Miyazaki/Kitano/Oshii at Venice

Mark Nornes amnornes at umich.edu
Wed Jul 30 12:08:35 EDT 2008


Venice just announced their line-up for the next festival, and three  
Japanese films are in competition: Takeshi Kitano's "Achilles and the  
Tortoise," Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo in the Cliff by the Sea," and  
Mamoru Oshii's "The Sky Crawlers." The new triumvirate to replace  
Mizoguchi/Ozu/Kurosawa!

I'm just back from Japan, a busy trip where I managed to see only one  
film—Ponyo. The theater was packed and filled with energy, a nice  
change from the empty theaters I usually see in Japan. This film felt  
like a return to roots for Miyazaki. I won't go into the (green, and  
somewhat incoherent) narrative here, excepty to say that this is more  
Totoro than Mononoke. Kids will love it, and the audience in Tokyo  
cheered and clapped when it was over. But a word on the style. What CG  
he's used is pretty well hidden and seamless, while most cel-animation  
films these days are aesthetically schizophrenic. I appreciated that.  
The opening scene must have sucked up half the budget; set deep in the  
ocean, there are thousands of hand-drawn bubbles and stunning splashes  
of color. It subsequently settles into a less flashy style. The  
figures are fairly simple, often set in occasionally awkward movement  
through limited animation. Backgrounds are pretty pastel drawing that  
evoke picture books for young Japanese children. However, half-way  
through the film, a storm whips the animation into pure spectacle, the  
proportions of which few artists besides Miyazaki could achieve. It's  
a truly stunning sequence, and probably pretty scary for small  
children. The bright pastel palette of the backgrounds, turns dark;  
where they were frozen backdrops before, the ocean and trees begin to  
move and whip into a frenzy. It's masterful stuff. Finally, I'd note  
that the darkness of the storm is filled with subtle detail that will  
be lost on a television screen. Many scenes feature tiny animated  
objects that will probably fuzz into cloud, even on an HD monitor. I  
often found myself admiring an animator that is conceptualizing his  
film, start to finish, for the big screen. Be sure to see it in a  
theater.

Now has anyone seen the other two films?

Markus



A. M. Nornes
Professor
Department of Screen Arts & Cultures
Department of Asian Languages & Cultures
University of Michigan
Department of Asian Languages and Cultures
Suite 6111, 202 South Thayer Street
Ann Arbor, MI  48104-1608
Phone:  (734) 647-2094; FAX: x0157
Homepage: www.umich.edu/~amnornes



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