“Princess Mononoke” Comes to Life
Author reflects on Japanese animator and “Princess Mononoke”
By Kimberly Chun

Best known for his warm and fuzzy filmic creation, My Neighbor Totoro, Japanese animation master, Hayao Miyazaki, has drawn comparisons to Walt Disney, “Manga god” Osamu Tezuka and filmmaker, Akira Kurasawa. But in the eyes of many animators and anime-manics, he is one of a kind.

French comic artist Moebius has described Miyazaki’s Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds as a masterpiece and the animator himself as a “narrative and graphic genius.” John Lasseter, director of both “Toy Story” films, recently praised Miyazaki to the New York Times: “From a pure film making standpoint, his staging, his cutting, his action scenes are some of the best ever put on film, whether animated or not.” Kurasawa himself listed My Neighbor Totoro on his list of the hundred best movies of all time.

Nov. 5th, Princess Mononoke, the 1997 film the 58-year-old Miyazaki once said was his swan song, will finally open in American theaters. Seething with action, an environmental message, Japanese folklore, and darker, more adult themes than Miyazaki’s earlier films, Princess Mononoke is Japan’s highest-grossing domestic movie at more than $150 million and is backed by some heavy hitters: distributor Miramax and voice-over talent such as Claire Danes, Gillian Anderson, Minnie Driver, Billy Crudup and Billy Bob Thornton. The time seemed right to get the inside scoop on the mild-mannered and seldom-interviewed anime superstar from Helen McCarthy, the London author of Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation, recently released by Stone Bridge Press in Berkeley.

Q: How did you discover Hayao Miyazaki’s films?

A: I was putting together a program of Japanese animation (for the UK National Science Fiction Convention in 1990), designed to introduce British science fiction fans to the anime medium.

Among the tapes we were loaned to help us get a feel for the breadth of the medium was Miyazaki’s movie My Neighbor Totoro, which had come out in Japan the previous year. Of course, it was in Japanese, and I didn’t understand any Japanese at all, but the simplicity and beauty of the story made it easy to follow, and I was captivated by its artistry and integrity.

Q: Why is Miyazaki’s work so compelling?

A: There are two main things that stand out for me: its enormous beauty, which is built on careful observation and attention to the tiniest detail of the natural world, as well as on the imagination and creativity of himself and his team, and its absolute honesty and integrity.

Q: Is the comparison with Walt Disney fair? How is he different from Western and, indeed, other Japanese animators?

A: As creative individuals, although they came from different backgrounds and worked from different viewpoints, the two are maybe not so far apart. They both have strong visions of their works and a passionate determination to build what they believed in.

But there are differences in their approach to the commercial side of entertainment. Miyazaki has built a studio which is unique in the Japanese animation industry, with stable employment, no lay-offs, career plans and training for the staff; yet he’s kept it on a small scale and done very little work for the mass market.(For instance, the studio has only done one title for television.) And he has no interest whatsoever in merchandising -- he’d actually prefer his films not to go to video, he is so devoted to the impact of the big screen.

His main difference from other animators in the West and Japan, as far as I can see, is his refusal to say “that’s good enough.” As far as he’s concerned, it has to be right, exactly as he sees it, or it’s not finished.

Q: How does Miyazaki fare against other Japanese filmmakers like Kurosawa? Are there any similarities in themes or philosophies?

A: They can both handle epic stories with important themes, yet always give them a human scale, an individual point of reference that the audience can relate to and through which they can comprehend the sweep of events. And they are both immensely concerned with the detail of life, with accurate observation and creating a world that works on every level, so that the audience accepts its reality at once.

Miyazaki is one of the very, very few senior people in the commercial animation industry (East or West) who personally checks and corrects key animation frames. Most directors leave that to the senior key animators, or the animation director, but Miyazaki goes through everything himself.

Q: Are there themes that run throughout all his films?

A: Perhaps the most attractive theme for modern audiences is the capability of women and girls to function as heroes without being stereotyped the other way. Miyazaki has always given strong roles to women, both emotionally and in terms of action and adventure, yet his female characters are given room to be as “feminine’’ as they want to be.

Q: How does the new film, Princess Mononoke differ from past work?

A: It’s much darker in tone overall, although it builds on elements that have been present in all his works.

I think it’s a profoundly responsible film, in that it tells us that our every action has an impact, and that nature and the world we live in don’t make any allowances for good intentions.

[ Miyazaki is a Japanese filmmaker, so obviously he works from his own cultural perspective; but he’s also a very well-educated man. He went to one of Japan’s top universities and majored in politics and economics. His friends include novelists, philosophers, environmentalists and historians. He reads very widely in languages other than his own. Not every Western filmmaker has such a broad background. Many of his films are specifically not set in Japan -- Porco Rosso takes place in the Adriatic in the 1920’s, Castle of Cagliostro is set in a small European city-state in the 1960’s or thereabouts. His movies are very accessible to Western audiences. The main barrier, for us in the West, is that such a range of movies, including films with very serious grown-up themes, can be made as animation. ]

Q: Were there any fears that “Mononoke” wouldn’t translate to Western audiences? Are there aspects of his work that are considered “essentially Japanese?”

A: It amazes me when quite intelligent critics and writers say “Oh, this is very Japanese,” as if Japan was another planet. I don’t see many writers asking whether George Lucas’ films will translate to Asian audiences, or if Schindler’s List will play in India.

Q: Can you discuss some of the attempts to censor or alter Miyazaki’s work for Western audiences?

A: When his 1984 movie Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds was released in the cinema and on video in the U.S. in 1986, it was retitled Warriors of the Wind and very heavily cut, removing one of the most important plot strands altogether and making major changes to dialogue. Miyazaki and his studio colleagues were absolutely horrified by this, and it was years before they would agree to any further Western releases for their work. Now, when their films are released overseas, they insist on full approval -- no changes are made to any aspect of the movie without their final approval.