I hope he goes back to it - the drawings i've seen for it look stunning - i like him best in a more thoughtfully paced surreal trippy mode and this looked like another Totoro styled work - right up my street.

But then again he could give me anything and i'd just be happy to see it - the guy's incapable of anything less than a masterpiece and a true work of art!!!!

[Guest limubai2000]

forest sprite thingys

Kodamas, and traditional Japanese think they are real and some even claim to have seen them.

I liked Spirited Away alot especially because of the dragon and the black monster thing whose names escapes me at the moment. But I sorta felt empty by the film at the end and it was draggy at parts.

I cant imagine Calcifer as Billy Crystal? WTF? Those little quirky characters in the films are half the movie for me! I can't imagine they messed that up! Jack Black or Robin Williams would have been my choice instead.

[Guest peringaten]

Yep - they really messed that one up! Anyone would have been better than what Crystal did to that character. Whereas i first clocked Calcifer and thought - great! another sublime Totoro like character! any hopes for it were smashed by how cheesy Crystal made him - it was so bad!

I think Christian Bale (Batman Begins) was playing Howl - man he just made the character so bland - I think Pixar dubbed it and whoa, did they mess up!

Miyazaki himself said in an interview i read that he preferred the English dub to the Japanese original! I've now found out why - THE GUY DON'T SPEAK ENGLISH!! Of course it sounds better to him... He knows the story well enough and it probably makes the characters finally sound as nutty to him as they look, when they're spouting "'foreign' gibberish"!! That's gotta be amusing for him!

Miyazaki's films are quintessentially Japanese, and any Americanisation or Westernisation just screws 'em - watching Howl's first time dubbed i felt like i was only watching half a movie - the visual half (but what a half!).

Also just check any special features on any of his discs about the original Japanese soundtrack dubbings for HM's movies - the guy puts in as much effort as he does the animation.

The guy's an auteur!

Kodamas, and traditional Japanese think they are real and some even claim to have seen them

Kodamas, hey? - i loved those things, i'll have to look 'em up - like i said quintessentially Japanese!!

Cheers Limubai!

[Guest sevenhooks]

I heard he's planning on only directing a few more and is then gonna retire. Shame, but at the same time it means he's really gonna channel his energies into them - i can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

All these remarkable world-beating movies, but maybe his greatest masterpiece is yet to come - that's a scary proposition - he's gonna do something truly mind-blowing i can feel it. The guy is a true artist in every sense of the word.

He's been threatening to retire since the late 80's!

I'll believe it when I see it.

I only wish he'd stick to directing his own work and not adapting others (ala Howl's Moving Castle which was a jumbled - if not beautiful - mess).

My favorite Miyazaki films (in order)...

CAGLIOSTRO'S CASTLE

Saw this not long after it came out & it blew my mind. I remember reading Spielberg say this was "one of the greatest adventure movies ever made - animated or otherwise".

I tend to agree.

(and if you liked this, I suggest you track down two Lupin III episodes that Miyazaki directed before the second season of that show ended. "Wings of Albatross" & "Farewell Lupin".

Both are EXCELLENT and really make you wish that Miyazaki had directed the entire series)

LAPUTA (Castle In The Sky)

The ultimate boy's adventure story. I never get tired of watching this.

And by far the best soundtrack of all of Miyazaki's films - courtesy of Joe Hisaishi.

(If you liked this, track down a series called "FUTURE BOY CONAN", which Miyazaki wrote & directed in the 70's. A lot of the ideas for that series were later used in LAPUTA. Excellent show though. Get it!)

KIKI's DELIVERY SERVICE

Gotta love JiJi!

TONARI NO TOTORO (My Nieghbor Totoro)

A film for children & adults that manages not to speak down to either.

PORCO ROSSO

He's a PIG for crisakes!!

SPIRITED AWAY

In years to come, this might very well find it's way to the top of my list, as peringaten mentioned, there's SO much going on, that it's takes multiple viewings to really begin to digest everything.

NAUSICAA

Like Mononoke, I found this to be a little TOO preachy at times, but Miyazaki has a way with fleshing out his characters that you almost don't mind.

[Guest peringaten]

He's been threatening to retire since the late 80's!

I suppose, judging from the obvious passion you can see in his work, that when you have that much evident love for what you do, its got too be hard to leave it alone!

I was wondering if when he says he's gonna retire that he's got a plan he's working to regarding certain embryonic movies he's already thought out somewhat and it's taking longer than he thought to carry out - and again, i suppose, if you're putting that much obvious care and attention into them it probably would.

For instance, i think he thought he could produce the catapillar movie in conjunction with Mononoke quite easily, but then realised (as did his producer - forget his name - he's always in the background when you see Miyazaki!), that to create the best he can he has to do them one at a time to avoid any detrimental effects!

I think he chose to do Mononke over said catapillar film as Mononoke was less representative, perhaps more of a challenge - the other being perhaps too typical of his work!

I guess perhaps he might tackle this one though? I get the feeling he's the consumate artist who can't rest on his laurels until he's seen a work to completion?! I reckon he's got a plan that such a vivid imagination is probably evolving out of control!!!

I only wish he'd stick to directing his own work and not adapting others (ala Howl's Moving Castle which was a jumbled - if not beautiful - mess).

I know what you mean by wishing he'd stick to his own stuff - when i first heard about Howl's - i was like YES, more Miyazaki, but then heard about it's origins and was a bit disapointed! I knew he couldn't fail, but it was just a bit of a kick, y' kno'?! (Still loved it when i saw it tho' despite Pixar's murderings!)

Things like the catapillar film (original i think) look perhaps too easy for him, judging by his style - but i hope he does it as i think the reason he's so effortless at pulling off this sort of fare in such mind-blowing detail is because it's in his soul to do so.

I'm guessing his own stuff, being so natural even in its weirdness, is just too easy for him, and adapting an idea might, such as Howl's, have been a nice challenge for him?!

Man, anyway - all this speculating over a movie about a catapillar i know nothing about other than a couple of drawings!! HM just gets my imagination buzzing!

I REALLY can't wait to see what he does next - it's as bad as waiting for Celestial to release the likes of FIVE ELEMENT NINJA, KID FROM KWANTUNG or HK GODFATHER!!!!

A film for children & adults that manages not to speak down to either.

I think you hit the nail of his magic formula on the head here!

Does anyone think, besides the obvious enviromental messages in Nausicaa, that Star Wars was a bit of an influence on this one?

Gotta confess i'm not a fan of SW (or even sci-fi particularly), but i really dug the similar elements in this one!

Think i might go give Laputa another spin... (original soundtrack though! Dawson from Dawson's Creek on dubbing duties!! WTF are the likes of Pixar thinking - crazy motherf*ck*ers!!!!)

BTW - Hayao Miyazaki - the only guy whose films i actually want to climb into and live in! I'd love to crack his head open (in a non-psychopathic way, of course) and have a look inside - i bet there's some astoundingly beautiful things going on in there!!