The next Ghibli movie: When Marnie Was There (思い出のマーニー)

[greg]

Hmm.... thanks for sharing that article. You know, Miyazaki did a great job with transforming kids' books or young adult novels to the big screen, however he also is most famous for his original works (Nausicaa, Laputa, Totoro, Mononoke, Sen to Chihiro, etc). Studio Ghibli obviously feels the need to just keep selecting books to make film adaptations of, and they don't seem comfortable in taking chances. We loved Miyazaki movies because of his imagination, not because he adapted Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle.

[llj]

Honestly though, the only Ghibli movies that Japanese audiences really flock to are Miyazakis. Not Yonebayashi, not Goro Miyazaki, not even Takahata (which is funny since his box office used to be neck and neck with Miyazaki during the late 80s and early 90s). Somewhere down the line Miyazaki became bigger than the studio, kind of like a James Cameron figure. Audiences are sheep, and Japan seems no different than the US in that respect. They'll only go for the big names, and Hayao Miyazaki is the most famous living animator in the world.

That said, if Ghibli folds, I can't imagine all the animation talent they have won't band together and make their own independent studio. But they need a singular voice to rally around and right now they don't seem to have any. Goro seems like he has something different to say, but I don't know if anyone at the studio really respects him enough, because he didn't work his way up as an animator. One of the problems with the Ghibli "house style" was that it kind of stifled individuality, and Miyazaki tended to be a dictator who demanded his staff fall into line. Even the films he didn't direct tended to have lots of input by him. Those Ghibli animators who had a more independent streak all left the studio, and you know, they let a lot of pretty good talent go over the years.

The biggest problem both in Japan and the U.S. is everyone is asking for "the next Miyazaki." It's a no-win situation. Instead of letting animators develop into something unique, audiences simply ignore individuality and demand something familiar. But it can't just be a watered down version, it HAS to be Miyazaki himself. So everyone loses.

[greg]

Interesting input. I really haven't paid much attention, but it makes sense. Establishing an environment of followers and not leaders is one way to really paint the studio into a corner. That's not a way to foster creativity.

I may go see this movie tomorrow, if the day goes as planned. I'll post impressions.

[llj]

Yeah. If you've seen any of the documentaries and behind the scenes stuff when it comes to Ghibli, you always see footage of Miyazaki yelling at his staff for not doing something "right" and they just take the criticism silently. And when you hear stories of Miyazaki drawing entire scenes of a movie by himself, or personally drawing 500 frames in one of his movies, you have to think he's just a real control freak. Who in Ghibli is gonna argue against World Famous Hayao Miyazaki anyway?

[usamimi]

Yeah. If you've seen any of the documentaries and behind the scenes stuff when it comes to Ghibli, you always see footage of Miyazaki yelling at his staff for not doing something "right" and they just take the criticism silently. And when you hear stories of Miyazaki drawing entire scenes of a movie by himself, or personally drawing 500 frames in one of his movies, you have to think he's just a real control freak. Who in Ghibli is gonna argue against World Famous Hayao Miyazaki anyway?

Yeah, as great as an artist, writer, and director he is...he definitely seems like he needs complete control of something ALL the time for him to be happy.

I still haven't seen Wind Rises yet, either, but I've heard some pretty good things about Marine already from my friends in Japan who've seen it. It seems like much more of a movie I'd enjoy over Wind Rises, to be honest.

[ServantOfPriss]

I may go see this movie tomorrow, if the day goes as planned. I'll post impressions.

Interested as usual, greg. Looking forward to it.

Yeah. If you've seen any of the documentaries and behind the scenes stuff when it comes to Ghibli, you always see footage of Miyazaki yelling at his staff for not doing something "right" and they just take the criticism silently. And when you hear stories of Miyazaki drawing entire scenes of a movie by himself, or personally drawing 500 frames in one of his movies, you have to think he's just a real control freak. Who in Ghibli is gonna argue against World Famous Hayao Miyazaki anyway?

Reminds me of the Oshii interview about Ghibli. It gives some good insight on an equally good director (IMO). It's pretty interesting.

http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/interv ... on_mt.html

Yeah, as great as an artist, writer, and director he is...he definitely seems like he needs complete control of something ALL the time for him to be happy.

I still haven't seen Wind Rises yet, either, but I've heard some pretty good things about Marine already from my friends in Japan who've seen it. It seems like much more of a movie I'd enjoy over Wind Rises, to be honest.

To be honest, though, I think this is why his movies are great: he doesn't get complacient and is never comfortable with his work until it is as good as it is. Now, of course, it's not always the case that control freaks automatically make the best products (Jorge Luca), but in this case, it is.

[greg]

I still haven't seen Wind Rises yet, either, but I've heard some pretty good things about Marine already from my friends in Japan who've seen it. It seems like much more of a movie I'd enjoy over Wind Rises, to be honest.

I guarantee that you all will love this movie. I have no idea why it isn't selling well. There were only about 6 other people in the theater when we saw this movie this afternoon. It's sad. I don't know if the rest of Japan is desiring Ponyo 3 by now or something, because The Wind Rises deserved better attention than it got.

So you may have already read the premise of this movie. Anna is a girl who lives in Sapporo. She suffers from severe melancholy and it is affecting her health. She loathes herself. And as Robyn Hitchcock once sang, when you cannot love yourself, how can you expect to love others? Anna is adopted, and has had deep emotional issues. Her foster mother sends her off to stay with some relatives in the countryside, hoping that some fresh air will help her. There she meets Anna, who befriends her and helps her to smile.

Fantasy and reality seamlessly blend together in this movie, and the story is beautiful. Is Marnie a ghost? An imaginary friend? Or is Anna timeslipping like an episode of Quantum Leap? In the end, Anna learns to smile, but that's not a real spoiler. She learns to love and accept being loved. But the journey she takes to get there is the real secret to the movie. The ending had me in tears, and all I wanted to do was hug my daughter.

I really, really loved this movie. Unlike Wind Rises, I could understand about 95% of the movie without subtitles.

[llj]

The Wind Rises really reminds me of The Wings of Honneamise, to be honest. In terms of themes, scope, subject matter, even down to the protagonist and function of the love interest. They would make an interesting--if long--double bill.

[ServantOfPriss]

Well...it happened.

http://mastertoons.com/803-ghibli

: (

[greg]

Well...it happened.

http://mastertoons.com/803-ghibli

: (

Wow, what a crappy website that is. I had to load it up in Opera because it refused to let me watch it with adblocker enabled so that they could annoy me with popup advertising. It has a link to this Japanese site that has screen caps with captions enabled. The exact words he used was 小休止 (shoukyuushi or "short break." So maybe not permanently kaput, but who knows?

The thing is, it seems that Japan has come to expect nothing but stuff like Totoro and Ponyo to take tiny kids to. We foreign fans certainly haven't forgotten stuff like Nausicaa, Mononoke Hime, or Omoide no Poroporo, but it seems that people here have. If it isn't super cute, then forget it. That's all that Disney is capable of doing, and they can't even match what the Pixar stuff can do on their own. There is nothing about Frozen that looks appealing to me at all. I don't want Ghibli to play it safe. This new movie is a beautiful work of art. It's not a "feel good" movie to take tiny babies to. It's a beautifully sad and sentimental movie of the heart, and a development of character. Ponyo was just something Miyazaki came up with real quick to make something real cute as a moneymaker for the studio, right? It's cute and ingenious, but it's stuff like Omoide Poroporo, I Can Hear the Sea, and Grave of the Fireflies that really put Disney to shame because they would never dare use animation to tell such stories. I don't want Ghibli to be Disney-fied!