- That SBS decided to show each and every Hayao Miyazaki film, one a week, in chronological order
Tonight's offering was the oft and criminally neglected Kurenai no buta, also known as Porco Rosso. I've yet to see a few of his earlier movies, but from what I have seen, this is one of the big ones - it masterfully incorporates the beautiful scenic escapism of Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke), the charming innocent fantasticality (I'm patenting that word the second I finish writing) of Tonari no Totoro (My Neighbor Totoro) and a lovely silliness to its premise that it can call all its own.
Also, I might add, one of the greatest dub tracks this blogger's ever heard: Michael Keaton as the cursed, lone-wolf bounty hunter has a low key subdued resignation to his performance that really becomes quite outstanding in its lack of condescending exaggeration and camp-ness (Jim Cummings, I love you, but you couldn't ask the time without blowing a gasket). Susan Egan, whom I know only as the voice of the little girl's bathhouse roommate in Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi (Spirited Away), hits the right note with her character also: the lonely widow of an old friend of Porco's. The history between the two is never brought fully into light, and this is for the best. It's the feeling of the thing that matters, after all. And who doesn't love Carey Elwes as the hapless southern American antagonist, certain that the next step after being cast as the lead in the production of his own screenplay is none other than President of the United States?
It's performances like these that get you putting off your plans to bomb the embassy for Dubbing American Voices over Asian Animation for No Real Good Reason.
Mostly, though, I think what we all love about Japanese animation in general, Studio Ghibli in less general and Miyazaki in downright particular, is what I mentioned before: it's the feeling of it that matters. We don't really find out from Kurenai no buta what we think we want to know... and because of this, by the end, we realize we didn't really care to know it at all. There's a really amazing, beautiful scene in this film, one of the most amazing and beautiful I've ever seen, and it comes at you right out of nowhere, where you least expect it, smack bang in the middle of a a story about a renegade sea-pilot in 1950's Europe with the physical characteristics of a pig. It's what you watch Miyazaki for: his films are, in and of themselves, beautiful scenes in amongst the "film" that is world animation. We think we're just getting some pretty colours to look at, and then we get something like this. Good lord.
Stay tuned on SBS on Thursday nights for the next few weeks. Assuming they omit Miyazaki's seven minute masterpiece of a music video On Your Mark, next up will be Princess Mononoke herself.
4 comments:
I'm very glad to see that you enjoyed it as much as I hoped you would. I do love Porco Rosso so, and I'd forgotten all about the celebrity dubbing, also. Well, that's if you count Michael Keaton as a celebrity, I suppose, but I digress!
Your jab at Keaton is both warranted and jolly, but you forget one of the cardinal rules of Western Culture:
Any persons, animals or inanimate objects who have, at any time and in any incarnation, played the role of Batman are automatically awarded celebrity status. -P67
Ah, tsk tsk tsk, silly me! How could I forget? Oh, the shame I feel even at this moment, as it courses through my very veins.
I can't seem to recall a single piece of that man's work besides Batman. It's like he's some kind of clone with a created backstory. Scary. Maybe he's a replicant. Hmm, where's Harrison Ford when y'need 'im?
Whaddaya talkin about, you got the Pig, right here!
Also he was in Jackie Brown.
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