I confess, because of whenI got back from my trip too latte to get my Scarecrow selection for the week but fortunately my library picks suggested a theme and I decided to catch up on Studio Ghibli. Much as I’m a huge fan of Ghibli’s work I’d been lax on my viewing since Howl’s Moving Castle. I was more than happy to play catchup. These two are the most recent films of the Ghibli lineup and allegedly the last films of their two respective creators.
The first on my film is The Tale of the Princess Kaguya by Ghibli’s number two master. Isao Takahata. I can’t say I’m technically a fan of the man’s work. I love Pom Poko but Grave of the Fireflies is so depressing I’ve never been able to last through the first half hour but I can’t deny his brilliant craftsmanship.
The tale of princess Kagura is a mostly straight retelling of the classic folktale The Tale of The Bamboo Cutter. It tells the tale of a Bamboocutter who finds a tiny princess inside a bamboo shoot. The princess turns into a baby girl who grows at an unnatural speed. Because of this she is nicknamed “Little Bamboo” by the children of the village. From there she is taken to the city and trained to become a princess.
This film is utterly gorgeous. It is all handdrawn in an incredibly simple style, looking almost like a picture book. (And for some reason William Steig keeps coming to mind.) It takes it’s time to show all of the different emotions of the princess over her life and experiences. I especially like the way the otherwise thin pen lines are replaced with what looks like dry brush when an especially emotional scene takes place.
When I first heard about Hayao Miyazaki’s supposedly last film, The Wind Rises I imagined an extremely personal artsy piece that sadly might not be interesting to his normal fanbase. I’ve haven’t been so glad to be to be wrong for a long time. This was very good and on my list of best Miyazaki films I’d happily put it up there with Porco Rosso and Houl’s Moving Castle.
In The Wind Rises, Miyazaki tells the true(ish) story of aeronautics engineer Jiro Horioshi from his childhood to the nineteen forties with him completing the first experimental prototype of the Zero fighter plane.
During this we are told the story of the love of flight (something Jiro would never be able to do himself due to his poor eyesight, and the power of genius and creativity.
As always Miyazaki’s strengths are his wonderful lyrical style and his meticulous attention to detail. As well as showing his famous love of flight in all of it’s glory.
I love how he plays against type with his characters, the best example being Jiro’s no nonsense boss who at first glance comes off like a bitter little troll, almost an anime version of Gilbert Huph from the Incredibles, who turns out to be Jiro’s strongest supporter.
My favorite scene is the shocking portrayal of the Kanto Earthquake. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an earthquake portrayed a shockwave before with the houses going up and down as if on top of a giant water bed. The accompanying sound effect makes it seem organic almost a living thing that doesn’t care about the quickly growing chaos that it caused.
