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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Hayao Miyazaki (ie. the guy who did Princess Mononoke)

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15:10 / 15.02.02

My local arts cinema is doing a short season of this guy's anime films, and the night before last I went to see the first one, not really knowing anything about it except that a)it's a Japanese animation, b)it sounds kind of deranged, and is therefore probably c)loads of fun:

Nausicaa of The Valley of the Wind

It was absolutely AWESOME .. a really, really imaginative fantasy/sci-fi epic with a fascinating world, an engaging storyline, well-crafted characters, some beautiful ideas and images and none of the shit (endless dumb action scenes, sexism & pointless personal rivalries) you usually have to put up with in anime.

If it was a live-action Western film, I reckon it would be up there in the pantheon with Star Wars and Lord of the Rings and Dune and so on..

it's just .. REALLY, REALLY GOOD...

So is anyone familiar with this guy's work?

How widely known are his films? (I've never heard of 'em before now)

Next week they're showing Princess Mononoke, and the wekk after that Laputa: Castles in The Sky (which I actually remember seeing on TV when I was a kid and really liking). Needless to say, I'll be going to both of those and dragging along as many people as I can..

15:18 / 15.02.02

Laputa is indeed fantastic. I saw it ten or eleven years ago when some kids at MIT were doing a weekly Anime night, back when I was more interested in Anime in general. But Laputa stuck - as soon as it started I realized it was the same guy that did Nausicaa which I had liked even in it's obviously butchered US video release. Laputa is well worth seeking out - I've often described it as what a Disney film might play like if it didn't insult you and make one feel like an asshole for watching. Which is a disservice to Miyazaki, really.

I later saw part of Porco Rosso/Crimson Pig via an import, unsubbed laserdisc. Seemed great, with better animation than Laputa and I've looked for a decent subbed release for years.

Now I just need to see Mononoke...

[ 15-02-2002: Message edited by: videodrome ]

15:41 / 15.02.02

First, gotta throw out this link: .http://www.nausicaa.net/

Second, I've got to highly reccomend the manga for Nausicaa. I haven't had a chance to see the movie yet, but the manga is easily one of my favorite. It's collected in four books and can be ordered from here

Oh, and a tid bit of info. Miyazaki has acctually completly disowned the US, British, and French versions of the Nausicaa film. He requests that fans not ask him about the versions, and that they pretend the versions were never even released. That is the level of his dissapointment in the cuts that were made to the films.

But, if you dig Monoke, you'll love Nausicaa. I can't wait to see the film. And if you haven't seen Monoke? Well, we just won't go there, since I assume most here are smart enough to have seen it by now.

Oh, and a question I've got about the dubbed Monoke. Did anyone here like the dub? Personally, I thought it was terrible. I'm wondering if that's just me though. Thoughts?

One last tidbit. Disney owns the rights to most, if not all, of Miyazaki's films (either directly or through Miramax). And there are theories floating around that Disney isn't releasing them to the international market so that people don't realize how inferior Disney's animation is. According to this theory, the "poor" dubbing of Monoke (to use their words) was deliberate. You know a guy is good when there are conspiracy theories about his work.

[ 15-02-2002: Message edited by: tSuibhne ]

18:06 / 15.02.02

Before Mononoke, I'd only known his work from "My Neighbor Totoro" & "Kiki's Delivery Service--and both of 'em melted my little black heart. Believe me, I tried to hate them, but they were just both too damn cute, especially Totoro. That said, I kinda wrote him off as someone who only did cutesy, G-rated stuff. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I just thought he only did Kid's flicks. But with Mononoke & the reccomendations of Laputa & Nausicca, I'll have to check out his other stuff.

BTW, anybody else notice that "Laputa" means "The Whore" in Spanish?

20:09 / 15.02.02

Yeah, MW - that's one rumored reason that Disney's been sitting on the film for years. If they do release it, you can bet that it'll be called just "Castle In The Sky".

20:12 / 15.02.02

I liked the dubbing of Mononoke, I thought they did a great job with the translation and choice of voice actors. I may have a skewed opinion though because I'm not really a big fan of subtitles.

[ 15-02-2002: Message edited by: Trijhaos ]

22:54 / 15.02.02

Ah yes.

The Cambridge picturehouse ran a season of Miyazaki films this term... they sold out pretty fast.

Got along to see a superb subbed copy of Crimson Pig/Porco Rosso, though. It's simply stunning - majestic and beautiful, almost made me cry. It needs a DVD release now, I simply loved it.

The rest is also, as mentioned, pretty wonderful too.

01:35 / 16.02.02

After starting to read this thread, I came across some info that made it seem like there was a Porco Rosso DVD arriving in the next couple of weeks. Scroll down this page for details. Ain't cheap, but it's a good movie.

<rot>Why are online Anime and Import DVD shops so poorly organized?</rot>

[ 16-02-2002: Message edited by: videodrome ]

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

04:16 / 16.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Margin Walker:
Before Mononoke, I'd only known his work from "My Neighbor Totoro"

When did this come out? Did it briefly involve a cat-schoolbus of some kind? Totoro being a...um...well, he had long ears, that's the only way I can describe what I'm seeing in my head. I think I saw this a long time ago.

13:25 / 16.02.02

Totoro came out in '88, but it was '93 or so when Disney released it in the States - seems like it had a small theatrical run before they threw it on video. At least I thought it was Disney - the video box cover on IMDB has a Fox Family Video logo, and Disney doesn't let their stuff change hands...ah, OK. Disney released Kiki's Delivery Service and Fox did Totoro.

Both great by the way and yes, Totoro did feature the Catbus.

[ 16-02-2002: Message edited by: videodrome ]

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

01:48 / 17.02.02

I knew the name sounded familiar. I saw when Disney put it on video way back when, so I can't comment on it. I do remember liking it, though.

I saw Princess Mononoke not long ago, and enjoyed it immensely. I thought the dubbing wasn't so bad (except for the female leader of Irontown, who I thought was a bit flat). But I've got pretty low dubbing standards.

01:48 / 17.02.02

Yeah I think these are the same prints that started off at the Barbican season last year. They said they'd be tourning the country afterwards. www.nausicaa.net has the tour info I think.

Hadn't really seen much anime apart from Akira before that and then saw Princess Mononoke and Kiki's Delivery Service on the big screen.
WOW in a word. Kicked Disneys arse all over. With Princess Mononoke you could have taken just about every frame and stuck it up in a galley.

Oh the Disney conspiracy theory I heard was that they bought up all the distribution rights, released them in a few cinemas and then dropped them. Because they don't like competition for their films. This is why after they put a lot of effort into dubbing Princess Mononoke they never bothered to put it on general release outside the US, and that was a halfhearted effort at best.

Damm must get a DVD player and buy some more of these.

10:54 / 20.02.02

Caught Mononoke last night - pretty damn terrific .. suprising the extent to which it was basically a remake of Nausicca, with everything in a slightly different order and far more emphasis on the ecological stuff.

Some seriously freaky shamanic stuff going on too - hard to believe a film that gets so damn strange towards the end could be such a hit.. give it a release, Disney, ya freakin bassards..

11:29 / 20.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Rizla Year Zero:
Caught Mononoke last night - pretty damn terrific .. suprising the extent to which it was basically a remake of Nausicca, with everything in a slightly different order and far more emphasis on the ecological stuff.

My understanding it kind of went like this. Nausicca, the movie, was done. HM thought it was good, but not quite good enough. He fleshed some things out with the manga to make it better, but still wasn't exactly happy with it, so he made Mononoke. May be he's still not happy, and we'll get something else out of him like this?

(BTW, I'm working on memory with no idea where the info came from, so I'm likely to be way off base here)

quote:Some seriously freaky shamanic stuff going on too - hard to believe a film that gets so damn strange towards the end could be such a hit.. give it a release, Disney, ya freakin bassards..

Didn't strike me as that freaky, it all fit in with the story perfectly. Oh, and not sure about the UK, but Disney did release it here in the US. Though, there is no subtitled version on VHS, just on the DVD.

11:31 / 20.02.02

You guys know that Miyazaki just won Berlin's Gold Bear (I don't know if it's how it is translated to English. Is a kick-ass movie award, just like Cannes. For serious art films, not like the Oscar) as *Best Film*, don't you? (Don't remember the name of the film, though).
Not "Best Animated Film", mind you. *Best Film*.

12:08 / 20.02.02

quote:Originally posted by tSuibhne:

Didn't strike me as that freaky, it all fit in with the story perfectly. Oh, and not sure about the UK, but Disney did release it here in the US. Though, there is no subtitled version on VHS, just on the DVD.

Oh, and Mononoke was released by Miramax, not Disney. Hence the translation written by Gaiman, and all the big name actors lending thier voice to the dub.

12:31 / 20.02.02

Had the first 4 of 7 parts of Nausicaa (not sure which edition) in my company since I was in middle school. Been thanking my aunt profusely since. Yes, the manga is simply amazing.

Was also pretty happy with Mononoke when it came out. Didn't know it was a Hayao flick until I saw the first couple of frames. Also...thanks everyone for the links...will be catching up with his earlier work...

12:42 / 20.02.02

quote:Originally posted by plaid banshee:
Had the first 4 of 7 parts of Nausicaa (not sure which edition) in my company since I was in middle school. Been thanking my aunt profusely since. Yes, the manga is simply amazing.

Any idea where I might be able to get those?

Looked around possibly-the-best-comic-shop-in-britain the other day and they didn't have any..

14:57 / 20.02.02

quote:Originally posted by Rizla Year Zero:

Any idea where I might be able to get those?

Looked around possibly-the-best-comic-shop-in-britain the other day and they didn't have any..

See the link in my first post for the online store for their US distributor. Amazon probably also has it. The original manga have been collected into four books.

16:05 / 20.02.02

Amazon - Miyazaki

Here's a link to amazon with some of his material they have...

02:06 / 23.02.02

Another good one is The Castle of Cagliostro. I think only the movie is by Miyazaki, and not the tv series. I rented it out of the blue, not realizing who made it until later. It's beautiful and funny, and the voices for the english version are very well done. I've got to check out Laputa & Nausicaa. So far, I've loved everything Miyazaki's done.

08:30 / 06.04.02

Actually, Miyazaki directed two Lupin episodes, "Wings of the Albatross" and "Farewell, Beloved Lupin" towards the end. Pretty much the same level of quality as with "Castle of Cagliostro".

13:24 / 07.04.02

Just seen the dubbed video of Princess Mononoke and I'm convinced they messed round with the soundtrack and audio while they were dubbing it. Is the soundtrack slightly different for the dubbed version?
As for the dub, it just sounded odd after seeing the orginal, the wolves didn't sound right for a start.
Might be because I saw the orginal first, the dubbed version of Kiki's delivery service sounded fine.
Well I'll just have to get the DVD version and a player I suppose :-)

Btw this is the UK amazon page for Nausicaa

16:30 / 08.04.02

ooh, that's lovely. I wish I had 44 spare £ lying around..

Goodness Gracious Meme

16:36 / 12.04.02

this is fab, wonder if there's a Ghibli season on tour, as there've just been a bunch in Brighton. Will be back but for now just want to gloat as a friend not only has the DVD set, but at work access to a massive telly with surround sound set up. Thursday nights are now officially Ghibli nights dahn ma way.

blissss

and thus far think my favourites are Princes Mononoke, My neighbour totero, grave of the fireflies and whisper of the heart... basically the bad ones are still pretty good, tend to be a bit directionless but still look/sound amazing, and the good ones are fantabulous... wondered round in a blissful glow for ages after seeing 'totero'

19:56 / 12.04.02

My neighbour totero, grave of the fireflies and whisper of the heart...

I don't think it's a touring season, cos I didn't get to see any of those..

Nausicca is still my favourite .. don't know why really, I guess it concentrated more on the elements I liked than Princess Mononoke (not that I wish to diss Mononoke, it was also wonderful almost beyond belief).

It was weird watching Laputa because I clearly remember seeing it on TV when I was very small and it absolutely 'blew my mind', so to speak .. some of the scenes (notably the one where they're on the flying island looking at the robots tending the gardens and putting flowers on the graves) I remembered perfectly .. it was just so much closer to the kind of entertainment I wanted as a kid than the usual crap.. (The fact that it's partly set in a Welsh mining village is pretty odd too).

00:37 / 19.04.02

Okay, just saw "My Neighbor Totoro," "Laputa," and am halfway thru "Nausicaa." The latter is filled with insects and fungi, and I doubt it will be anything short of a week before I get rid of the crawly sensation. Nevertheless, all are wonderful, and I'm amazed at how radically different Miyazaki's worlds are, yet how there are consistent thematic, even moral, elements to all of the films of his I've seen.

Murray Hamhandler

01:38 / 19.04.02

Finally saw Princess Mononoke. I really liked it a lot. It's something that I can see watching over and over. That's a good thing, right? Incidentally, I watched it the same night that I had this dream. I think that it may have had a hand in what I dreamt. Which is definitely a good thing. Right?
Arthur Sudnam, II

04:54 / 22.08.02

*bump*

You need Quicktime 5 to see it, but the trailer to Miyazaki's latest film ("Sen to Chihiro" or "Spirited Away") is out now:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/spirited_away.html. And there's a huge still from the film (at Cinecon.com) in this here link.

07:12 / 22.08.02

I have the Region 2 (Japanese) DVD of Spirited Away, and I say to you, go watch this film!

13:08 / 22.08.02

release scheadule for the film here Notice the DC date. Yes, notice it and envy me!!!

Now if I can just figure out where the hell it's playing and get over there before it stops.

17:59 / 22.08.02

"Review" of Disney's version of Spirited Away. It's acctually got nothing to do with the story and instead focuses on the burning question, "did Disney screw it up?" According to this guy, nope.

02:55 / 23.08.02

Have been looking forward to this. Just watched the trailer (my first glimpse of footage) and is it just me, or does a lot of Spirited Away look like a Japanese filtration of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy? The gateway to another dimension, shadowy adults and spectres, diabolical older figure waiting to steal daemons, I mean, names. Maybe it's just because I read Pullman's books recently.

Anyway. Found the subtitled import DVD at Poker for $25 or summat. When my girlfriend pointed out that it would cost us $16 to see it in the theatre and that money would go to Disney, I coughed up the cash for the DVD. Can't wait to get it...also ordered the trememndous (non-Miyazaki) The Happiness of the Katakuris. Woot!

08:45 / 23.08.02

Oh, why are these great films so difficult to get??

Different versions, "Region 2 DVDs", weird copyrights, subtitles vs. dubbing.. AAGH!

They should be sold ON VIDEO, in EVERY SUPERMARKET, NOW!!

12:45 / 23.08.02

Shouldn't be much more of a wait. Anyone know how long it took Disney to release the Monoke DVDs after it's theater release?

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