“...auteurs have traditionally been discussed in terms of certain elements of their filmmaking such as narrative and genre, visual style and formal approaches, and thematic elements.”(Moist and Bartholow, pg 33)
For the journal, we picked “Moist, Kevin M., Bartholow, Michael (2007) ‘When Pigs Fly: Anime, Auteurism, and Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso’ Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal. 2 (1), pp 27 – 42. DOI: 10.1177/1746847706068904″
We all decided to take an aspect from it which interested us and analyse it. I picked the symbolism; of Miyazaki’s recurring themes, styles and ideologies. Firstly I began looking at other sources about Miyazaki’s symbolism; “Miyazaki’s films often are much more ambiguous, with darker scenarios and deeper themes.” (Prunes, 2003).
I found that many of his films have some symbolism in them reflecting his auteurist nature, for example Spirited Away. ‘Miyazaki himself expressed, “Spirited Away is replete with Japanese folklore” (Reider, Noriko T., 2005). It follows the Shinto religion; “Talking about his grandparents he has said that they believed, “that spirits existed everywhere, trees, rivers, insects, and wells anything. My generation does not believe this, but I like the idea that we should all treasure everything,” which is a key message of Shinto (Boyd and Nishimura, 7).” (Gartlan, 15) using the Torii “…could be interpreted as the fall of religion in Japan, due to the way it leans against an old tree in an unkept state, while it simultaneously foreshadows that the road ahead is sacred with significance to the Shinto religion.” (Gartlan,16) bridges, Jizo statues, “…symbolise[s] that she [Mei, My Neighbour Totoro] is protected and soon in the film she is rediscovered by Satsuki.” (Gartlan, 18) and Shimenawa.
(https://www.britannica.com/topic/Shinto)
(https://reactormag.com/studio-ghibli-shows-their-range-my-neighbor-totoro-and-grave-of-the-fireflies/)
In Porco Rosso, the film explores his identity, the war and redemption. When Porco is turned into a pig, it symbolizes how the war has dehumanized him because of the trauma he went through and also the internal guilt and scars that he has. It could also show his desire to leave the responsibilities he had as a human as she is distanced from people around him. It also represents his emotional detachment and avoiding his demons. Miyazaki shows pigs in a few of his movies. In Spirited Away; Chihiro’s parents turned into pigs due to gluttony, and Princess Mononoke with the hate spirit first appears as a pig. He stated that ‘The behaviour of pigs is very similar to human behaviour.’ (Mes, 2002)
(https://www.boredpanda.com/spirited-away-chihiro-parents-become-pigs-meaning-studio-ghibli-hayao-miyazaki/)
Airplanes are the main focus of the movie symbolizing freedom. This is a commonality in Miyazaki’s films as “Airplanes were a long-time fascination for Miyazaki (his uncle owned a factory that made airplane parts before and during the Second World War) and many of his films involve flying as a central narrative element…” (Moist and Bartholow, 33). He includes airplanes in movies such as Howls Moving Castle, Laputa; Castle in the Sky, My Neighbour Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Spirited Away, the Wind Rises and Princess Mononoke.
(https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/08/movies/miyazaki-flight.html)
Fio and the youth in the movie represent hope and optimism but most importantly, it showcases Fio, a female mechanic for aviation, who broke gender norms, especially around that time. This also shows more of how Miyazaki is an auteur as female characters tend to be the lead in almost all his movies. Miyazaki also portrays these female characters differently, “…the traditional shojo is a young female character who is kawaii (cute), naive and consumable. On that note, Miyazaki has been notoriously known to deviate his characters from the two latter attributes.” (Yazbek, 17). Instead, he portrays them as “…active, independent, courageous and, last but not least, inquisitive.” (Gajdos, 2023)
(https://geekymythology.wordpress.com/2019/06/10/the-heroines-of-studio-ghibli/)
Finally, fascism and war are a big part of Porco Rosso. The movie was based in 1921 Italy during the war. During this time, fascism came to rise with the dictator Mussolini, “‘From 1926 to 1929 Mussolini worked to consolidate his hold on Italy by enacting a series of Fascist laws that concentrated more power into the hands of the regime including launching a program of Fascist indoctrination of youth beginning in elementary school.” (Iodice, E, 27) Fascism is critiqued through the portrayal of the air pirates as they are shown as being greedy and cruel; a direct quote from the movie even states, “I’d rather be a pig than a Fascist.” (Porco Rosso, 1992) . This is again common for Miyazaki to include in his movies such as, “…The Wind Rises (2013), [which] is fully grounded in the reality of Japan’s involvement in World War II.’ (Ejaz, 10). He highlights the destructiveness of war and its effect on the planet/ environment, “…weaving in war serves a deeper purpose which is to declare war as a pointless endeavour humanity goes through.” (Yazbek, 2015)
https://tieryas.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/the-wind-rises-and-united-states-of-japan/)
In conclusion, we can see how Miyazaki is an auteur as he often shows themes of social issues and spirituality in his movies. He shows symbolism of pigs in Porco Rosso, Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke which is uniquely his. The recurrence of airplanes is influenced by his background and he shows the war, symbolizing his opinion that it is destructive and how much he opposes it.
Here is the presentation we made! My slides and references are below:
Reference List:
Porco Rosso. (1992). [Netflix]. Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Japan: Studio Ghibli.
Moist, Kevin M., Bartholow, Michael (2007) ‘When Pigs Fly: Anime, Auteurism, and Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso’ Animation: an Interdisciplinary Journal. 2 (1), pp 27 – 42. DOI: 10.1177/1746847706068904
Prunes, Mariano (2003) ‘Having It Both Ways: Making Children Films and Adult Matter in Miyazaki’s My Neighbour Totoro’ Asian Cinema. 14 (1), pp. 44 – 55. DOI: 10.1386
Reider, N. T. (2005) ‘Spirited Away: Film of the Fantastic and Evolving Japanese Folk Symbols’ Film Criticism. 29 (3), pp. 4 -27.
Lavender and Jane Gartlan (2024) Shinto and Miyazaki: Spirituality in Studio Ghibli Films.
Mes, Tom (2002). ‘Hayao Miyazaki’. Interviewed by Nouvelles images du Japon. Available at: http://www.midnighteye.com/interviews/hayao-miyazaki/ [Accessed: 16 February 2025]
Yazbek, Yara (2015) Miyazaki Hayao’s “Howl’s Moving Castle”: Environmental, War-Related, and Shojo Discourses”. Available from: https://asia.haifa.ac.il/images/pdf/Howls_moving_castle_SEMINAR_PAPER_Yara.pdf [Accessed February 13, 2025].
Gajdos, Noemi (2023) ‘The Linguistic Representation of Women in Hayao Miyazaki’s Movies.’ DOI: 10.61177. [Accessed February 16 2025]
Iodice, Emilio (2018) ‘Lessons from History: The Startling Rise to Power of Benito Mussolini’ Journal of Values Based Leadership. 11 (2), pp. 15 – 52. DOI: 10.22543
Ejaz, H. (2021). ‘Confronting Coming of Age and War in Hayao Miyazaki’s Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)’ IAFOR Journal of Literature & Librarianship. 11 (1), pp. 1 – 13. DOI:10.22492