Oscar-winning animator Hayao Miyazaki on Saturday released his first full-length film in four years, dropping computer graphics for his pencil to tell the story of a fish-girl and the sea.
"Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea," which the reclusive 67-year-old both wrote and directed, hit screens across Japan after weeks of intense media interest.
Inspired by the 19th-century fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, the story centers around a tiny fish-girl, Ponyo, who rides a jellyfish to escape her home in the sea.
She meets a five-year-old human boy, Sosuke, who vows to protect her, but Ponyo is taken back to the sea. Desperate to be a human and live with Sosuke, Ponyo heads to land again with help from her sisters.
Miyazaki is one of Japan's biggest cultural exports. His last film, "Howl's Moving Castle," broke opening box office records at home in 2004 before winning a cult following in Western and Asian nations.
Miyazaki, who had used computer graphics since "Princess Mononoke" in 1997, decided to shun hi-tech effects in his latest film.
"Our experience told us that what you can do electronically doesn't impress people much. We decided to go fully with pencils... That's our strength," he said in a recent interview with public broadcaster NHK.
The film used 170,000 hand-drawn pictures to animate characters and objects, a record number for a Miyazaki production.
It took one and a half years for 70 staff to draw the pictures, according to Studio Ghibli, which has released his works.
The film also uses numerous other manually drawn pictures as the background -- with the succession of screens creating a slightly jittery atmosphere to the film.
"All things in the world are moving. I became an animator in order to move everything in the world. It's not only human characters that move," Miyazaki said.
"Not only grass vacillates; the ground can move, too. I think delicate fluctuations give life to our production," he said. "The world is a living thing. Small children know it."
But Miyazaki, saying he wanted to create a visual world for children, regretted that children lost their way of seeing the Earth as they grew older.
The director said he has been working to "create a world that five-year-olds understand."
"Five-year-old kids do not think with reason but rather they understand the true nature of the world instinctively," he said.
In a message posted on the Ghibli website, Miyazaki said his new film "animates the sea not as background but as a main character."
The film marks a firm return to the film world by Miyazaki, who has said repeatedly in the past that he wants to retire.
The 2004 release of "Howl's Moving Castle" was met by speculation that it would be Miyazaki's last film, raising concerns in Japan for the future of the lucrative animation industry.
Miyazaki's second to last film, "Spirited Away," won the Academy Award in 2003 for best animated feature, Japan's first Oscar for a full-length work in nearly half a century.
He received a Golden Lion award from the Venice international film festival in 2005 for lifetime achievement in cinema.
© AFP
9 Comments
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Bovinus
I found the last two films a bit dull. I know they're filled with messages and morality but it didn't stop them being boring. Hopefully the new one will contain more action, like in his early films.
Zen_Builder
Last film was done by Miyazaki Jr. not Hayao Miyazaki.
Also there is a difference between the movies that Takahata and Miyazaki do.
nath
I wish this movie had been released before I wrote an essay on Miyazaki's movies last semester for university.
It would have been perfect material to dredge for academic writing.
meija
I saw it yesterday. It's slow, as per most Miyazaki movies, but I enjoyed it. It's more of a kid's movie than the last few.
Badsey
these movies are for kids, sort of like "Finding Nemo" I guess. And no adult ever liked "Finding Nemo" -I am such a liar.
Truth: Howl's is more my type. Father liked Nemo and he's 60+
You can either get with it or not, same for Batman, Star Wars etc. As a kid the first 3 Star Wars were epic, but after that I lost interest.
Howl's is complex and takes a few viewings to figure it out, the great music helps.
amannin1
I love Miyazaki films, but i think he overestimates kids -- the same 5 yr old could instinctively watch sponge bob or Dragon Ball Z without end simply because of the colorful moving images and sound effects...
Though, if this is truly going to be his last film, I am very much going to miss him. (Somehow I doubt his son will be able to continue the legacy, but you never know...)
thepro
I loved Spirited Away. This doesn't look so interesting though. I'd rather see Wall-E.
sdf_crew_member
Is it about Miyazaki himself or Ghibli Studio early works? In both cases you're wrong - there're plenty of action/gore-free movies made by studio and personally Miyazaki.
The "boring" factor is a matter of personal perspective, of course. In my list of their three best works two of them are quiet and maybe a little pensive.
Zen_Builder
Personally like Gibhli as they speak to both kids and adults. IMO, there are few western movies that do it, Pixar gets close.
After watching the previews for "Wall-E" my 7yr old son agrees that it mixes No.5 from "Short Circuit" and "E.T.". Lots of my friends agree too.
Personally, as a father myself we tend to under-estimate our kids and tend to dumb them down with sponge-bob, etc as it is an image that we want them to be. I.E. dependent on us to tell what they can do/like, etc.
Yeah, I think school(anywhere) dumbs down our kids and removes their natural curiosity which made us great.
Ok, personal pet-peeve. HATE "Kung-Fu Panda" as it just shows stereo-types that we spoon-feed to our kids. Not a TRUE representation of China NOR the Martial Arts.