Visual Arts and Film Studies - Essay Example

Visual arts and film studies-Hayao Miyazaki Born January 5th, 1941 Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director, animator, producer and screenwriter of indomitable repute, the second of four sons born to Katsuji Miyazaka: director of Miyazaki Airplane that made rudders for planes during the Second World War. Miyazaki’s schooling was often interrupted in the manner in which his family moved about. This saw him attend Utsonomiya city elementary school, Omiya elementary school and Eifuku elementary school. However Miyazaki’s interest in animation was sparked while at Toyotama high school, this was through the film The Tale of the White Serpent. It left an impeccable impression on him especially the movie’s heroine. It is here that Miyazaki realized the folly of him trying to pursue manga writing by simply aping what was the trend at the time. So he decided to chase his true feelings even if it was deemed foolish (McCarthy). Thus to manage as an animator, he first had to understand the art of human anatomy. He finally graduated from Gakushuin in 19963 with two degrees: political science and economics but also having been a member of the university’s ‘’Children’s Literature Research Club’’ roughly a comic club those days. With a career spanning well over six decades, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as an anime expert and also co-founded studio Ghibli, a film animation studio with Isao Takahata. His success in animation videos is only comparable to American animator Walt Disney, British animator Nick Park and American director Steven Spielberg. Having been raised in Tokyo, Miyazaki ventured into his animation career in 1961 with Toei Animation. While working as an in between artist for Gulliver’s travels Beyond the Moon, he pitched his own ideas that eventually became the movie’s ending. He played as chief animator in 1968 on Hols; Prince of the Sun which was directed by Isao Takahata and with whom he also continued to work with for a couple of decades. Miyazaki had an important role in Kimio Yabuki’s ‘Puss in Boots’, 1969, where he provided key concepts such as scenes. This would later be followed up by two sequels from Toei Animation during the 1970’s and also managed to become the studio’s mascot, however Miyazaki was not involved with any of the sequels. He left Toei in 1971 and joined Mushi Production, A Pro, Nippon Animation and TMS Entertainment where he co-directed 14 episodes of the first Lupin III series with Isao Takahata. This was when he was able to direct his first ever feature film Lupin; The Castle of Cagliostro, 1979. The two then began a pre-production a Pippi Longstocking series and after investing in writing extensive storyboards for it he travelled to Sweden to acquire permission from the concept owner Astrid Lindgren. Permission was denied and hence the project was not able to be completed. They decided to abandon it altogether. He decided to conceive his own and write it, Panda! Go, Panda! was the result. These were two shorts directed by Takahata. Future Boy Conan (1978) was an adaptation of the children’s novel ‘The Incredible Tide’ By Alexander Key. The series’ success was attributed to the fact the it elaborates on the characters and events of the book, Miyazaki’s later works also provide a recurrence of these characters for example a girl who is In touch with nature, a warrior woman who appears menacing but is actually far from an antagonist and finally a boy who is very determined to get the girl. There was also a feature on imaginative croft designs in the series. ‘Future Boy Conan’ therefore immensely served as a base on which Miyazaki would later refer to in his later works and therefore provide a continuity. In 1984, Nausicaa of the valley of the wind was an adventure film that successfully introduced major recurrent themes like the human impact on the environment and a concern with ecology; a fascination with aircraft and flight; feminism and other morally ambiguous characterizations with villains especially. Miyazaki’s background as the son of an aircraft specialist during the world wars provides the answer to his obsession with flight in his pieces of work, he developed this interest while still a child. This is evident from a number of his films such as ‘My neighbor Totoro’ (1988) when totoro and the cat bus soars through the air, ‘Castle in the sky’ where pirates fly ornithopters and ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ when kiki flies her broom. This became the first ever film both written and directed by Miyazaki himself, it starred the voices of Sumi Shimamoto, Yoshiko Sakakibara, Goro Naya, Yoji Matssuda and Ilemasa Kayumi. It was an adaptation from his manga series with the same title which he had began writing and illustrating two years earlier but had remained incomplete until after the film’s release. There was a discernible ‘departure’ for Miyazaki in 1992 when he directed ‘Porco Rosso’ an adventure film whose main character was an adult male. The film extensively explores the themes of selfishness and duty. It was a worthwhile ‘departure’ for Miyazaki as it enabled him explore critical themes in the anime industry hence subsequently shy away from the comical arena for a while. This was a contribution to the fact that Japanese anime specialists came to appear more mature than some of their American contemporaries. 1995 saw Miyazaki begin work on ‘Princess Mononoke’ another serious series that explored the themes political and ecological areas. The story is about the struggle of animal spirits inhabiting the forest and the humans exploiting the forest for industry. Released in 1997, it served as both financial and critical breakthrough. It was after ‘Princess Mononoke’ that Miyazaki went into partial retirement but this was not to be as his biggest ever commercial success was yet to come. He spent time with the daughters of a friend during this retirement period. It was one of these friends that would become his inspiration for the biggest break yet; Spirited Away. Starring Rumi Hairagi, Mari Natsuki and Miyu Irino, Spirited Away is the story of a girl cast away in to a bizarre spirit world and forced to survive. This is after her parents are turned into pigs by the sorceress who owns this little yet immensely bizarre life. It was released in july 2001 and grossed approximately $300 million at the box office. The film was critically acclaimed and termed one of the best films of the decade. It won a Japan Academy Prize, a Golden Bear Award at the 2002 Berlin Film Festival and to top it up, an Academy Award for Best Animated feature. Disney itself stepped up to try and produce a smash of Spirited Away, throwing its weight behind it. It contains some of the richest animations he has ever committed to the screen, and just like My Neighbour Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery service successfully combine childlike sentiments but with a grown up edge. The may be about children but they still resonate well with viewers across all ages. Miyazaki retires with a final work ‘The Wind Rises’, a fictionalized account of the life of Jiro Horikoshi, an engineer who designed fighter planes(aircraft again) used by the Japanese at pearl harbor. The sympathetic portrayal of Horikoshi however generated some degree of minor controversy from the conservative newspapers. This is despite the fact that Miyazaki sees the engineer as an artist whose creation was exploited for militaristic gains rather than a cynical architect of doom. This film has however received positive reviews from all over the world. Just like his previous films, Miyazaki exploits the themes of war, nature and the transition to adulthood, but most notable in the Wind Rises is the absence of Miyazaki’s traditional villains as a majority of his works revolves around the struggle of thoughtful, independent young girls against the unsympathetic forces of time and also the accompanying changes of adolescence. Miyazaki has always claimed to retire at some point during his career and even went on temporary retirement sometime back. However on September 6th 2013, he assured his fans that he was quite ‘for real’ this time. With claims that he needs to pave way for the present day group of young animators to feed the viewers with something new, the curtains come down on a career spanning over 50 years. Work Cited McCarthy, Helen. Hayao Miyazaki: master of Japanese animation : films, themes, artistry. Berkeley, Calif.: Stone Bridge Press, 1999. Print Cavallaro, Dani. The anime? art of Hayao Miyazaki. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co., 2006. Print Odell, Colin, and Michelle LeBlanc. Studio Ghibli the Films of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata.. Harpenden: Oldcastle Books, 2009. Print. Read More