From LISTSERV@BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU Sun Jan 1 23:01:54 1995 Return-Path: Received: from mx5.u.washington.edu by redms.cac.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.32 ) id AA04107; Sun, 1 Jan 95 23:01:53 -0800 Received: from mx2.cac.washington.edu by mx5.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.31 ) id AA22455; Sun, 1 Jan 95 23:01:50 -0800 Received: from brownvm.brown.edu by mx2.cac.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.31 ) id AA13759; Sun, 1 Jan 95 23:01:34 -0800 Message-Id: <9501020701.AA13759@mx2.cac.washington.edu> Received: from BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU by BROWNVM.brown.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 2762; Mon, 02 Jan 95 02:00:44 EST Received: from BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@BROWNVM) by BROWNVM.BROWN.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 3088; Mon, 2 Jan 1995 02:00:40 -0500 Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 02:00:37 -0500 From: BITNET list server at BROWNVM (1.8a) Subject: File: "TAKAHATA ARTICLES" To: "Michael S. Johnson" Status: O TAKAHATA ARTICLES Subject: 1.) LITTLE NORSE PRINCE synopsis/review (THE ROSE, 11/90) L#00164 2.) GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES review (Steven Feldman, May 1992) L#00320 3.) GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES review (Rafael Brown, June 24, 1992) L#00424 4.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (ANIMAGE, 1/91; THE ROSE, 1/91) L#00489 5.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (THE JAPAN TIMES, August 7, 1991) L#00672 6.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (Bryan Wilkinson, August 18, 1992) L#00890 7.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (John W. Yung, April 14, 1992) L#00973 8.) GOSHU THE CELLIST mini-synopsis (Walter M. Amos, 8/3/93) L#01013 9.) UMI GA KIKOERU mini-synopsis (Alan Takahashi, 7/18/93) L#01085 10.) COLLISION! AKIRA KUROSAWA VS. HAYAO MIYAZAKI (9/13/93) L#01280 11.) Jo Hisaishi Discographies (Atsushi Fukumoto, 6/2/94) L#01487 12.) Isao Takahata Interview (AnimeLand #6, July/August 1992) L#01812 13.) HEISEI TANUKI GASSEN PONPOKO synopsis (B. Lucido, 7/17/94) ========================================================================= Subject: 1.) LITTLE NORSE PRINCE synopsis/review (THE ROSE, 11/90) The following review is a re-printing of an article which appeared in the November 1990 issue (Vol. 4, #24) of Anime Hasshin's newsletter, THE ROSE (on pages 6 & 7, to be exact). Please retain this header. REVIEW LITTLE NORSE PRINCE by Lester Swint The Japanese version of this film was released in Japan in July of 1968 as PRINCE OF THE SUN: THE GREAT ADVENTURES OF HORUS. The English language version, LITTLE NORSE PRINCE, should be of interest to anime fans since Hayao Miyazaki, the creator of Nausicaa, worked on it as a key animator. The film is also a very good fantasy film. The story of Little Norse Prince has its basis in the folklore of old northern Europe. Its hero is Hols, a brave young son of a fisherman. How brave is he? At the very beginning of the movie, Hols is in the midst of a battle with a large pack of wolves, armed with only an axe! The odds seem impossible and they are; but Hols wields his weapon expertly to fend off the hungry wolves. Finally, he is saved in the nick of time by Rockoor, a giant made of stone and earth, awakened from a seemingly centuries-old sleep by the sound of battle. Hols befriends the giant by removing a large sword wedged deep in his "shoulder boulder." Rockoor calls it the "sword of the sun" and predicts that when Hols needs it, the sword will aid him when he faces the evil of Grunwald the Frost King. The action and violence in this opening sequence will immediately let any viewer know this cartoon is not your average everyday G-rated animated kiddie film. Hols' father dies unexpectedly, but before he leaves his son, he tells him of the northern land of their birth and how their village was destroyed by the sinister sorcery of the Frost King when Hols was just an infant. He and Hols were the only known survivors of the tragedy, and now he implores him to return to the village where he was born, to learn the fate of the other villages. So, armed with his trusty axe, his newly found sword and accompanied by his pet bear (?), Coro, Hols begins his trek to the north to find truth and his destiny. In his travels, Hols has his first and almost last confrontation with Grunwald. But despite the Frost King's overconfidence, our hero is a hard man to kill, even after falling off a cliff! He is found alive and cared for in a fishing village not unlike the one his father told him of on his deathbed. And like the village where he was born, this one is also plagued by the dark presence of the Frost King. A giant pike, a monstrous sea beast of Grunwald's, is consuming all the fish in the area, threatening the livelihood of the entire settlement. The fishermen are frightened of the creature, but Hols is not one to give in to fear. Alone, he goes in search of the monster. After a fierce, frantic combat in the water and out, Hols defeats the beast. Hols is cheered as the hero he is and accepted by everyone in the village. Everyone except the village chief and his manipulative deputy, Drego. They don't appreciate the newcomer Hols' sudden popularity with the people they lead and grow concerned that their authority might be in jeopardy. But their power is not being threatened by Hols. Grunwald's desire is nothing less than to exterminate all the people in the village. That Hols is still alive and living in the village is an added incentive for the Frost King to destroy it. And with the unknowing help of Hols himself, the evil Grunwald brings in another player into the story with the introduction of Hilda, a young girl Hols finds alone in a misty, abandoned village. Gentle and mysterious, Hilda, with her beautiful (and very mature!) singing voice, is at first a welcome addition to this troubled town, but as time passes, her presence adds to the dark forces that threaten its existence. Still, the people of this fishing village have the same bravery that Hols has and together with the young fisherman's son stand strong against the mystic power of the Frost King to defend their home. Hols, the hero of this tale, is portrayed as a brave, strong-willed young boy. He is not a posing, self-righteous figure, but he has courage and an obvious belief in himself. When Hols first meets the Frost King, he is at a very precarious disadvantage: Grunwald has Hols' life in his hands, but the boy does not back down for an instant. It nearly costs him his life, but Hols would not give up his principles for the murderous Frost King. And he survives, his morals intact, to eventually defeat the mighty Grunwald. Hols doesn't really see himself as a hero, but he is one nonetheless. LITTLE NORSE PRINCE is a lost animated treasure that sucks you into its story from its opening scene. As has usually been the case with Japanese animation, the film's story deals honestly with the reality of life and death. It is not ignored for the sake of children watching. When a beloved character dies, there is sadness, grief and the continuance of life. The English language production staff of this movie, including director Fred Ladd, and editor Eli Haviv, should be commended for not editing this necessary element out of the story of young Hols. The animation is very good, especially in the action sequences. The film's opening, with Hols overwhelmed by a pack of wolves, draws you in with its fierce, desperate pace. And, Hols' battle with the giant pike is excitingly reminiscent of the finale of the Walt Disney classic PINOCCHIO--which featured the little puppet's brave attempt to save his father, Geppeto, from the colossal whale, Monstro--though done on a smaller scale. The character designs are notable in that only Hols, of all the movie's cast, has the distinctive look of a Japanese anime creation. Hilda, in earlier character designs I've been fortunate enough to see, looked more like a traditional anime girl than she was finally realized in the film. For those wondering if the contribution of the well-known Hayao Miyazaki are perceptible in this edited version of PRINCE OF THE SUN, I must state that this is not a Miyazaki film. But, even edited into English as she is, I felt the character of Hilda retained the touch of Miyazaki's magic. To those interested in something a little different in your anime enjoyment, I recommend the LITTLE NORSE PRINCE. [I wish to thank David Rains for his generosity. Please note also that the names of the movie's characters are spelled based on my own impression of how they sounded in the film.] END ^^^^^^^^^^ I saw the same version of this anime which Mr. Swint saw, which was a copy Mr. Rains made available to Anime Hasshin members. Said copy was made from a broadcast from the (Ted Turner-owned) cable station TBS in Atlanta, Georgia somewhere back in the early to mid 1980s. It was rather interesting in parts, and a great example of Miyazaki's early work, but it not on the level of anything I've seen of his work from CAGLIOSTRO CASTLE and onwards. Made in 1968, with a running time of 1 hr. 22min., this film sports Hayao Miyazaki as *scene designer and key animator*, but the man did not write the screenplay nor direct. As such, it is not a "Miyazaki film" per se, but it *does* provide very interesting glimpses into the animator's early style. -- Steven Feldman, Hiyao Miyazaki Discussion Group listowner , 7/22/91 ======================================================================== Subject: 2.) GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES review (Steven Feldman, May 1992) WRITTEN BY: Steven Feldman FIRST POSTED TO BY: Steven Feldman, Dec. 9, 1991 SUGGESTIONS ADDED FROM THE ADVICE OF: Atsushi Fukumoto, December 1991 FIRST PUBLISHED (IN SLIGHTLY-EDITED FORM) IN: THE ROSE, Vol.6, No.32 (April 1992), pp. 10 & 11 [Bernie/Alfred mistake cited in No.33] BERNIE/ALFRED MISTAKE CORRECTED BY: Steven Feldman, May 1992 PUBLISHED UNEDITED IN: JAPANESE ANIMATION NEWS & REVIEW Vol.2, No.3 (May 1993), pp. 5-7. [GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES SPECIAL ISSUE] GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES REVIEW I saw Isao Takahata's GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES in its entirety for the first time the other night and was surprised at both its similarities and dissimilarities with the works of Hayao Miyazaki. Unlike the anime of the latter, this film is realistic in a downbeat sense, with no overt comedic leavening, only bitter-sweet perks. The narrative, which lends itself well to character study, revolves almost exclusively around two characters, but strangely, there is no character development per se. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO has few characters and little character development, as well, so its pairing with FIREFLIES at Japanese theatrical screenings is not as surprising as many have thought. Both these films evoke key if not memorable times in the recent Japanese past. Distilled to the basics, it could be said that TOTORO embodies the Japan many Japanese wish still was, whereas FIREFLIES embodies Japan at its nadir. And yet, FIREFLIES uses its pivotal series of events as a backdrop rather than a soapbox for platitudinous didacticism, and paradoxically, gathers greater power through this inherently evasive technique. It has often been remarked how the tragedy of a handful is more heartfelt than that of a multitude, and it is no less true, here. The copy of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES I saw was in the original language and I don't know Japanese, so since there is little action and a great deal of dialogue, my judgment of this film on a narrative level is largely irrelevant. As far as I have been able to gather, the film's events take place during the end of Japan's involvement in World War II. [After writing this, I learned that the setting was Kobe in April, 1945, and that the A bombs which hit Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August were hundreds of kilometers away.] During the course of the film, the principle characters run for shelter from air raids some seven or eight times. At later points, it is revealed that both characters (a 16-year- old reserve soldier and his 6-year-old sister?) contracted radiation poisoning, which is represented by red blotches on the torso, but I didn't see where they got it from. There was no nuclear blast, no immediate reaction from eating or drinking contaminated food, nor the onslaught of sudden hair loss. [Again, after writing this, I learned that they died of malnutrition--not radiation--and that the red blotches were prickly heat.] Instead, we see how two people cope with major changes in their lives, both adverse and bitter-sweetly propitious. This brings us back to the TOTORO comparison. TOTORO's tacit subtext is that of two children dealing with the possible terminal illness of a parent, yet this is obfuscated by the fantastic and nostalgic elements. In retrospect, one is tempted to ask why the various forest spirits revealed themselves to the two little girls. Did the series of fanciful events spark from the children's openess and naivete, or from a deep-seated need? The answer is both. What separates TOTORO from FIREFLIES is its deus ex machina ending. If the Cat-bus hadn't helped Satsuki find Mei, Mei might very well have wound up like the characters in FIREFLIES: hungry and lost. If one were not very familiar with Japanese animation, it would be easy to mistake GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES for a Miyazaki film. The characters have similarly-constructed faces and nearly all the imagery has the same smooth-edged look that is so rare in anime. That Miyazaki and Takahata have worked together on and off for over 25 years is no doubt a contributing factor, but both their styles are so dissimilar to the generic anime style (if there is such a thing), that one tends to think more so of 1940's animation in their context (KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE being the most obvious example). Unlike Miyazaki, Takahata's key animation is, upon closer examination, not as smooth as it looks and certainly not as dynamically arranged as that of the former. Nearly every scene in FIREFLIES is symmetrical, which gives the film a flat, even tone. I have seen only one other Takahata film, PRINCE OF THE SUN-- which was designed and key animated by Miyazaki--so I really have no idea whether this stiffness of scene organization is on purpose, or else an inherent limitation of the director's style, but I think it is a little of both. Watching GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, I got the feeling that Takahata might be trying to evoke the same sort of domestic mundanity for which the live-action director Yasujiro Ozu was reknowned: the scenery arrangements were static, the dialogue plain, and the characters' reactions thoroughly unremarkable--almost as if the director was secretly filming a real-life situation from a hidden vantage point. Indeed, the frequent temporal shifts in this anime add to this sense of impromptu, almost ethnographic filmmaking. That said, I must add that it is a remarkable achievement to have imbued an animated film with a verisimilitude so close to reality. By this, I do not mean to give hyperbolic lip service as some have done with THE SIMPSONS--for FIREFLIES is no mere allegory and there is nothing humorous about it--but to say that, with FIREFLIES, one often becomes unaware that one is not watching a live-action movie, but a "cartoon." The same cannot be said for a Miyazaki film, and this is an important point. Miyazaki is a great storyteller, but the enjoyability of a story is in no way affected by its inherent believability or realism. Contextual believability is often more important in tale-spinning, so a modest anime like LOCKE THE SUPERMAN is in many ways more successful and enjoyable than an opulent bonanza like AKIRA. More than a few fledgling anime fans have wondered why anyone could possibly like something like TONARI NO TOTORO (MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO) or KIMAGURE ORANGE ROAD more than ST. SEIYA, MEGAZONE 23 PART TWO, or BUBBLEGUM CRISIS, but this has more to do with youthful hormones than careful examination. On the other hand, THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE is internally consistent and largely true-to-life yet lacks not only the verve of a Miyazaki film, but the weight of GRAVE OF THE FIRELFLIES. Why is is this so? I'm not certain, and yet, perhaps ARION and TIME STRANGER offer clues. ARION takes many of the gods of the Greek pantheon and puts them through changes Homer never intended, and yet, in of itself, this tale is breathtaking and exceptionally well balanced. TIME STRANGER is a time travel story that takes extreme liberties with historical motivations and yet, given the belief suspension required of the paradox of time travel, it acquits itself unusually well. Both these anime have verve, but neither are as weighty as GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. This brings us back to the idea of empathy with a few being more palpable than identification with a large statistic. ARION deals with an entire religion, virtually half its gods, and all its followers; TIME STRANGER concerns the eradication of an entire future civilization; HONNEAMISE deals with two warring nations and a race to the moon; and FIREFLIES, with ground-level subsistence during wartime. In ascending order, then, these anime deal with struggle on first a universal, then a personal order. Allegorical subtexts notwithstanding, personal travails make for better drama. Another curious comparison to GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES and MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO would be to GUNDAM 0080: WAR IN THE POCKET. In this series- within-a-series, the viewer comes to identify with a small child named Alfred who unwittingly becomes a spy in service of the enemy. To him, soldiers are glamorous icons like rock stars or movie stars, and so acceptance--however superficial--by one of these provides a rapture and sense of belonging which is frightening in its ignorance. Eventually, this star-struck boy learns the truth and turns on his erstwhile hero, even as the latter redeems himself poignantly with a selfless act. On the one hand, this series is similar to THE WINGS OF HONNEAMISE in that one is always aware that the key character is only a cog in a larger design, yet on the other hand, Alfred is as emotionally starved as Mei is for her mother or the little girl in FIREFLIES is for her father and fading fatherland, because his father and school friends pay no attention to him. Is GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, then, ultimately about the tribulations of isolated children? I think not. No, despite its pervading sense of reality, this film functions as a proverb, a concrete illustration of hope and faith in the face of adversity. That its key characters die does not diminish the object lesson, nor make martyrs of them. They were--or symbolize--two of many who died in a war that destroyed their bodies but not their spirits. And these spirits are not fighting spirits, but the spirits that make men, women and children human. END Steven Feldman ^ ^ Member of Anime Hasshin (POB ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ________ ^ ^ 80 Forest St. ^ ^ 391036; Cambridge, MA 02139- ^ ^ ^ __--- ---_ Providence, RI ^ ^ 1036), Hokubei Anime-kai (POB ^ ^ - _ \ 02906-2630 USA ^ ^ 279; Botsford, CT 06404), and ^ ^ | /_/ \ | (401) 521-2523 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ College Hill Anime. ^ ^_- __/_// __ |/ BITNET: ar402004@brownvm ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ - (|/ '()` <()/ ^ INTERNET: ar402004@brownvm.brown.edu ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ \_ O .> | ^ HAYAO MIYAZAKI DISCUSSION GROUP: nausicaa@brownvm ^ /--_/ -__ -- / ^ <*> Address for subscribing: listserv@brownvm <*> ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ --- ^ ^ ======================================================================== Subject: 3.) GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES review (Rafael Brown, June 24, 1992) WRITTEN BY: Rafael Brown POSTED TO: Brownvm's local-only "Bruno rec.movies" on June 24, 1992 EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, June 22, 1993 From: "Bruno" Subject: movie review: Grave of the Fireflies (ST101900) X-Topic: Entry #662 of REC.MOVIES Posted on 24 Jun 1992 at 15:12:14 by Rafael Brown (107018) This list has been relatively quiet lately so I thought I'd spice things up with a rather offbeat review. I recently saw a movie at a friend's house that I was blown away by. The movie was Grave of the Fireflies by Isao Takahata. The movie is a subtitled, letterboxed, Japanese animation film. Before anyone throws up their hands in disgust thinking "oh no, another one of those Japanese sci-fi robot movies, what a waste", let me say that this is one of the most serious, realistic, inspired movies I have seen in a while. Then there is the reasoning, if it is so realistic why not use live actors? The reason is because animation is a collection of drawings and drawings are art. They can convey a wide range of concepts in a breathtakingly beautiful style. Animation can convey mood and imagery in a way that actors can't come close to. I'm not saying that movies with actors are bad; they are just a very different style. Both types of movies stand very well on their own. Grave of the Fireflies portrays as much depth and sincerity as, say, Thelma and Louise or Boyz 'n The Hood. But enough justification, movies as good as Grave of the Fireflies don't need to be defended, they're beyond that. The following review gives a general synopsis of Grave of the Fireflies as well as some of my thoughts on it. Grave of the Firelies (directed by Isao Takahata): I approached this movie with some trepidation. I had been warned that the movie was extremely depressing. The friend who it belonged to told me how the subtitling job had slowed down because the subtitlers had a hard time watching it over and over again. Be warned this movie is no Akira. There is NO action whatsoever. Despite this I would rate it as one of my all time favorite movies. The action revolves around a brother and his little sister (I'd estimate their ages at around 11 and 4). The date is late 1945 just before Japan surrendered. These two children are brutally cut loose from the family and home environment that they are familiar with and thrust out into a chaotic world to survive on their own. I guess you could call it a war movie in that it looks at how civilians and particularly children live during times of war. While it is hard to classify Fireflies it is more a tragedy than anything else. We follow the lives of the two children as they try to live and find a home in the war torn Japanese countryside. They are slowly dying of starvation and the brother's efforts to provide for his sister are pathetic in their futility and realistic portrayal. The plot is complex and realistic in a way a Disney movie could never aspire to given their usual saccharine-like quality. Make no mistake, though this movie is animated, it is NOT for kids. I don't think it's really appropriate for anyone under twelve. Beyond this, the animation is first rate with scenes that old Walt himself would shake his head in wonderment at. Not only is the film visually smooth, it also takes the animation to new levels of artistic creativity (a trait Takahata is rapidly becoming known for). The character designs are some of the most realistic I have yet seen in any animation on either side of the Pacific. The scenery while not as strikingly beautiful as that of a contemporary of Takahata's, Hayao Miyazaki, is still detailed and very realistic. A good example is a scene early on in the movie. The city that the two main characters live in is being firebombed and fire is slowly spreading throughout various building. As the children wend their way through the street they see a fire burning in front of them. Instead of portraying fire with the opaque red and yellow usually seen in a cartoon or Disney movie, the fire is a shockingly TRANSLUCENT yellow. The smoke that rises from it is also slightly translucent allowing us to see part of the background behind the flames and smoke. This is how Takahata brings his movies closer to reality. This is not to say that the whole movie mimics reality and does nothing else. There is another scene that exemplifies Takahata's originality in mixing the styles of animation used to set different moods. After learning that they will have to leave the city and seek help from far away relatives, the brother tells his sister that they must leave. The little girl is practically in shock from all of the changes that have happened to her and starts crying. In an attempt to cheer her up, the brother pulls himself up onto a acrobatic bar of some sort in the playground and calls to her to watch him. As he turn repeatedly turns head over heels on the bar she cries with her back to him oblivious to anything but her confusion and pain. The background meanwhile is all in pastel tans and off-whites. Slowly, the scene shifts as it changes angle and moves upward and back until we are looking at the two as if from a 3- story building. Watching them from a distance, the emptiness and loneliness of the scene strikes the viewer and it is hard not to feel for the two children. I would write more but I don't want to give away too much of the movie. The College Hill Anime Club will be showing this movie next semester and if any movie is seen this is the one. (An interesting note is that because of the singularity of this movie the officers haven't yet figured out how to place it; it'll probably be at the end of the semester just to give it some distance from everything else.) Anyone with further questions can write to: Rafael Brown st101900@brownvm.brown.edu ======================================================================== Subject: 4.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (ANIMAGE, 1/91; THE ROSE, 1/91) The following is reprinted from page 8 of the January 1991 (Vol. 5, #25) issue of THE ROSE, the bi-monthly fanzine of the Anime Hasshin anime club: < * - * > OMOIDE POROPORO From Animage, January 1991 translated by Kevin Leahy Presenting in the summer of 1991 Studio Jiburi's newest production! Hayao Miyazaki - producer, Isao Takahata - director. *Omoide Poroporo* (literally, "Remembering in Drops", unofficially titled in English "Only Yesterday"). A 27-year-old office lady sets out on a journey, and her companion is a remembrance of when she was 10 years old. Roughly two years after the release of *Majo no Takyubin* (*Witch's Delivery Service*), Studio Jiburi's newest production - Omoide Poroporo - is set to be released to the public. In 1987 this production was published serially in "Shukan Myojo" (Monthly Morning Star) as a manga of the same name. The original creator, Hotaru Okamoto, wrote of her experiences as a young lady, and Yuko Tone drew the manga. The stage was Showa 41 (1966), the year the Beatles came to Japan, and when weaved [sic] with the home and school experiences of the heroine - elementary school 5th grader Taeko Okajima - and described from the view- point of a 10-year old girl, the sympathy of a lot of readers is gained. Isao Takahata is supervisor for the script writing. Since Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Firefly), three years have been spent supervising production. In the anime, unlike the original work, Taeko appears grown to the age of 27 years and the reminiscences that form the original work are told paralleling Taeko's trip of self-discovery in modern times. Showa 41 (1966) - Taeko Okajima, 10 years old, elementary school 5th grader. The things I like: hamburgers, bananas, loose sushi, and the dandy from *Hyokkori Hyotan Island*. The things I hate: horse radish, onions, fish salad, and math. I recall... left-over school lunches, couldn't compute fractions, sour pineapple, scolded by Dad... I recall... triumphant composition, the age of enlightenment, the school literary club, the first time I was depressed about boys... The youngest of the three sisters, Taeko badly takes advantage of her situation and soon she is always being silenced by her older sisters. Her strong suit is Japanese, and her weak point is math. In class, it can't be said that she's overly conspicuous. Already the idols they like fill the conversations of the girls of the present class, and their fav- orite star is *Hyokkori Hyotan Island*'s dandy, they say, but it might be a little bit of a secret... In short, this story's heroine, Taeko Okajima, is an ordinary girl like those anywhere else. The background era of Showa 41 (1966) and other things aside, the episodes of this production are the general experiences of childhood, crossing generations and the world, and something with which everyone can sympathize. If we can set our adult eyes back on them just a little, when we were children these were urgent matters. These events, for anyone who may not recall their time, are their own memories, too. < * - * > Steven Feldman ======================================================================== Subject: 5.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (THE JAPAN TIMES, August 7, 1991) From THE JAPAN TIMES, August 7, 1991: [This English-language newspaper, published in Japan, is intended mainly for foreigners living in Japan.] "Animation for grownups" By MARK SCHILLING Animation is a Japanese passion; kids here can choose from more than 30 half-hour cartoons a week, and two of those shows, "Sazaesan" and "Chibi Maruko-chan" dominated the ratings race until recently. (After enjoying a huge boom last year, the latter program has begun to fade.) To an American, at least, their popularity may seem puzzling. Compared with Road Runner, Roger Rabbit, or even Bart Simpson, they look rather bland, tame, prosaic. Where's the action, the antics, the over-the-top surrealism? Where are the kicks for kids? One answer is that these shows aren't only for children. "Chibi Maruko-chan" is designed as a trip down memory lane for twenty-something women. Though ostensibly set in a timeless present, "Sazaesan" is actually about the Japan of the High Growth era. Its intended audience is the whole family, from the grandmothers who are Sazaesan's real contemporaries to the tots who will watch virtually anything that moves. Producer Hayao Miyazaki and director Isao Takahata were no doubt encouraged by the popularity of these shows when they decided to make "Omoide Poro-poro," based on the comic by Yuko Tone and Kei Okamoto. The story of an OL's solitary journey to the countryside and her past, it also reaches out to a wider audience than that for typical animated features. Like "Chibi Maruko-chan," it focuses on the misadventures of a young girl and caters to Yuppie nostalgia for childhood. "Omoide Poro-poro," however, looks back farther, to 1966, when hemlines first rose to fantastic heights, the Beatles played the Budokan, and the heroine entered the fifth grade. It also ventures farther in the direction of psychological and visual realism, while avoiding the self-consciously cute or cartoony. Taeko, the heroine, is a bit bored with her job, and uncertain about her future. Now 27, she senses that she is at a turning point, but doesn't know which direction to take. Marriage? Perhaps, but she has no particular candidate in mind. Without knowing why, she begins to remember her tenth year---and find a self she had forgotten. She strikes us, in other words, as a complex, three-dimensional woman, not a manga character. Also, though the countryside she visits is that of a city-bred imagination, all lush green loveliness and friendly salt-of-the-earth farmers, its trees, rocks and people are drawn with painstaking, occasionally striking, attention to detail. This meticulousness extends even to the narrative. When Taeko arrives in Yamagata Prefecture after a all-night train journey and begins to help her in-laws with their work of making lipstick coloring from safflowers, the film describes the process with the exhaustiveness of an NHK documentary. Given the filmmakers' obsession with the actual, it may seem strange that they use animation at all. Why not film real rocks, trees and people, and save the labor of drawing them? The answer, I think, is that Miyazaki and Takahata, a veteran team who also collaborated in "Majo no Takkyubin (The Witch's Delivery Service)," the top-grossing Japanese film of 1989, see animation as a valid medium for subjects once reserved for film. They want their art to take its rightful place at the grownup's table. They state their case vividly, charmingly, poignantly. The flashbacks, especially, work well; they not only have the right period look, down to Taeko's ballerina in her round plastic case, but the right feel as well. Taeko's first encounters with romance, stage fright, and the mysteries of menstruation are told with comic punch and a sharply observant eye. Her adventures as an adult, however, are less amusing, more predictable. From the moment she meets a bright-eyed young farmer, the cousin of her brother-in-law, we know how her anomie is going to end. This section of the film, set in an all-too recent 1982, is basic *torendi dorama*. The farmer even delivers speeches on the decline of the countryside and the future potential of mechanized farming. He's good and earnest and sincere---and he made me long for 1966. Like "Roger Rabbit," "Omoide Poro-poro" pushes the envelope of animated art. But it does so in a very Japanese way. It's true inspirations are not Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny, but the introspective, reflective characters who populate the classic "I" novel. Not Walt Disney and Warner Brothers, in other words, but Naoya Shiga. ------------------------------cut here---------------------------------- Subject: Re: Omoide Poroporo review in The Japan Times X-Topic: Entry #273 of LISTS.NAUSICAA Date: Wed, 21 Aug 1991 14:21:31 EDT From: Steven Feldman >REVIEW: Omoide Poroporo (from The Japan Times) >Date: Thu, 22 Aug 1991 02:05:07 +0900 >---- >from THE JAPAN TIMES, August 7, 1991 >"Animation for grownups" >By MARK SCHILLING >"Sazaesan" is actually about the Japan of the High Growth era. What is this "High Growth era"? >She strikes us, in other words, as a >complex, three-dimensional woman, not a manga character. Ouch. Am I to believe, then, that the consensus opinion is that manga characters tend to be rather two-dimensional (like mainstream American comics characters)? > Given the filmmakers' obsession with the actual, it may seem >strange that they use animation at all. Why not film real rocks, >trees and people, and save the labor of drawing them? The answer, I >think, is that Miyazaki and Takahata, a veteran team who also >collaborated in "Majo no Takkyubin (The Witch's Delivery Service)," >the top-grossing Japanese film of 1989, see animation as a valid >medium for subjects once reserved for film. They want their art to >take its rightful place at the grownup's table. BINGO! And on another note: I didn't realize that Takahata had worked with Miyazaki on KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE ("Majo no Takkyubin"). This goes far in explaining why the KIKI film had such a downbeat ending! >basic *torendi dorama*. >introspective, reflective characters who populate the classic "I" >novel. Not Walt Disney and Warner Brothers, in other words, but Naoya >Shiga. Can anyone out there explain "torendi dorama," "'I' novel," and "Naoya Shiga"? -- Steven Feldman ======================================================================= Subject: Re: Omoide Poroporo review in The Japan Times X-Topic: Entry #279 of LISTS.NAUSICAA Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1991 00:50:11 +0900 From: fukumoto@AA.CS.KEIO.AC.JP >> What is this "High Growth era"? Beginning 1955, Japanese economics grew rapidly. It was stopped in 1973 (Oil Shock). This period is called KOUDO SEICHOUKI, or High Growth era. >> >She strikes us, in other words, as a >> >complex, three-dimensional woman, not a manga character. >> >> Ouch. Am I to believe, then, that the consensus opinion is >> that manga characters tend to be rather two-dimensional (like >> mainstream American comics characters)? They are two-dimensional, aren't they? >> I didn't realize that Takahata had worked with Miyazaki on KIKI'S >> DELIVERY SERVICE ("Majo no Takkyubin"). This goes far in explaing why >> KIKI film had such a downbeat ending! Takahata did music direction. Usually in Miyazaki films it was done by Hisaishi, but when the recording of Kiki's soundtrack was done, Hisaishi was a little busy to do it. So Takahata did it with discussing with Miyazaki, and directed Hisaishi to compose music. I think he had no concern with the story. >> Can anyone out there explain "torendi dorama," "'I' novel," and >> "Naoya Shiga"? Um, I should have described it but it's a little hard for my limited English vocabulary. (And I don't watch TV these days.) TORENDII DORAMA, or "Trendy Drama", is a trend of TV drama in Japan of these days. It features some young guys and girls living in Tokyo or some large city. Well... Imagine a photo of night view of skyscrapers like New York. It's brilliant, but it never tells about city problems like crimes and homelesses. TORENDII DORAMA is just like it (in my humble opinion). SHIGA Naoya (1883-1971) is a novelist and short story writer. His stories are concerning with "self", or "ego". I'm not expert in this area, so you should consult some encyclopedia or handbook on Japanese literature. fukumoto@aa.cs.keio.ac.jp ======================================================================== Subject: 6.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (Bryan Wilkinson, August 18, 1992) Omoide Poro Poro--Remembering the Sounds of Falling Teardrops A Review by Bryan C. Wilkinson WRITTEN by Bryan C. Wilkinson on May 30, 1992. EDITED AND RE-FORMATTED by Steven Feldman (with the cooperation of Bryan C. Wilkinson) through to July 22, 1992. POSTED to the Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group on August 18, 1992 by Steven Feldman. "...there would be no point in writing an animated film that places the burden of subtle acting on the animator. This goal may never be reached; in spite of the best efforts of the staff at the Disney studio (and they have included some of the best draftsmen in the profession), very subtle acting may never be possible to attain in this medium." --Shamus Culhane, in ANIMATION FROM SCRIPT TO SCREEN "The existing order is complete before the new work arrives; for order to persist after the supervention of novelty, the WHOLE existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered; and so the relations, proportions, values of each work of art are readjusted; and this is conformity between the old and new." --T.S. Eliot in "Tradition and the Individual Talent" While many animators and animation critics are moping about how BEAUTY AND THE BEAST should have won the Oscar for Best Picture this year, an animated film named MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO changed Japanese history three years ago by winning the Japanese equivalent to the Oscar--the Kinemajumpo award--for Best Picture of 1988, while yet another took fifth place. MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, which was directed by Hayao Miyazaki, was a film that captured the nation's soul and imagination by reminding it of its lost roots through the story of two children's moving to an old house in the country and their encounters with residing spirits. The film has since taken the place of THE SEVEN SAMURAI as the nation's most popular film, according to recent polls. Interestingly, the film that took fifth place was made by the same studio--in fact by Miyazaki's mentor and partner, Isao Takahata. Its name was GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES. An anti- war film based on a real-life story about two dying children orphaned during the bombing of Tokyo, GRAVE OF THE FIRELFIES has since gained much international acclaim, including at the 1991 Annecy festival. One critic noted that it used animation to portray the child characters in a depth that just wouldn't be possible in live action. The two partners, who have had several acclaimed works between them over the past 25 years, afterward teamed up for KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (with Miyazaki directing and Takahata producing, as had been the case with NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, LAPUTA, and--of course--TOTORO). Based on a story by Eiko Kadono, this film is a coming-of-age story about a 13-year-old witch, and is meant to be a direct allegory for the increasing number of Japanese teenaged girls ousted from their homes at an early age. The 1989 film quickly became the highest-ever grossing movie in Japan, and Miyazaki himself has taken the place of Akira Kurosawa as Japan's most popular director. On a humorous note, both TOTORO and KIKI have also since become two of the films the Disney studios employ in educating new animators. Miyazaki's strong directing style and philosophy is definitely an extension of his early work under Takahata in the Sixties and most of the Seventies (although he is also influenced by western work including that of the Fleischer Brothers and the comparitively recent works of Jean "Moebius" Giraud). Takahata's early directing career involved making fantasy films with a strong verisimilitude, and research for his works required him and Miyazaki to span the globe in order to capture the feel of the stories' locations. This field-research is still practiced by Studio Ghibli (their production company) today. As the years progressed, the inner coherence of each work heightened, and eventually, Miyazaki separated to direct his own realist fantasy films. Takahata's very strong humanist values (which helped gain him his early popularity as a director of children's stories) were shared by Miyazaki, so in this way, too, Miyazaki continued Takahata's progress (his second film, NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND, gained the endorsement of the World Wildlife Fund in1984). Takahata, meanwhile, seemed to realize Miyazaki's potential in the genre, and decided to go all-out after work in full realism, which he had begun by the time Miyazaki left for his own work. The two have created from scratch a whole new animation movement that has nothing in common with the overblown commercial Japanese animation that has gained some popularity in America. One might even be tempted to call their movement "Shun'nami Anime" (New Wave animation). Thus, it is particularly interesting to see what their latest collaboration is; with Miyazaki producing Takahata's 1991 film, OMOIDE PORO PORO (Remembering the Sounds of Falling Teardrops), their usual corresponding roles have been reversed. The result is stunning--certainly, "Teardrops" is the most beautiful cel-animated feature film I have ever seen. The film succeeds on several levels: it is aesthetically beautiful and it has a tremendous depth of realism, yet at the same time it never fails to make use of the potential of the animation medium to actually heighten the experience of the film in ways not achievable in a live- action one. Partly based on a semi-autobiographical comic written by Hotaru Okamoto and drawn by Yuuko Tonai, the movie's characters have an honesty to them I've only encountered in the neo-realist and new wave cinema of Europe and China. Like GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, it is a mature and psychologically resonant work. "Teardrops" makes use of acclaimed professional actors--not just voice actors--and Takahata has taken this cue to the animators to bring forth some of the most subtle and sensitive character animation ever done in a feature film (thus humorously taking a cue from the film itself at a point where the main character is approached as a ten-year-old to act professionally after her subtly-acted reinterpretation of a part in a school play). Yet, Takahata never resorts to the pseudo-rotoscoping that is the hallmark of Disney character animation. Miyazaki had enough influence in the film's production to bring his stylish humorous wit into it, as well. Even the music--comprised of original work, Slavic tunes (enjoyed by Toshio, one of the characters in the film), and pop hits indigenous to the film's two time frames--creates a rich feeling of depth. "Hungarian Rhapsody", a classical piece reknowned for its use in some classic Warner Brothers cartoons, shows up in service of a comical scene. The film delivers many of the values of their best prior works, and yet much more effectively than ever before. Time itself is masterfully manipulated, creating startling temporal (and occasionally spatial) juxtapositions which would appear affected in a live-action film. Crucial yet lengthy "real time" scenes (not unlike the work of more experimental cel-animation film directors of Japan, such as the "dark" animation of Rintaro or Oshii Mamoru)--that would normally be all but unthinkable in an animated film--also stand out. "Teardrops" is a story that stretches back and forth between the life of Taeko Okajima as a 10-year-old girl in 1966 and her life in 1982 at 27. Her 1982 world is portrayed in the neo-realist character style of GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES, combined with the rich photo-like oil-painted backgrounds of TOTORO; the 1966 characters are rendered in a more Miyazaki-like caricature style, with bright watercolor backgrounds that fade out on the edges of the field to create an effective "limited focus" look that has no precedent in either director's films. The mlilieux depicted in the two time periods literally overlap and intermix at points, particularly when the actions of the younger Taeko have their strong repercussions on the life of the older one. It is difficult to single out any particular parts of the film for examples due to the "folkiness" of the narrative style (i.e. detailing continuous day-to-day ordinary life as opposed to overt dramaticism), not to mention that describing the visual and temporal qualities is hard to begin with. Regardless, the story details 1982 Taeko's sabbatical to the country town of Yamagata from her work as a businesswoman in Tokyo, and crosses her current experiences with that of the trials and few rewards of her fifth-grade schooldays. A condensation of most of this story would be as follows: Younger 10-year-old Taeko (1966) finds that her friends are spending their vacations visiting relatives outside Tokyo. Her own family has no kin outside the area so she ends up taking a trip to a public bath instead. Older 27-year-old (1982) Taeko is making plans on a sabbatical to her older sister's in-law's farm. Older Taeko passes through fruit stands--and younger Taeko's family encounters their first pineapple at a time when foreign fruits are scarce and expensive, including their favorite, the banana. They are baffled as to how it is prepared for eating. Older Taeko boards her train, and younger Taeko has her first crush. Older Taeko wonders about why her 1966 life seems so significant, and younger Taeko has an unusual first encounter with menstruation. Older Taeko is picked up by a distant cousin (her sister's husband's cousin's cousin), Toshio. They drive to the farm, she learns of his own change from a business life to the farm life--a job he enjoys very much. Having never met someone who enjoys their work so much before, this leaves a strong impression on Taeko. She meets her sister's in-laws and helps in the traditional harvesting of benibana flowers. Her sister's husband's niece Naoko stubbornly tries to convince her mother to buy her fashionable sports shoes, and 1966 Taeko gets into a dispute with her family over a handbag. 1982 Taeko has a lunch date with Toshio, where she relates her trouble doing math in school with her social life. 1966 Taeko has math trouble and is forced into being tutored by her sister. 1982 Taeko takes a break with Toshio and Naoko to watch a sunset, and sees crows flying by. It reminds her of a scene in a school play. Younger Taeko performs in the play and gains a chance to act professionally, only to be denied it by her father. 1982 Taeko is approached with the prospect of an arranged marriage to Toshio, and confronts her fear of being trapped into an unwanted life. She transforms into 1966 Taeko and relives one of her deepest regrets. 1982 Taeko confronts Toshio with her 1966 dilemma... This hints at the complex temporal balancing act that continues through the film, though it is impossible to sum up most of the movie's two hours easily in such a generalized fashion. The amount of detail, beauty, animation style and imagery in this film simply defies words: the silent, unvoiced emotions of the characters; the real-feeling traveling scenes; the subtle expressions of interacting characters; the beauty of a sunrise, a single flower or a whole field of them, or the entire atmosphere of the country. The uniquely cinematographic feel of a Studio Ghibli film has reached a new peak with this movie, while not losing any of the magic that their animation has always had from the start. Interestingly, it was just shown this year along with Miyazaki's MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO at the Cannes Film Festival, so maybe Western critics of Japanese films will finally take notice. It should also be interesting to see what Studio Ghibli's latest film, THE RED PIG (in the works), will turn out like. Directed by Miyazaki and produced by Takahata, press releases have indicated further overlapping of the two men's work. In the meantime, REMEMBERING THE SOUNDS OF FALLING TEARDROPS is a new (and already classic) masterwork that effectively fuses the genius of two of the world's greatest animators into one. But more importantly, it is a film that shows that the greatest story of all is the one within each and every one of us. ======================================================================== Subject: 7.) OMOIDE POROPORO review (John W. Yung, April 14, 1992) [this is how this article appeared on the Miyazaki list] Subject: Omoide Poroporo review from r.a.a. (LONG!!) X-Topic: Entry #1331 of LISTS.NAUSICAA Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 17:21:00 CDT Reply-To: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group From: jester@IHLPL.ATT.COM Saw this on r.a.a. Enjoy!! Correction #1: the director's name is Isao Takahata. :-) ---------- cut here ---------- >From att-mt!madoka.its.rpi.edu!pomru Mon Apr 13 21:54:35 1992 Path: cbnewsl!att!att!linac!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi! pomru From: pomru@madoka.its.rpi.edu (John W. Yung) Newsgroups: rpi.arts.animation,rec.arts.anime Subject: A Review of "Omoide Poro Poro" Summary: destined to become a classic Message-ID: Date: 14 Apr 92 01:54:35 GMT Organization: Scanner Cinema Animation Narration Non-sequitur Entertainment Research Lines: 44 Nntp-Posting-Host: madoka.its.rpi.edu To get an idea of how good "Omoide Poro Poro" is, one could start by looking at the fact that it was the number one animated movie in Japan for 1991. The next fact to consider is the presence of Hayao Miyazaki as the film's producer. The director, Tsutomu Takahata, is a former student of Miyazaki, but as this movie (and his previous project, "The Grave of the Fireflies") shows, Takahata is well on his way to becoming a master, if he isn't considered one by now. There are signs of Miyazaki's artistic influence in the character designs and backgrounds Takahata uses in "Omoide Poro Poro." The clean, simple faces of the characters are reminiscent of Miyazaki's style, and the colors used in the production are subdued. However, the difference is that Takahata's work appears even more detailed than Miyazaki's because Takahata's direction tends toward realism. The attention to details is reflected in various places throughout the film from subtle human motion like the slight shake of the head to nostalgic displays like Beatles posters and old TV shows to ordinary physics like the reflection of buildings in a swinging car door window. The sum of the effects is astounding and enhances the world presented to us in "Omoide Poro Poro." Takahata focuses on personal and inter-personal relationships in this tale of a woman's reunion with her family. The movie's blurb, translated as "I am going on a journey with myself," hints at the poignant scenes in "Omoide Poro Poro," most of which are flashbacks to the childhood of the main character, Taiko. Taiko's memories have strong emotional contents which is communicated to the viewer through common experiences from joy and love to sorrow and disappointment. The characters break the language barrier with crafted responses filled with hints from subtle, natural gestures and from voice intonations that is often taken for granted. Knowledge of the Japanese language is certainly helpful, as usual, but ignorance does not completely interfere with the enjoyment of the film. "Omoide Poro Poro" may have been aimed toward Japanese adults, but it certainly carries appeal for people of any age and language. There are no giant robots nor monsters wrecking destruction upon Tokyo in this story, just a woman discovering herself and her place in the world. At the end of this entertaining movie, one may wonder if there's a child in all of us, ever hopeful of the decisions we make based upon our experiences in the journey of life. (Please email corrections. My information can't be that perfect! (=B ) ____________________________________\8O8/____________________________________ Pomru (John Yung) pomru@acm.rpi.edu ---------- cut here ---------- E n r i q u e C o n t y jester@ihlpl.att.com ======================================================================== Subject: 8.) GOSHU THE CELLIST mini-synopsis (Walter M. Amos, 8/3/93) Subject: Goshu the Cellist X-Topic: Entry #4489 of LISTS.NAUSICAA WRITTEN BY: Walter M. Amos POSTED TO BY: Walter M. Amos, August 3, 1993 RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman, August 3, 1993 Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1993 15:51:32 -0500 Reply-To: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group From: "Walter M. Amos" I don't know exactly why I started thinking of this film today but I thought it might be an appropriate subject for this list. Excuse me if this has been discussed already, or if it's inappropriate to the list. The art style looks very similar to that in Omoide Poroporo, so I think Miyazaki et al. have something to do with it. Anyway, for those who haven't seen this film, briefly it is about a cellist (Goshu) in the local orchestra and he is trying to learn to properly play their Beethoven repertoire. At night when he practices at home a menagerie of various animals pop in and try to give him various advice on how the music should sound. (The cat which first appears had me rolling on the floor with his Japanese-interpreted-through-cat-vocal- chords-trying-to-pronounce-Beethoven...he looks at a picture of Ludwig and says (in my best phoenetic type interpretation) "ahhh! Loo-hu-week fan Bay-hay toe-fehhnn!") Anyway, although some people in our club and elsewhere who have seen this find it boring and tedious, I found it to be a lovely and lyrical little piece. And of course the background music, all lovely-lovely- Ludwig-van helped a lot. I was just wondering, since I've seen almost no discussion of this on the net, if other people had seen this and what they thought of it. ============================================================================= "Zu jeder Zeit, an jeder (sic) Ort, bleibt das Tun | Walter Amos der Menschen das gleiche..." - Galactic Heroes II | amos@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu ======================================================================== Subject: 9.) UMI GA KIKOERU mini-synopsis (Alan Takahashi, 7/18/93) Date: Sun, 18 Jul 1993 21:50:16 PDT Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group Really-From: Alan Takahashi Subject: "Umi Ga Kikoeru" entry Well, since the List activity has dropped so much, here's something to talk about. The following is the current new entry for "Umi Ga Kikoeru", largely based on the showing over at Anime America. Of course, I had to chop a lot out for the entry, but I hope I didn't get *too* misleading. :-) Have fun with it... Title: I can hear the Sea (TV) gDR tUGK aka: Umi Ga Kikoeru tUGK Cast: tUGK Description: tUGK Taku Morisaki is a college student on his way back to a high tUGK school reunion. On the plane flight back, he remembers events tUGK from his high school days. He remembers getting a glimpse of a tUGK new girl with his friend Matsuno. Later, Matsuno introduces his tUGK new girlfriend to Morisaki. Her name is Rikako Muto. She is tUGK very good in sports and academically, but is a social outsider tUGK since she is a transfer student. In their last year in school, tUGK the class takes a trip to Hawaii. When Rikako's money is stolen,tUGK it is to Morisaki that she asks to help her. This doesn't go tUGK unnoticed by Matsuno, and cracks begin to appear in their tUGK friendship. This is a very real look at relationships, and how tUGK a single act may change them forever. Did a romantic triangle tUGK form? It's hard to tell. This TV movie compares well with tUGK better live-action dramas and outshines most anime. tUGK NOTE: This is Studio Ghibli's first solo attempt by the "younger tUGK generation" of the company. Miyazaki-sensei was not involved. tUGK Rating: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED tUGK BTW, anyone have any cast info for this one? ----- Alan Takahashi UUCP : ......!{portal,ames}!ntmtv!takahash Northern Telecom Inc. ...!uunet/ Mountain View, CA INTERNET: takahash@ntmtv.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "When you need to knock on wood is when you realize the world's composed of aluminum and vinyl." -- Flugg's Law + + + + + + + Date: Sun, 2 May 1993 01:06:08 EDT Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group Really-From: Steven Feldman Subject: UMI GA KIKOERU & HEISEI TANUKI KASSEN PONPOKO >Subject: Re: Mistaken Identity and Ponpoko >Date: Sat, 1 May 1993 17:03:37 -0700 >From: Trish Ledoux > >I'm dialing in from home, so I don't have my mags here, but I think >PONPOKO is a TV series...I recall seeing it in some sort of "New TV >Show Listing" in ANIME-V or ANIMEDIA recently. I think you are confusing Isao Takahata's new film project, HEISEI TANUKI KASSEN PONPOKO, with Studio Ghibli's recent TV project, UMI GA KIKOERU (a/k/a I CAN HEAR THE SEA), directed by Tomomi Mochizuki (of KOKO WA GREENWOOD, the ORANGE ROAD movie & the MAISON IKKOKU movie fame) -- which is scheduled to air May 5th. -- Steven Feldman ======================================================================== Subject: 10.) COLLISION! AKIRA KUROSAWA VS. HAYAO MIYAZAKI (9/13/93) Date: Fri, 10 Sep 1993 17:49:35 EDT Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group Really-From: Steven Feldman Subject: re "Collision! Akira Kurosawa vs. Hayao Miyazaki" >Subject: publication news >Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 21:01:20 +0900 >Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group >From: FUKUMOTO Atsushi > >NANIGA EIGA KA >(What is a Movie) >1993, Tokuma shoten, ISBN4-19-555272-9 >2136yen >Miyazaki interviews with Kurosawa Akira. Transcription of a TV program. First of all, should I add this to the MIYAZAKI BOOKLIST file stored on the fileserver? Now then, my *real* question is, is this transcription of the entire interview, or only of what was shown on TV? To clarify both for yourself and list subscribers, here are three old list posts stating that while what got on TV was eighty-five minutes long, what was actually recorded in the studio was at least one hundred-fifty minutes long. (Yessiree, Bitnet's database function sure can come in handy!) -- Steven Feldman + + + + + + + Date: Thu, 6 May 1993 20:08:19 +0900 xxply-To: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group xxnder: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group From: FUKUMOTO Atsushi Subject: To all Studio Ghibli fans, and Miyazaki otakus Hi everybody, For those Studio Ghibli fans, I have recorded the broadcast of UMI GA KIKOERU on videotape. Write me if you want to see it and have no other source. (I guess many will want to, so, can someone in USA (Enrique, perhaps?) volunteer as a coordinator to circulate? People in other countries, write me anyway.) By the way, I was wrong on the time of the program. It was 85 minutes program including commercials. Since it will be released on tape on June 25, you can wait for it if you want (my recording is not so good condition since my equipments are not good at all). The animation itself was, well, should I say "photo-realistic"? Same line with OMOHIDE POROPORO, I think. Regarding the story, it did not match my taste at all. Your mileage may vary. Also, for Miyazaki otakus, I recorded the talk program "Miyazaki meets Kurosawa". Unfortunately Miyazaki acted as an interviewer for most of time, so there was not much new info from himself. Anyway, write me if you want to watch it and if you can't obtain it from other sources. FUKUMOTO Atsushi fukumoto@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp + + + + + + + Date: Fri, 7 May 1993 21:30:51 +0900 xxply-To: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group xxnder: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group From: FUKUMOTO Atsushi Subject: umi ga kikoeru Currently, four people in USA and one in Singapore are on the list. Thinking of it, it will be enough to circulate a single copy inside USA, so that no need to make many copies? Anyway, I'll send a copy to Enrique (please inform me your physical address). Please choose whatever method you like. I'll send another copy to Singapore, Mr.Tan. (Please inform me the address) Since both programs are 85 minutes long, I'll combine them in a 180 minutes tape (is it ok?). Steven Feldman writes: >> Care to say what the story was about, more or less? Boy meets girl. (Sorry, further explanation is beyond my English vocabulary. I'll consult to my dictionary when I have a leisure time.) Regarding Kurosawa and Miyazaki: >> I assume this will *not* be on the commercially available videotape >> (nor the laserdisk version, should there be one), so I am curious what >> the general content of this interview was. Most of the time was about the behind-the-scene of Kurosawa's movies. >> Did the two directors talk >> as equals, or was one deferential to the other on a professional level? Generally, Miyazaki was quite respectful to Kurosawa. Why not? Kurosawa must be Miyazaki's hero, eventhough (I guess) Miyazaki does not like recent works of Kurosawa very much. >> How *long* was the interview? According to (sort-of) TV guide, the interview itself was around 2hour 30minutes, but the program was 85 minutes long including commercials. >> Did anything controversial get voiced? Not much, I think. >> Did Kurosawa say anything about--or even *aknowledge*--anime? Etc. "I liked Neko-bus" or something like it. Not much further. FUKUMOTO Atsushi fukumoto@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp P.S. Hats off to those translators and annotators of Omohide Poroporo translation! Good work. (BTW, "Oh" of Oh Sadaharu is pronounced "Wang", which sounds like "one". It does not mean "one".) + + + + + + + Date: Mon, 19 Jul 1993 16:40:01 EDT xxply-To: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group xxnder: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group From: Steven Feldman Subject: "Collision! Akira Kurosawa vs. Hayao Miyazaki" From Anime Hasshin's THE ROSE, Vol.7, No.37, July 1993, page 14: NEWS SHORTS by Kevin Leahy [entry two only; entries one, three and four are irrelevant] NIHON TEREBI, JUST TERRIBLE - After going to all the trouble to arrange the first meeting ever between Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki and taping the 3-hour-plus conversation that ensued, Nihon TV really dropped the ball. Their meeting was edited down into an 85-minute special entitled "Collision! Akira Kurosawa vs. Hayao Miyazaki" that was set to air on Wednesday April 5th at the ungodly hour of 1:10 A.M. That I could deal with. But local affiliates didn't carry the show, so it seems to only have been broadcast in Tokyo. Few people actually got to see the directors commenting on each other's films and Miyazaki's impressions of the continuity sketches Kurosawa did for MADA DA YO. Is this any way to treat the two greatest minds of Japanese cinema? [NOTE: Kevin Leahy, who has been a member of Anime Hasshin for at least three years, currently lives in Japan as an English teacher. He is the same Kevin Leahy who did the original translation for the JOURNEY OF SHUNA translations stored on the fileserver. Kevin welcomes correspondence with Miyazaki fans living in his area. His address is Kevin Leahy 1-5-1 Asama Onsen Matsumoto-shi, Nagano-ken 390-03 JAPAN I have not heard from Kevin for almost a year, however, so it is possible that the above address is not current. If it is not, and you find out what his current address is, please let me know in private e-mail. Thanks.] -- Steven Feldman + - + - + - + - + - + - + - Date: Mon, 13 Sep 1993 21:35:19 +0900 Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group Really-From: FUKUMOTO Atsushi Subject: Re: re "Collision! Akira Kurosawa vs. Hayao Miyazaki" In-Reply-To: ar402004@brownvm.bitnet's message of "Fri, 10 Sep 93 17:49:35 EDT." <9309102332.AA07132@sutgate.bitnetjp.ad.jp> > First of all, should I add this to the MIYAZAKI BOOKLIST file stored > on the fileserver? Yes, please. > Now then, my *real* question is, is this transcription of the entire > interview, or only of what was shown on TV? Though I have not bought it yet... I got a impression that it contains more than the TV program. (By the way, Steven, you don't need to send mails to both of my address. Both are forwarded to same place.) FUKUMOTO Atsushi fukumoto@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp ======================================================================== Subject: 11.) Jo Hisaishi Discographies (Atsushi Fukumoto, 6/2/94) Date: Mon, 6 Sep 1993 21:13:40 +0900 Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group Really-From: FUKUMOTO Atsushi Subject: Hisaishi discography [For those who don't know, Jo Hisaishi did the soundtracks to GENESIS CLIMBER MOSPEADA, NAUSICAA OF THE VALLEY OF WIND, ARION, LAPUTA, ROBOT CARNIVAL, MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, and VENUS WARS. What follows is a list of his non-soundtrack work. -- Steven Feldman, September 29, 1993] For your info, here's Hisaishi Jo's solo albums and singles discography. Information is taken from a book titled "I am -- HARUKANARU ONGAKUNO MICHI", (written by Hisaishi Jo, 1992, Media Factory, ISBN4-88991-264-9, 1262yen). This list does not include movie soundtracks. By the way, I don't have any of these yet, so I can't comment. Your opinions on them are welcome. FUKUMOTO Atsushi fukumoto@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp INFORMATION 1982, Japan Record, JAL-1005 2000yen alpha-BET-CITY 1985, Tokuma Japan Communications, 32JC-130 3200yen CURVED MUSIC 1986, Polydor, H33P20107 3100yen Piano Stories 1988, NEC Avenue, N32C-701 3008yen Night City (single) 1988, NEC Avenue, N10C-701 1000yen illusion 1988, NEC Avenue, N32C-702 3008yen PRETENDER 1989, NEC Avenue, N29C-703 3008yen "Fuyu no tabibito" (single) 1989, NEC Avenue, N10C-702 1000yen I am 1991, Toshiba EMI, TOCP-6610 3000yen My Lost City 1992, Toshiba EMI, TOCT-6414 3000yen "Kimi dake wo miteita" (single) 1992, Toshiba EMI, TODT-2810 930yen Joe Hisaishi Symphonic Best Selection 1992, Toshiba EMI, TOCT-6675 3000yen + + + + + + + Date: Thu, 2 Jun 1994 19:15:27 +0900 Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group Really-From: FUKUMOTO Atsushi Subject: Re: Hisaishi Jo Hi everybody, Hayden Brown wrote: >> Or did Hisaishi do the soundtrack for Venus Wars? You are lucky... I was re-reading a Hisaishi's book. And the answer is yes. Here's a list of his soundtrack works for theatrical films. Source of information is "I am---harukanaru ongakuno michihe", written by Hisaishi Jo, published by Media Factory, ISBN4-88991-264-9. Since it was published in 1992, the list might lack some recent works, although I added one. It does not include the works for TV programs. Most English translations of titles are mine. FUKUMOTO Atsushi fukumoto@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp 1984 Kazeno tanino naushika (Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind, directed by Miyazaki Hayao) W no higeki (Tragedy of W, directed by Sawai Shin'ichiro, starring Yakushimaru Hiroko) 1985 Soushun monogatari (Early Spring Story, directed by Sawai Shin'ichiro, starring Harada Tomoyo) Haru no kane (Spring Bell, directed by Fujiwara Yoriyoshi[?], starring Kotegawa Yuuko) Guriin rekuiemu (Green Requiem, directed by Imaseki Akiyoshi, starring Torii Kahori) 1986 Arion (Arion, directed by Yasuhiko Yoshikazu) Tenkuu no shiro rapyuta (Castle in the Sky: Laputa, directed by Miyazaki Hayao) Atami satsujin jiken (Atami Murder Case, directed by Takahashi Kazuo, starring Nakadai Tatsuya) Mezon ikkoku (Maison Ikkoku, directed by Sawai Shin'ichiro, starring Ishihara Mariko) 1987 Koibito tachi no toki (Lover's Time, directed by Sawai Shin'ichiro, starring Nomura Hironobu) Hyouryuu kyoushitsu (Drifting Classroom, directed by Oobayashi Nobuhiko, starring Hayashi Yasufumi) Kono ai no monogatari (Story of the Love, directed by Masuda Toshio, starring Nakamura Masatoshi) 1988 Don matsugorou no daibouken (The Adventure of Don Matsugorou, directed by Goto Hideshi, starring Tachibana Risa) Tonari no totoro (My Neighbour Totoro, directed by Miyazaki Hayao) Gokudou tosei no sutekina menmen (Nice Guys of the Rogue World, directed by Izumi Seiji, starring Jinnai Takanori) 1989 Vinasu senki (Venus Wars, directed by Yasuhiko Yoshikazu) Majo no takkyuubin (Kiki's Delivery Service, directed by Miyazaki Hayao) Tsuri baka nisshi 2 (Fishing Mania Diary part 2, directed by Kuriyama Tomio, starring Nishida Toshiyuki) 1990 Kanbakku (Come Back, directed by/starring Guts Ishimatsu) Peesuke/gatapishi monogatari (Peesuke/Gatapishi Story, directed by Goto Hideshi, starring Tokoro Joji) Tasumania monogatari (Tasmania Story, directed by Furuhata Yasuo, starring Tanaka Kunie and Yakushimaru Hiroko) 1991 Kojika monogatari (A Young Deer Story, directed by Sawada Yukihiro, starring Miura Tomokazu) Futari (Two Sisters, directed by Oobayashi Nobuhiko, starring Ishida Hikari) Fukuzawa Yukichi (Fukuzawa Yukichi, directed by Sawai Shin'ichiro, starring Shibata Kyouhei) Anonatsu, ichiban shizukana umi (A Scene at the Sea, directed by Kitano Takeshi, starring Maki Kuroudo) 1992 Kurenai no buta (Porco Rosso---Crimson Pig, directed by Miyazaki Hayao) Haruka, nosutarujii (directed by Oobayashi Nobuhiko, starring Ishida Hikari) Seishun dendekedekedeke (directed by Oobayashi Nobuhiko, starring Hayashi Yasufumi) 1993 Sonachine (Sonatine, directed by/starring Kitano Takeshi) ======================================================================== Subject: 12.) Isao Takahata Interview (AnimeLand #6, July/August 1992) ORIGINAL ARTICLE WRITTEN BY: Cedric Littardi ORIGINALLY PRINTED IN: the French anime fanzine, AnimeLand, issue #6; July/August 1992; pages 27-29. TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH TO ENGLISH AND POSTED TO NAUSICAA@BROWNVM BY: Ken Elescor on Thursday; October 14, 1993; 13:47:18 +0000 ROUGH-EDITED & RE-FORMATTED BY: Steven Feldman on October 24, 1993. OKAYED & AUGMENTED BY: Ken Elescor on November 3, 1993. TWEAKED BY: Steven Feldman on November 12, 1993. Nausicaa was first shown in France at the 13th cinema festival, at Corbeil-Essonnes (in 1992), along with Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Kiki, OPP, Laputa and Goshu the Cellist (Serohiki no Gooshu). Takahata- san was even there! So, this is a translation of Takahata-san's interview. There may be some grammatical errors, so please e-mail any comments or corrections to me (Ken Elescor) at . Perhaps there should even be a whole re-writing (in correct English) of this.... In any way, thanks. This is done without the explicit authorization of the article's author; however I think there is no problem since my friend Cao Olivier (the real owner of this account) is a member of the staff of the magazine AnimeLand. ------------------------------ cut here -------------------------------- Mr. ISAO TAKAHATA Mr. Isao Takahata was without a doubt the main personality at the Corbeil-Essonnes festival. Our meeting was quite surprising (in fact, I think I was the one who was really surprised). I met him in the second evening during the official days of the festival, at the dinner. He showed such an interest for everything which surrounds him, such a sensibility and such a curiosity that I don't know if I could call these pages an interview. As far as I'm concerned, I rather felt it as a situation of confrontation between two cultures, each one giving proof of a very deep curiosity towards the other. I don't know if, writing it down, I could give you this feeling which expresses itself in his whole behaviour and not only in his speech. For instance, he recorded some of our talks with a beautiful miniaturized Sony radio set, perhaps to study French language when he'd be back in Japan (come to that, this gave me the occasion to be quoted in ANIMAGE). Doing that, he showed the extreme relativity of our respective parts. In a way, he was inverting the parts of the interviewer and the interviewee. Perhaps the first thing to do is to describe him to you. Physically, he looks like a standard 50-year-old -- maybe younger -- Japanese man, a little smaller than the average. He spends a lot of time smoking. (Philippe LHOSTE said: "I saw Mr. Takahata stand up to take an ashtray. I'll be able to tell it to my grandchildren!") [*1] Moreover, he has a deep voice, talks little, and thinks silently for a long time when asked a question before answering, which doesn't prevent him from asking for the question to be repeated as soon as his curiosity is awakened. Isao Takahata is the main lead of Studio Ghibli, along with his friend and colleague Hayao Miyazaki. He is the great author of _Serohiki no Goshu_ [Goshu the Cellist], _Hotaru no Haka_ [Grave of the Fireflies] and _Omohide Poro Poro_ [Falling Tears of Remembrance]. I met this exceptional man at table while he was coming back from the location from whence comes the famous rose of Versailles. After a few brief presentations during which I talked with him about European paronama, we began the present discussion. -- - Cedric Littardi: Mr. Takahata, I quite admire Japanese animation in general. It's why I'd first like to know what your favourite anime are, besides the ones you or Mr. Miyazaki produced. - Isao Takahata: To tell the truth, I don't really have time to watch my contemporaries' anime. My work keeps me very busy and allows me little time to do anything else. On the other hand, I'd like to know what you'd answer if you were in my place. - C.L.: I admit this is a delicate question. If I excepted Studio Ghibli's works, I'd pick the spectacular _Honneamise no Tsubasa_ [The Wings of Honneamise] produced by Gainax. Do you know this work? - I.T.: Yes, I know it. I've already had an occasion to watch it. - C.L.: And, did you enjoy it? - I.T.: (pause) No, not really. - C.L.: Oh?! And why? - I.T.: I'd like to get a better understanding of why you admire this work so much. - C.L.: It is not evident to explain. Perhaps, because it is a wonderful science-fiction work, produced in a exceptional way, with deep and expressive characters who experience a spectacular evolution. Moreover, there is this parallel world, created in a very accurate way, even in the very details. It is true that it is very different from your own works. Is that why you don't like it? - I.T.: I'd simply say that it is a matter of personal taste. - C.L.: Nonetheless, there should be some anime which had influenced you. Which ones induced you to do this job? - I.T.: I have to say that I'm very happy to be in France because it is a country I really like. (C.L.'s note: I aknowledge some time after that he reads French -- even if his conversation was a little limited -- and that he even translated some works on some French artists.) My career perhaps began thanks to my admiration for Paul Grimault. That's why I'm very glad to be able to show my movies here. - C.L.: How do you place yourself in comparison with the international reference in matter of anime, i.e. Walt Disney? - I.T.: I really enjoyed the first ones -- namely, _Fantasia_, _Pinocchio_ and _Snow White_. But my own sensibility gradually and naturally took me away from the Disney Studios' full length films. - C.L.: So, which are the works which influenced you the most? - I.T.: Well, I quite admire the Canadian, Frederick Back, and the Russian, Yuri Norstein. - C.L.: Then, why don't you try to use similar drawing techniques (i.e. cut pieces of paper or pastel drawings)? - I.T.: It's simply a question of money. Their techniques are much more expensive than ours, much more conventional. That's why they are not used in Japan; production costs would be too high. - C.L.: You said that you like European cinematography. Did it influence you? - I.T.: Yes, that's right, I watched many European films and especially French ones. They help me a lot to obtain such a result in my work. - C.L.: However, some of your full-length films, in particular the splendid _Omohide Poro Poro_, could have been done as live films. So you chose to make them anime films to convey visual expressions, to express emotions, feelings, that you'd never be able to reach with actors in the cinematographic reality. - I.T.: That is exactly what I intended to do in _Omohide Poro Poro_, and I'm very glad you realized that. - C.L.: Congratulations! You were really successful in doing it. - I.T.: This is possible. I'd have something else to say to you about what inspired me, as well as any other anime producer in Japan. But, for this, I need some documents. So, I'll tell you about it tomorrow. - C.L.: I really thank you for this. About the production, I'd like to know exactly which are the respective roles you and Mr. Miyazaki play, since in Europe, there is a tendency to confuse your two works and to accredit them to your colleague. - I.T.: Yet, there is a noticeable difference. You don't see it because you don't speak Japanese. - C.L.: Did you work on some series like _Shojo Alps no Heiji_ [Heidi, Girl of the Alps] or_Lupin III_, for instance? - I.T.: I was the editor for Heidi during the whole series. As for Lupin, I managed the production committee in which Miyazaki was working. - C.L.: I see. I'd also like to know why you suddenly began to produce full length films. - I.T.: Simply because I couldn't achieve any personal satisfaction with short length films. Besides, today, to produce a beautiful anime for TV is impossible, since the budget for one TV episode hasn't increased for the last ten years, in spite of the increase in price of production costs. - C.L.: How much is the budget of an anime in Japan? - I.T.: It depends a lot; between 100 and 800 million Yen. - C.L.: I seize this opportunity to ask you: to whom are your movies aimed? - I.T.: To everyone, in general. I wish, nonetheless, to make clear that _Omohide Poro Poro_ isn't suitable, of course, to the youngest; let's say you could watch it above 10 years. - C.L.: Are your movies extracted from novels? - I.T.: In general, I choose to produce adaptations of literary works. I often used to work on foreign works, already at the time when I was producing series. _Hotaru no Haka_ is the adaptation of an autobiographical Japanese novel written by Nosaka AKUYUKI; but the book became famous only after the movie was out. With regard to _Omohide Poro Poro_, only some parts of the storyline come from a novel -- which was already more than ten years old. - C.L.: Don't you think that _Hotaru no Haka_ is a little sad for a child? I have not met yet someone who was not reduced to tears after having watching it. - I.T.: I think that today we can hardly watch a natural death. For instance, people generally die in a hospital nowadays. I'd call it a scientific death. All I wished to find, beyond sadness, it is a straighter way to show things. - C.L.: And, what about grown-ups? For a European person, it seems impossible to see grown-ups watching anime. The cultural barrier which separate each one from the other seems quite incommensurable. Could it be because they grew up, watching anime? - I.T.: It is quite likely. In Japan, grown-ups very much like anime, especially since _Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa_ [Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind], and they often take their children to watch them on week-ends, thus allowing the two generations to bring themselves together through entertainment. The average public is between 15 and 20, but, as I said, there are still more grown-ups since 1984. - C.L.: Yes, I understand well the part that played the first big Miyazaki('s work) for every public. Of all Miyazaki's works, which one do the young Japanese like the most? - I.T.: I think I can state positively that it is _Tonari no Totoro_ [My Neighbor Totoro], a movie every child in Japan really loves. - C.L.: So do I. But I think I prefer the famous _Tenku no Shiro Laputa_ [Castle in the Sky Laputa]. What were your expectations in producing this movie? And where does its name come from? - I.T.: The name of the island comes from _Gulliver's Travels_, the famous Swift work. Laputa was an island which was floating in the air and wasn't receiving sunshine because it was too evil -- which explains the negative connotation of its name which is derived from the word "bitch" ("puta" in Spanish, and "pute" in French). But the storyline was modified considerably and now has nothing to do with the original Laputa. Miyazaki and I worked to make a real adventure movie. Yet, nowadays, there is no uneducated country, because they all know the world's secrets. We decided not to do like Spielberg, i.e. to locate the world's secret beyond the earth, in the universe. We wanted to make a movie whose action takes place on earth, because it is our earth. - C.L.: I also greatly admire Joe Hisaishi's music. His works are aknowledged outside the context of the movies for which he wrote the soundtracks. - I.T.: Indeed, he wrote magnificent pieces of music. Come to that, I was the one who was in charge of putting them in the full length films. Before Nausicaa, he was composing "minimal music" -- a very different kind of music. - C.L.: I never heard about it. What is it? - I.T.: It is modern music, composed with a limited number of sounds which are repeated continually, from which comes the name. I'd have liked to have had such a talented composer for my movies. - C.L.: But, at the beginning, all Studio Ghibli's movies were made profitable. It is very difficult to pay off such expensive anime in only one country. - I.T.: It has only been since _Majo no Takkyubin_ [Kiki's Delivery Service] that our productions have become profitable. None of the previous ones paid off, in spite of their great popularity -- unless we take into account the selling of derived products and rights, in which case, we can consider the balance positive. - C.L.: With such a budget, you nonetheless have never used computer means to make the animation, have you? - I.T.: No, everything was done manually. - C.L.: In France, our national pride circulates the rumor that there could be a collaboration between Mr. Miyazaki and Jean Giraud (Moebius). What is the truth? - I.T.: Surely, both men regard the other highly. However, at the present time, we have to exclude the hypothesis of any work in common for a simple reason: both have very strong personalities. - C.L.: I understand; but on the other hand, were your works issued in foreign countries? For instance, we watched tapes from the American version (with 30 minutes cut) of _Kaze no Tani no Nausicaa_. - I.T.: Yes, indeed. They showed me this version, as well. It is absolutely horrible! They did an enormous and aberrant censorship; they cut Hisaishi's pieces of music, without forgetting the changed dialogues. It was a great error of Studio Ghibli and we haven't given broadcast rights to foreign countries since; and we'll never again give such rights without an attentive examination of the condition beforehand. [Note from Ken: it seems like France has filled these conditions since we have the rights to broadcast (this will be done next year) both Porco Rosso and Totoro.] For that matter, the international rights for Nausicaa given to the U.S.A. will be over in 2 or 3 years. All these movies are grounded strongly in Japanese culture and are not conceived with an eye towards exportation. Censoring them is worse than betraying them. [Note from Ken: there is an Italian proverb that goes, "Translator, traitor" ("Traduttore, traditore," if my memory serves me). ;) ] This festival constitutes the first public broadcasting in a foreign country and I have to admit that I am very surprised by the public's reaction. Anyway, we're still very afraid of how our products will be used in foreign countries. - C.L.: Indeed, we know these problems. We try to obtain a better respect for Japanese anime, so as to maintain a level the nearest possible of the original work. Most certainly, this attempt is often hopeless, but we remain a dissenting voice. - I.T.: (here, Mr. Takahata begins to speak French) I... er... agree with what you're doing. Then we had to part company: he had to rest to prepare himself for the hard events of the day after. But the next day, once again, as he promised, he talked to all the magazine's staff (that was there this time) and to myself (we ate breakfast together) to explain some of the reasons of his inspiration, fundamentally based on Japanese culture. - I.T.: Here. This book contains the reproduction of a Twelth Century Japanese parchment. (He showed us a book containing the representation of a Japanese parchment which must be very long since each page represented a part of this parchment; thus, if they were torn out and placed side by side, we would have the entire linear parchment.) The original is made with two tubes around which are affixed the rolled parchment. Thus, the two tubes would be rolled by hand simultaneously so as to unthread the scenes. Thus, we have the first Japanese animated scene of history. On the other hand, the scenario is explained in ideograms at peculiar passages. So the story took place: of an incendiary who is eventually found and punished by the Emperor. Stylistic effects are plentiful: movement in the reading direction or in the opposite one, the presence of the same character several times in the same scene to show his movement, the characterization of faces, all expressing different emotions (for these, the work was focused solely on manipulations of the effects of light and shade which was very elaborate),... It would be very difficult to explain everything, since we'd have to show you these documents to explain their plastic meaning.... In a methodic way, thus revealing a pedagogical mind -- so much so that he took care to describe each scene and each detail which he talked with us about later -- he kept on turning the pages, helping us discover the document. His ostensible purpose was to make us understand that the style used nowadays in the anime industry did not date back to the discovery of Walt Disney, but longer ago. In this document, we recognized the strokes of the outlines which made the characters, cinematographic plans, and an idea of the (virtual) movements, thanks to only the reading direction. - I.T.: The basis of such works have to be understood. They are mere scenes of everyday life, expressed in the slightest detail. This is an integral part of the Japanese culture, this is a very old translation. Moreover, please note the very expressive features of every face. You see, when I wanted to produce these full length films, no one thought that the subjects chosen could be done as an anime. They were wrong. The culture, the one which comes from our culture, explains for the most part all that we can find in anime nowadays. And, try to remember one thing, which counts the most: it is not the real, nor even the relationship with the real; it is only the line and the way of drawing. -- FOOTNOTES: [*1] Philippe LHOSTE is "a head person among French otakus. A 'french.otaku.personality,' if you will. He wrote many articles in many anime French fanzines, and even one in a Canadian anime fanzine -- namely, Protoculture Addicts; it was an article about anime in France -- and founded an anime APA [Amateur Press Association club] in France." -- Olivier Cao -- Thanks to Cedric Littardi, Mr. Takahata and Mrs. Ueki, manager of the Ucore Company (which helped in bringing us the festival). And to Olivier Cao for lending me his magazine (and having helped in its translation). And to Steven for correcting my errors, and to everyone on the Nausicaa newsgroup who read my translation. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | Ken Elescor | "Among all wines, passion is the one which makes you | | "The Postman" | the most drunk; but unlike other wines, once you get | | cao_o@epita.fr | drunk by passion, you can never recover your mind." | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [Ken Elescor , for those in the USA. -- S.F.] ======================================================================== Subject: 13.) HEISEI TANUKI GASSEN PONPOKO synopsis (B. Lucido, 7/17/94) FIRST WRITTEN & POSTED TO BY: Brad J. Lucido, 7/17/94 EDITED, RE-FORMATTED, AND RE-POSTED TO BY: Steven Feldman, October 30, 1994 SCOTT NASH ARTICLE EDITED, RE-FORMATTED & ADDED BY: S.Feldman, 10/30/94 Following is a brief (and I do mean brief) synopsis of "Ponpoko" that I saw yesterday. Apologies for hack writing. If you don't want to know about the events in the film, please do not go on. -------------------- SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING ----------------- The film opens with a group of Tanukis investigating an abandoned house. They feel that they have made a real find with a large house to live in. Unfortunately, they find out the hard way why the house is abandoned. A construction vehicle's shovel arm suddenly rips through the roof and the tanukis scramble away. Now that their living area has been decreased, the tanuki begin to fight over the diminished resources, like field mice. Two opposing forces of tanuki line up and charge towards each other, transforming into their bipedal form in the middle of the rush. When they meet, the tanukis transform into various Japanese samurai armored soldiers. A hilarious fight ensues, only to be halted by the female elder tanuki, who proclaims that fighting will get them nowhere and that their real problem is the construction that man has begun. They all climb up a power tower and see the beginnings of a "New Town," a bed town created as a suburban area for the ever-expanding Tokyo. They hold a meeting with the "town" elder, Tsurukame Oshou. He suggests that they use "Tanuki transforming science" to oppose man's encroachment into their territory and that they try to improve their own culture to equal man's so they can have their own space. They also discuss seeking the help of the great tanuki sages from Shikoku. There is a "boot camp" where the tanuki practice their transforming skill with varying degrees of success. (Part human, part tanuki creatures walk around, creating a hilarious scene.) Some of the tanuki are successful, and they begin to go on reconnaissance missions into the world of man. Unfortunately, their transformation requires a lot of concentration and engergy, so they drink lots of Japanese "power- medicine" drinks, especially to keep the "raccoon's mask" from forming around their eyes. After awhile, they realize that they are having a problem of keeping up with the drink expense, so a different course of action is called for. The tanukis begin to "hijack" the supply trucks coming into the construction area. They create false bridges, jump on the windshield etc., and manage to kill a few drivers. The village elder calls for a funeral observation period to show respect for the lives that they took. Even though there have been accidents, the humans press on. The tanukis have a meeting to discuss their further strategy. One stout tanuki, Gonta, calls for the elimination of mankind. He suggests total war to exterminate the foe humans. However, Shoukichi asks if they can leave some humans around, because he couldn't stand to live without Tempura, Hamburgers etc. Gonta has to agree, because he especially loves rat Tempura and wouldn't want to do without it. (Who knows where he gets it.) Their next strategy is to scare the humans away. The tanuki use their special power to transform into ghost-like figures (faceless humans, ghost twins, etc.). The construction workers take off, of course, saying that Tokyo is too dangerous etc., and the tanuki celebrate. But the next day, a new construction crew arrives. After awhile, the three sages of Shikoku show up. They arrive in the shape of gaudily dressed punk-like old men. (They make quite a scene at the train station.) All of the tanukis gather around for a "pep talk". The three sages turn out to be very powerful in the tanuki arts, and train the whole tanuki crowd for a mass "attack" against the humans. The next scene is rather superbly done. It is a "ghost parade" down the main street of the New Town. The imagery matches those of Japanese paintings of ghosts (very oriental-looking ghosts). The tanukis are trying to drive out all of the humans by making the town have a reputation of being haunted. (This is the scene that sneaks in quick shots of Totoro, Kiki, and Porco's plane.) However, the people turned up to watch the ghost show. Their curiosity was greater than their fear. This event is being orchestrated by the sage from Matsuyama, Inugami Gyoubu. He overexerts himself, however (he is, after all, 800 years old), and has a heart attack. The Buddha Amida Nyorai (From pure land Buddhism) comes down from the heavens and retrieves the soul of the fallen sage. (Was it part of the hallucination, or was it real?) The parade suddenly comes to an end. The next day, the TV programs are speculating on the haunting of the new town. Eventually, the president of an amusement park company comes forth to say that the parade was a result of his company's special effects, and the event was a preview of the effects to be seen from the new theme park. The tanukis feel that their hard work has been for naught. Later, Rokudai Mekinchou, the sage from Tokushima, has an interview with a kitsune--Ryoutarou--and discovers that the amusement park plan was really his idea. The kitsune, too, have suffered the loss of their ancestral homes by men, and so decided to join human society instead of hang on to their decreasing land. In order to live among men, they need money, thus the theme park of which Ryoutarou is a business partner. Mekinchou sees a problem with this, as not all tanuki are able to transform into men. Not willing to split up, the tanuki hatch a plot to get money. In a bizarre surrealistic scene, Ryoutarou invites the president of the amusement park company to a giant cat doll "fun house." Once inside, the tanuki separate the president from his money, and dump him on the ground as the cat-house floats into the air, sucking all of the money into itself. Ryoutarou is left along with his president, and so the kitsune have been double-crossed, as well. Despite all of their efforts, the new town has steadily grown and diminished their land. In an emotional scene, the tanuki stage one last event. They all join forces and together transform the "damaged" land to its previous mountainous state. However, this is only temporary, as the land soon returns to its city-cultivated state. The tanukis finally concede defeat. The narrator tells how the tanukis took the kitsune's advice and attempted to blend in with the society of man. Shoukichi becomes a salaryman, and feels sorry for mankind as he experiences the rush-hour train jam. He is worried about the tanukis that couldn't transform, and were thus left fending for themselves in the diminished wild lands. However, coming home from work, Shoukichi finds some tanuki running through tunnels in the road. He follows them, and comes out into a golf course, where the tanuki are having a party. Overjoyed to see his friends alive and well, he tears off his clothes, and charges into the fray as his old tanuki self. They may have been set back, but by no means have they been eliminated. The End --------------------------------cut here-------------------------------- Subject: Yet another Ponpoko review Date: Mon, 18 Jul 1994 10:28:08 JST Source: Hayao Miyazaki Discussion Group Really-From: Scott Nash My Review of Ponpoko -------------------------- Last Saturday night, Itoh Hikaru and I went to see _Ponpoko_, and the result was . . . OK. The technical animation quality was as high as ever, certainly, and there were some magical moments. But it just didn't move me in the same way that Miyazaki's earlier works did [that's because it was directed by Isao Takahata, not Hayao Miyazaki --S.F.], for the following reasons: 1) It was too Japanese (i.e. not universal enough); 2) It was too based in the real world; and 3) There was no central character. Since Brad was kind enough to post a synopsis, I won't bore you by repeating details. Suffice to say that those who will understand the film the most are Japanese people, because many of the scenes involve Japanese myths and legends. These are very interesting visually, but story-wise provide little depth for the foreigner who doesn't know the meaning of, for example, the "Fox Wedding Ceremony." A chief feature of Nausicaa, Totoro, and Laputa was the _universality_ of the films. It really didn't matter where you were from, it could strike a chord in you through the strong story and moving characters. But in Ponpoko, the frequent references to Japanese culture only serve to isolate the film, making it a lesser work. Of course, as people would point out, the film is set in Japan, so it is only correct that there be a good dose of Japanese culture. However, that brings about my second point -- looking at films like Nausicaa and Laputa, having them set in other worlds or times enables everyone to enjoy the film. Furthermore, by using the alternate world as an allegory, it forces the viewer to think about and make connections to our own lives, which has a greater impact. By setting _Ponpoko_ in the real world, the viewer does not have to think; he (or she, or it) is instead hit over the head by the obvious message. This cheapens the overall effect. Also, because the story is set in the real world, there is no real "enemy" that you can grow to loathe, which might make you like the protagonist more. The real world setting is a tough hurdle to overcome. Totoro succeeded with a strong story and well-developed characters. Unfortunately, _Ponpoko_ is not so well-endowed. Finally, the movie centers around the entire tribe of tanuki, without really focusing on one main character. This lack of focus means we never really get to know a character deeply; instead, we have a very shallow view of the tribe. Because we never learn much about the characters, I couldn't really care about what happened to them. This is further exacerbated by the structure of the movie, which jumps from scene to scene through the use of a narrator. This makes the movie seem more like a collection of scenes rather than a coherent story. I just found myself saying, "What is there to root for?" As I said, the movie does have its moments. Both Itoh and I agreed on one thing: I should see the movie again before passing final judgment. Finally, I think this movie would win the previous argument on which movie would cost most to film in live action. The whole thing is one continual morph. That is cool. Scott Nash snash@cac.co.jp