The Asia-Pacific Journal | Japan Focus Volume 7 | Issue 19 | Number 4 | May 09, 2009

1

Modern Life is Rubbish: Miyazaki Hayao Returns to Old-Fashioned Filmmaking

David McNeill

Modern Life is Rubbish: MiyazakiHayao Returns to Old-FashionedFilmmaking

David McNeill

Genius recluse, über-perfectionist, lapsedMarxist, Luddite; like the legendary directorsof Hollywood's Golden Age, Miyazaki Hayao’sintimidating reputation is almost as famous ashis movies. Mostly, though, Japan's undisputedanimation king is known for shunninginterviews. So it is remarkable to find himsitting opposite us in Studio Ghibli, the Tokyoanimation house he co-founded in 1985,reluctantly bracing himself for the mediaonslaught that now accompanies each of hisnew projects.

Miyazaki Hayao

Once a well-kept secret, Miyazaki's films areincreasingly greeted with the hoopla reserved

for major Disney releases. Spirited Away, hisOscar-winning 2001 masterpiece, grossed morein Japan than Titanic and elevated his nameinto the pantheon of global cinema greats.

Spirited Away(http://www.spiritedaway.com.au/)

Time magazine has since voted him "one of themost influential Asians of the last six decades".Anticipation then is high for his latest, Ponyoon the Cliff by the Sea, which has taken $160min ticket sales and been seen by 12 millionpeople in Japan alone, and is now set forrelease in the United States and Europe.

APJ | JF 7 | 19 | 4

2

Ponyo on the Cliff still

Miyazaki's 10th movie, the story of a younggoldfish that longs to become human, isanother chapter in his lifelong struggle tointerpret the world of children, explains thedirector, who says Ghibli has recently built acrèche for its staff where he spends a lot of histime. "I look at them and try to see things asthey do. If I can do that, I can create universalappeal." The relationship is two-way, he says."We get strength and encouragement fromwatching children. I consider it a blessing to beable to do that, and to make movies in thischaotic, testing world."

Humans face a basic choice between love ormoney, he believes. "A five-year-oldunderstands that in a way an adult obsessedwith the economy and share prices cannot. Imake movies that can be understood by thatfive-year-old, and to bring out that purity ofheart."

A stiff, avuncular presence in his tweed suitand math teacher's glasses, Miyazaki is clearlyuneasy dealing with the media circus. It'sunlikely the 68-year-old has heard of Britishpop group Blur, but he would undoubtedlyagree that Modern Life is Rubbish. His moviesare paeans to the natural world and codedwarnings about its perilous state; in a recentinterview he fondly speculated on a naturaldisaster that would return the planet to itspristine state.

He spends years buried away in this wood-paneled refuge in a leafy Tokyo suburb,painstakingly bringing his creations to life. Thedirector reportedly obsessed for months, forinstance, over the color and texture of the sea-waves that wash Ponyo ashore, where she isfound by a five-year-old boy. Once the creativeprocess is complete, he has little interest inwhat happens, moans Ponyo's producer andMiyazaki's long-time collaborator SuzukiToshio. "He gets engrossed in each movie, thenwhen they're finished he just forgets them andmoves on," Suzuki says

The director has "absolutely no sentimentality"for the finished product. "It doesn't matter howhard he works or how wonderful the movie is.He doesn't even like talking about themafterwards. My job is to clean up his mess. Tobe honest, he's a pain in the ass! But life isalways interesting."

Having experimented with digital and CGtechnology on Howl's Moving Castle, Miyazakihas gone back to basics for Ponyo, which ismade up of a stunning 170,000 individual hand-painted frames. He says he has seen none ofthe landmark digital animations of the past twodecades, including Toy Story and Pixar Studio'srecent smash Wall-E, despite being friends withPixar's creative director John Lasseter.

"I can't stand modern movies," he winces. "Theimages are too weird and eccentric for me." Heshuns TV and most modern media, reading

APJ | JF 7 | 19 | 4

3

books or travelling instead. It is no surprise tofind that the multimillionaire director's car,parked outside the Ghibli studio, is an antiqueCitröen CV, an icon of minimalist, unfussydriving.

Ghibli's creative engine house is a reflection ofits founder's preoccupation with authenticityand distrust of popular culture. New talent (thestudio has just added another 150 animators toits 270 full-time staff) is tested out in a sort ofanimation boot camp, where the use of cellphones, blogs, iPods and other electronicdevices is forbidden.

Ghibli

"Young people are surrounded by virtualthings," he laments. "They lack real experienceof life and lose their imaginations. Animatorscan only draw from their own experiences ofpain and shock and emotions."

He is known to lecture constantly on the needto find harmony between the human hand, eyeand brain, and the ever-expanding computertoolbox. Ponyo, he says, is partly about livingwithout technology. "Most people depend onthe Internet and cell phones to survive, butwhat happens when they stop working? Iwanted to create a mother and child whowouldn't be defeated by life without them."

In a world groaning with increasinglysophisticated movie-making technology,Ghibli's brand of old-fashioned craft looks asvulnerable as a vintage Rolls-Royce on ahighway of speeding cars. Miyazaki himselfcompares what he does to old clog (geta)makers in downtown Tokyo, now almostextinct, but much prized by aficionados.

Miyazaki understands that his style couldbecome obsolete, claims the Ghibli president,Hoshino Koji, but he doesn't care. "If theaudience disappears, that's the end of hisdialogue with them. He's not afraid of it. He'sfully aware that this is an old-style operationand that's why he decided to do a totally hand-drawn animation with Ponyo."

As both he and Suzuki admit, however,Miyazaki's uncompromising approach isexpensive. "We've been doing this for 20 years,and each movie costs more than the last," saysSuzuki. Although the director's son, Goro, hasalso recently made his first film, Tales fromEarthsea, the studio is still overwhelminglydependent on the sparse output of its founder.One flop, unlikely as that may be, coulddevastate the small company.

Enter Hoshino, who has been poached from therival Disney empire, where he toiled for 15years. But Ghibli's new boss denies that hisarrival signals an attempt to recast Miyazaki'sRoller as a sleek American sports car."Miyazaki worked in the US in the early 1980sand came back saying, 'Forget it, I'm not goingto work like that'," says Hoshino. "But whatDisney is good at is exploiting every bit ofcommercial opportunity. [Ghibli] has donealmost nothing in merchandising outside Japan,so we'll be looking at that, along with foreigndistribution."

Hoshino says a recent tie-up with long-timeSteven Spielberg collaborators KathleenKennedy and Frank Marshall is an example ofthe "much more aggressive and open-minded"

APJ | JF 7 | 19 | 4

4

tack the studio needs to take.

"I don't shut the door on digital technologyeither. Just because Ponyo was 100-per centdrawn doesn't mean we're stuck with thatapproach. My job is to come up with the bestapproach to make the most of Ghibli and try tocome up with those untapped opportunities."

Where does this leave the studio's maestro?

It is hard to resist the image of a very Miyazaki-ian willful child, struggling to remain unspoiledas the grubby workings of the real world beginto encroach. It's a theme explored in the storyof the boy Sosuke, and Ponyo, the girl- fishwhose rage and rebellion against the worldresult in a devastating storm. "Ponyo's rebellionis dangerous, but that's part of life," explainsthe director. "Humans have both the urge tocreate and destroy."

At a glance

1941: Born, 5 January in Tokyo. Pacifist viewsprofoundly shaped by his early experiences inthe ruined city after WW2.

1954: Interest in animation begins after hewatches first full-length cartoon.

1963: Begins an apprenticeship at Japan's ToeiAnimation studio. The next year he becomeshead of its labor union.

October 1965: Marries Ota Akemi. Two sons,Goro and Keisuke, who both now work at theirfather's studio, although Goro and he arereportedly on very bad terms.

1979: Directs his first feature, The Castle ofCagliostro.

1984: Releases Nausicaä of the Valley of the

Wind, said to be the first "complete" Miyazakimovie, embracing many recurring obsessions:ecology, pacifism, strong female characters.1985: Establishes Studio Ghibli.

1997: Princess Mononoke released, Japan'smost successful movie of all time. Wins itsdirector a Japan Academy Award.

2001: Directs Spirited Away, widely consideredhis masterpiece.

2002: Wins the Oscar for best animatedfeature.

2005: Receives lifetime achievement award atthe Venice Film Festival.

2006: Time magazine calls him "one of the mostinfluential Asians of the last 60 years".

2009: Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea released inUK.

Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea will be released inthe UK in August

This is a slightly revised and expanded versionof an article that was published in TheIndependent newspaper(http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/hayao-miyazaki-modern-movies-are-too-weird-for-me-1678129.html) on Sunday, 3 May2009.

David McNeill writes for The Independent andother publications, including The Irish Timesand The Chronicle of Higher Education. He isan Asia-Pacific Journal coordinator.

Recommended citation: David McNeill,“Modern Life is Rubbish: Miyazaki Hayaoreturns to old-fashioned filmmaking,” The Asia-Pacific Journal, Vol. 19-4-09, May 9, 2009.