June 22, 2006

• It is not for me to say who is in the right in this situation Great post - but I'm calling BULLSHIT on the above statement. I'm going to sit right here until you, or someone very much like you, tells me EXACTLY what to think about this.
• Interesting. The whole family situation sounds like a classic Japanese TV drama.
• Very fab post Nickdanger! Not knowing completely both sides of the story it's hard to say. Is Papa Miyazaki jealous of his son? Or is he concerned the Studio are profiting off the Miyazaki name? Is there professional jealousy in his son not having properly undergone his apprenticeship before being given such a huge task? (Some industries here are very focused on you having to slog away for years doing trivial things before you can be trusted to actually do the work - the anime field is very much like this). To what degree has Papa Miyazaki's known love of control played a role in this? Calling in family business though is a bit of a low-blow though. No one's childhood is idyllic. How do you balance it all out between your craft/dream and family life? Should Papa M have chosen not to have little Goro at all? Really though if you have a famous parent and you are thinking of going into the same field the easiest solution would be to use another name to work under. I think that's pretty common. Anyway in review - red card the both of them!
• I liked it when you did the "spirited away" movie. It is a big favorite. Please make some more of that.
• *cries*
• Well, the younger Miyazaki has quite a passion for the Earthsea story, and writes pretty extensively on its influence in his life. Perhaps this, combined with a proven team of animators, will make up for a lack of experience. As far as quidnunc's need for an opinion: I really don't feel qualified, q. Really, the only person that I think we shouuld be looking to for a definitive statement of right/wrong would be tracicle. After all, she IS an admin and any words she utters are easily worth a baker's dozen of Nickdanger-opinions.
• Calling in family business though is a bit of a low-blow though. No one's childhood is idyllic. How do you balance it all out between your craft/dream and family life? Should Papa M have chosen not to have little Goro at all? Oh, totally a low blow. But I liked reading about it!
• D'oh! I forgot one link: The untranslated blog. It's all "written" in some kind of chicken-scratch nonsense though, guess he's too "artistic" to use actual words.
• gomichild runs away before anyone can ask her to translate the chicken scratches
• All I care about here's the finished film: will it or won't it be any good?
• Well, it's got a nice trailer.
• A little familial controversy (or juicy gossip) may generate some buzz for the movie whether it's good or bad. It will be interesting to read Ursula Le Guin's opinion once she sees the film. Neato post, Nick.
• Somewhere in those eighty pages of blog, he writes about a visit from Le Guin's son, who I think seemed generally pleased with the movie. At least, as far as whatever point it had progressed to at the time of the entry. Which I don't remember. And I can't find.
• Different trailer this one shown on a Japanese morning show. The trailer itself starts at 1:22.
• I'm a great fan both of (the elder) Miyazaki's movies and of the Earthsea books, and I'm sad to say the trailer doesn't grab me at all. There's something terribly generic about the character designs. As for LeGuin, I imagine she'll be annoyed that yet another production failed to note that the Earthsea characters aren't supposed to be white folks.
• Yeah, that ain't good. I've never read the books, so I had no idea. Arguably, at least, they seem rather typical Studio Ghibli anime in character design, which I assume means that they're more likely Japanese than white. I could be completely wrong about that, though.
• According to IMDB: Initially, "Earthsea" author Ursula K. Le Guin wanted Hayao Miyazaki to direct the film. At the time, however, the elder Miyazaki was tied up working on Hauru no ugoku shiro (2004), and thus could not come on board at the right time. And here's the blog page where he talks about meeting with Theo Le Guin. His impressions were: "The images are really beautiful. The song too, it's not like something from Hollywood, but felt really like Ghibli." It made a really good impression on him. and This was the first time I had seen Theo in a long while. It made me resolve afresh to make something that would not bring shame to the name of Earthsea. (I guess before seeing Theo he was thinking, "Well, maybe I'll bring a little shame to the name of Earthsea.")
• I'm not really an anime fan, but I have to really express my gratitude for the post. I am an occasional fan of japanese music, so I am familiar with the style. However, while watching the trailer here at work (yeah...okay, it's...um...my lunch break...yeah, that's it) I had such an overwhelming emotional reaction to the music. My word, when the strings come in, I just about lost it. Yes, I'm at work with tears coming down my face. What absolutely beautiful music. When the film is release, I shall find the soundtrack. Many thanks, nickdanger.
• I thought Hayao was retiring after making 'sen to chihiro no kamekakushi' ... can't remember the English name right now, oh yeah, Spirited Away, should have been more like the Sen becomes Chihiro in the land of the Gods, but ... marketing. Anyway, but then Howl's Moving Castle came out. Its obvious that his son has similar talents, so I wonder what the studio was supposed to do, with Hayao back and forth between not doing any more feature length animes and doing 'just one more'. I don't know what's actually going on. As long as I get to see a good anime movie, I'll be happy. I can't imagine the pressure on those guys though. If you ever watch the making of Spirited Away, you KNOW Hayao's home life was sacrificed when he was still working as an artist.
• Glad you liked it, ball point. One more addendum: Trailer 1 and trailer 2 on the Studio Ghibli site, which means higher quality than those posted above, but less fascinating information on outdated Japanese weather reports.
• I'm sure it was colder than 12 degrees that day...
• I won't believe you until you give me more pictures of you in the boots. Nope, not a word.
• Actually, "kamikakuchi" does mean "spirited away". The literal translation of the movie title is more like "Sen and the Spiriting Away of Chihiro".
• Hmmm, one vote for no likum, and a comment about de white folks. Dang, already I'm wishing they'd be faithful to the story. Me likes the Earthsea trilogy. Don't care much about the background on producer, just gimme the good stuff, and he'll have my vote.
• Thanks un- (I had to pull out a dictionary .. and then another, and then another to find that out). Although what I got was 'mysterious disappearance'
• Wow, what a fascinating story! The proof's in the pudding, of course, but most of the blog seems to paint a picture of a feller with his head screwed on right. And I'll add that I'm a fan of the work of both Jason Connery and Julian Lennon. Sure, their fathers show in them, but really, how can you escape that, even with an assumed name? You'd know Michael Douglas was Kirk's son even if he called himself Mitchell Dunkirk (Which I think is a pretty cool name, come to think of it).
• I'm biased, because I love Studio Ghibli and am not an Earthsea fan (I liked Tombs of Atuan, but haven't read the others), but they did a good job with Howl's Moving Castle. It was changed quite a bit from the book, but Diana Wynne Jones liked it a lot - it was it's own story. That said, I am very sorry they made all the characters white. Fantasy needs more variety in skin tone, and it's part of the world Le Guin created. Why would you change it? No reason but crass reasons - that it wouldn't sell with brown characters.
• Be interested, Nickdanger, in following this story after the film's released. Thanks.
• This is based on my memory of an old article on the subject of caucasian characters by Frederik Schodt, who writes about Japanese topics, including manga ... The convention more or less started with Tezuka Osamu, Japan's first superstar manga artist after WWII. He based his style heavily on American animation characters, so as a result, they look caucasian. This style became very popular, which begat a trend, and then a convention. The Japanese public came to feel that's how Japanese should be represented, and they expected this style. They way I see it, it's not a matter of the movie wouldn't sell if the characters were brown skinned, it's that it wouldn't sell because if the characters weren't in the conventional style, the Japanese consumer wouldn't identify with them. The movie is made after all, for the Japanese market.
• I'm resigned to the fact that no one will ever do a proper film of Earthsea. It's a pity, but we'll always have the books.
• You say "new Miyazaki film," and I pee, and then all the other monkeys are like, "Hey, stop getting pee everywhere... it's not even that Miyzaki," and I cry. And toddle off to watch the trailers. (Also, I speak little, little Japanese, but I'm pretty sure "Sen to Chihiro" means "Sen and Chihiro" - that is, "to" translates as "and" - and that the phrase meaning "mysterious disappearance" or "spiriting away" is probably one of the many many Japanese phrases that doesn't have a single precise English translation. ICBW.)
• dammit. Mi-ya-za-ki. *sob*
• verbminx: "to" does mean "and" but "no" is a possessive, so "chihiro no kamekashui" becomes a noun clause -- "chihiro's spiriting away". not trying to nitpick or be pedantic. i had to dig through my very rusty japanese for a bit to realize what the title was doing. And yes, kamekakushi probably has scads of nuances which "spirited/ing away" barely touches, none of which I know or would even attempt to guess at. back on topic: Nothing really to say, actually. I'm not familiar with earthsea, but I love Miyazaki the Elder's films. What's more, I have enough faith in the rest of the Studio Ghibli artists that they'll keep Miyazaki the Younger from completing screwing up the movie and thus messing with the "wa" of Studio Ghibli. If nothing else, it should be beautiful, and beauty often softens even the grossest flaws.
• I previewed that post three or four times and never saw the spelling error in the first line. I suck. should be "chihiro no kamekakushi". at least i think it should. at this point, i'm willing to bet I'm actually apply french grammar to japanese by way of the thick texas accent that rears its head when I'm way too tired and trying to post something. ugh. g'night.
• Ahem. "kamekakushi" is sort of like saying "hidden by turtle". It's "kami", not "kame". 神 (kami) means "god" (roughly). You know, like kamikaze (divine wind).
• dammit. Mi-ya-za-ki. *sob* Dangit, now I'm gonna have "Miya sama, miya sama, on n'm-ma no maye ni" stuck in my head all day!
• MonkeyFilter: "to" does mean "and" but "no" is a possessive
• Obviously, the presence of spelling errors in your posts proves that none of you know anything about this so called "Japanese" language. You are all hereby deemed WRONG with no possibility of appeal.
• HA HA! Judge Nickdanger rules that you SUCK ASS. Go back to CHINA, you goddam POLYNESIANS.
• I don't know what it is about shouting on the Internet, but I do love it so...
• Monkeyfilter: Go back to CHINA, you goddam POLYNESIANS.
• I wasn't even trying to translate it, I was just going by hamfisted memory, I went and looked it up after. I have it on good authority from dozen's of websites that it everyone (else) who translated it is correct for all intensive purposes, that its essentially "Sen and the [mysterious disappearance / spiriting away] of Chihiro" And that title works beautifully (in Japanese), which was what I wanted to say, because the movie isn't really about just being spirited away (taken by mysterious forces). Its about the disappearance of a self-centered, insecure girl who is replaced by a mature, confident one, and on a second level, the presence of 'Kamikakushi', disappearance brought about by god or spirit, is also literally true. The spirits Chihiro is exposed to (zeniba, no-face, haku, the river spirit), take away the Chihiro side of her, Chihiro is lost and Sen is found. I find that Disney dumbs these things down at the level of voiceovers and packaging to make them appeal to American audiences. If we had the full title, nobody would bother to go see it because we like things in near little packages. And don't get me started on 4kids and their butchering of good anime by replacing onigiri with popcorn balls (among other mortal sins) because obviously no American would ever bother to find out what an onigiri is. I know its tough because no-one can really capture the layered meanings of the kanji in a literal translation, again, my hamfisted "what the title should have been"
• I think I should have said literally and figuratively true, because Zeniba really did take away Chihiro and keep her from her world, but, meh. I fail teh interweb.
• I remember the Chinese translated title befuddled me somewhat, because it meant something like "A thousand miles a thousand search" (千里千寻) or "A thousand with a thousand search" (千與千尋), making a pun on Sen/Chihiro's name (Sen/Chi is written in kanji as "千", which means "a thousand").
• Conversely English titles of movies often loose their meaning when they are translated into Japanese as well. The English name in katakana is not so commonly used.
• Yeah, its brilliant. Her new employer takes her old name and makes her a number.
• Ahem. "kamekakushi" is sort of like saying "hidden by turtle". It's "kami", not "kame". 神 (kami) means "god" (roughly). You know, like kamikaze (divine wind). Right. Um. I was just seeing if you were paying attention. Ah, screw it. I spent most of my time in Japan trying to figure out the articles and never spent much time on the nouns. I'm pretty good at verbs, though. Or used to be.
• If it's "Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi" ... it's my understanding that "no" is indeed possessive, usually translating directly as "of". However, the structure is usually in reverse order to what it would be in English... so "Chihiro no kamikakushi" would definitely be "the spiriting away / mysterious disappearance / whatever of Chihiro." (Not ever "Chihiro of the Spiriting Away" - not that anyone was suggesting that - were you?) But what I don't know is if "no kamikakushi" is meant to apply to "Chihiro" OR to "Sen to Chihiro." So it could be "Sen and the Spiriting Away of Chihiro", or what I've heard before, "The Spiriting Away of Sen and Chihiro." Maybe someone who knows more can clear this up for sure. Japanese usually has shades of meaning and a lot of "understood" nouns. Nickdanger has the right idea disclaiming knowledge of this Japanese thing. Everytime I write something in romaji I feel dirty, but I don't know kanji at all, and it's Nihongo isn't it, and and and... pedantry! *sob* (This thread makes me cry like whoa! I'd also like to add that I know +/- two other things about typical Japanese linguistic structure, so my knowledge on this topic is pretty much exhausted.)
• The convention more or less started with Tezuka Osamu, Japan's first superstar manga artist after WWII. He based his style heavily on American animation characters, so as a result, they look caucasian. This style became very popular, which begat a trend, and then a convention. The Japanese public came to feel that's how Japanese should be represented, and they expected this style. I can see that (though I think I see more French influence in Tezuka Osamu's and Miyasaki's work than American), but that doesn't make me less disapointed. Studio Ghibli has been so progressive in other areas - the environment, making complex strong female characters - that I'm disapointed in them for not just making brown characters who none the less demand our sympathies, for trying to breakdown some of the Japanese and North American and European prejudices. They have done explicitly European characters and settings (Laputa/Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso, Howl's Moving Castle) which still found an audience in Japan. Japanese people have no problem identifying with European or North American characters - which makes me think that not-identifying with brown or black characters has more to do than with them not being Japanese. Audiences do relate to different styles of faces - Miyasaki himself (the elder) has never drawn faces in the way that most Anime characters are (eyes smaller, mouths larger - more French in some ways than Anime), and has done characters in very different styles - compare Sen/Chihiro to Satsuki and Mei from My Neighbour Totoro: Sen is about Satsuki's age (Sen is 10, Satsuki is 11), but she's drawn with a face more like Mei's (who is only 4) and with limbs that emphasise how young she is. The result is that she looks very different from most Miyasaki characters, and nothing like a typical anime character.
• There was a story in last month's Jane about an African-American woman who couldn't get a job teaching in Asia; from what the schools said she got the impression they didn't feel she fit the image of an American they were looking for. I thought at the time she might have been overreacting, but maybe not. Yes, The Underpants Monster reads Jane. Ya wanna make something of it?!?!
• Recall with some horror seeing long ago (and not nearly far enough away!) an animated version of The Lord of the Rings that s*****d beyond belief. (Quite possibly the Worst Film Version of any tale I've ever seen, including remarkable low points of old Vincent Price and Victor Mature flicks.) Also a most disappointing animation of Watership Down, though not in the same category of dreadfulness as T animated LOTR. Haven't yet been really gripped with enthusiasm for anime - maybe I'm just not seeing the right ones.
• Bees, did you ever see Vincent Price as Sir Despard in Ruddigore? I absolutely couldn't make myself watch the whole thing, and I'm his biggest fan.
• I've caught glimpses of both LotR and Watership Down in animated form. Very, very dated, very poor animation from what I recall -- I would have been probably about ten when I saw both of them.
• Monster, Vincent Price could be excruciatingly dreadful in a richly rank and hammy way; he was just tongue-in-cheek enough one didn't quite fling teh poo. Alas, never saw him in Ruddigore -- I was in my teens and devoted to horror flicks back when he was doing The Fall of the House of Usher and such. Think I was in my mid-thirties when I saw those two films, tracicle. By contrast Jackson's TLOTR seems a gem of the first water. Yet somehow no film ever measures up to what I see in my mind's eye when I read a book.