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(APPLAUSE)

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(BRIGHT ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

MAN: 'Hayao Miyazaki has deeply
influenced animation forever.'

(MUSIC CONTINUES)

NARRATOR: For more than 50 years,

Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki has
enchanted the world with his films.

He has made 11 feature films,

a dozen short films and many mangas.

His work has attracted
millions of children

and adult moviegoers
all over the world.

(APPLAUSE)

Miyazaki is the creator
of Princess Mononoke...

..Spirited Away,
Howl's Moving Castle...

..The Wind Rises...

..and My Neighbor Totoro.

(LAUGHS)

(SQUEALS)

MAN: (SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

MAN 2: Every frame I can think of
of a Miyazaki film

has this pulsating,

scintillating liveliness to it.

(WIND GUSTS)

MAN 3: (SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

These masterpieces have earned him
international recognition...

WOMAN: He is very much revered
and respected.

He is successful and glamorous.

..for which he has been awarded
the most prestigious awards.

Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki.

The characters
he created have become cult.

(THUD)
(YELLS OUT)

(ROARS)

Miyazaki also co-founded an animation
studio, Studio Ghibli...

(ANNOUNCEMENT IN JAPANESE)

..whose productions
won over Japanese fans...

..before spreading
throughout the world.

There's a great deal of respect
for nature and all things,

it's just...
they're just beautiful films.

These films
that have become cinema classics

are made by an artist
whose life and work

have weathered
the storms of the 20th century.

(APPLAUSE)

(SPEAKS JAPANESE)

An awareness of the world deeply
rooted in Miyazaki...

(PLANE ROARS, GUNFIRE)

..that he cannot detach
himself from...

..because his films
also tell the story of a humanity...

..obsessed with war and conquest...

..struggling with wild consumerism...

..and at the mercy
of a raging nature.

(ENGINE REVS)

A humanity that leaves
future generations

a landscape devastated
by the climate crisis.

(WIND GUSTING, OBJECTS CLATTERING)

A humanity that seems cursed
and to him, beyond help.

We are all part of this huge
universe of natural connections,

and if we don't start
acknowledging that...

(FAINT RUMBLE)

..then we are gonna
be in big trouble.

MIYAZAKI:

Miyazaki has always been inhabited
by this deep tension

between darkness and light...

..a driving force behind a constantly
renewed creative desire.

(BRIGHT MUSIC)

Through the marvellous art
of animation...

..his dreams, made of connections
with the natural world,

were brought to life,

becoming an infinite source of joy
and hope.

This magical antidote enables him
to overcome his darkness,

and to reconcile him with life...

..a work which, in turn, questions
our relationship with living things.

MAN 2: We need to figure out how
we're going to care for this planet,

and I think watching a Miyazaki film
will help you to figure that out.

WOMAN: He is saying,
"You can't give up.

You can't walk away."

MAN 4: (SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

(BRIGHT MUSIC MELLOWS)

(MUSIC ENDS)

(INSECTS CHIRPING)

In the building harbouring
Studio Ghibli in a Tokyo suburb.

Miyazaki draws
at his narrow desk tirelessly,

at the rate of a few seconds
of animation a day.

He draws from his own memories -

the raw material
that guides his hand.

He delves into his dreams
and fantasies,

his nightmares and traumas.

(SINGING SOFTLY)

An intimate resource deeply rooted
within himself since childhood.

Hayao Miyazaki was born
in Japan in 1941.

His earliest memories will always be
those of the raging bombings.

(WIND WHISTLING)

(FLAMES ROARING)

(EXPLOSIONS)

(MISSILES WHISTLING)

(EXPLOSIONS)

(ROARING FLAMES)

(EXPLOSION RUMBLING)

"July 12th, 1945.

When I was four years old,

I experienced a night raid
on Utsunomiya.

"The sky was as clear as daylight.

Was it our house
that just burned down?

SUSAN NAPIER:
Basically, by the end of the war,

every single major city in Japan,
with the exception of Kyoto,

had been terribly bombed.

I mean, just devastated.

He was four years old
when the worst bombing happened,

and his family had moved
outside of Tokyo.

But then the bombings came to them
in this small city of Utsunomiya.

They were able to escape,
literally, through the flames.

He says
he remembers his street on fire.

(SOMBRE ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

A few weeks after the bombing of the
Miyazaki family home in Utsunomiya,

the United States dropped
two atomic bombs on Japan...

..killing nearly 250,000 people,

revealing humanity's new
and terrifying ability

to bring about total annihilation.

(BOOMING EXPLOSION)

(MISSILE ZOOMS)

(PEOPLE SCREAMING)

(CARRIAGE RUMBLING, BELL TOLLS)

(SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC)

Miyazaki grew up
in a devastated country.

This created in him both a hatred
of Japanese and their army

responsible for the situation,

but also an absolute fascination
with war machines,

including the Zero Bomber,

a military aircraft closely linked
to his family's history.

His father and uncle owned
a factory that made parts

for the Mitsubishi Zero aeroplane,
which is...

These were
these incredible aeroplanes.

They were brilliantly made machines,
but they became,

as Japan's losing the war,
kind of like coffins,

because they were the ones
that the kamikaze were made to fly.

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

So you have this terrible sense
of guilt

that Miyazaki has about his family
having, you know, made money

on a war machine
and a very terrible war machine.

Except he also appreciates
the beauty

and brilliance
of the Mitsubishi Zero plane.

They really were incredible planes.
So you see this...

He's always willing
to see other sides to things.

He's not black or white, you know.
He's complicated.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(WIND GUSTING)

Miyazaki's teenage years
were also marked by another trauma -

his mother's illness.

She developed a spinal infection
caused by the tuberculosis bacillus.

For nine years, Miyazaki lived
with his brother and father,

fearing that his mother,
bedridden and regularly hospitalised,

would succumb to this
terrible illness.

(BIRDSONG)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

INTERVIEWER: (SPEAKS JAPANESE)

(MIYAZAKI CLEARS THROAT)

(BRIGHT, PLINKY MUSIC)

"As I reached teenage years,

I realised that I shouldn't be
content with just being a good boy...

..but that I had to look at things
with my own eyes.

It led me to turn my back
on my childhood purity...

..combined with a dark period of
studying for an entrance examination,

I came to draw historical
and nihilistic manga."

(SOFT ENCHANTING MUSIC IN FILM)

"That's when I saw an animated film,

The White Snake Enchantress.

It was like the scales
fell from my eyes."

(LYRICS IN JAPANESE)

(SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

(EERIE MUSIC)

It is a traditional Chinese tale
that tells the story of a snake

falling in love with a young boy,

and she later transforms
into a human to live this love.

(WIND GUSTING) (DRAMATIC MUSIC)

At 17, Miyazaki had a revelation.

His passion for manga
was then joined

by a new passion for animated films,

a magical art capable of depicting
the fury of the natural elements,

as well as the delicacy
of human feelings.

An art capable
of bringing about wonder,

and warding off the despair
still deeply rooted within him.

(EPIC MUSIC PLAYS FAINTLY)

"In the 15 years that followed...

..my work revolved around
a single objective...

..to watch good animated films
and surpass them."

(MUSIC SWELLS, ENDS)

(FUNKY JAPANESE MUSIC PLAYS)

Tokyo, 14 years later.

Two giant pandas,
Kang Kang and Lang Lang,

have just arrived from China

as a sign of reconciliation and
friendship between the two countries

after the terrible abuses
committed by Japan during the war.

(SONG LYRICS IN JAPANESE)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

This panda-mania
led two young people,

the animator Hayao Miyazaki
and the director Isao Takahata,

to create an animation film together.

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

Huh?

(GIGGLES)

(CRASH)
(GRUNTS)

When Panda! Go, Panda! is released,

Miyazaki is the father of two.

Goro the eldest, now a director,
was five years old.

(SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

(UPBEAT MUSIC)

This is a film that already
encourages children to be free,

independent and to explore the world.

(SMOOTH JAZZY MUSIC)

Panda! Go, Panda! marks
one of the first collaborations

between Miyazaki and Takahata,
who met ten years earlier

at the Toei
Animation Studio Workers Union...

..in which the older Takahata
was vice president,

and Miyazaki was the secretary.

Miyazaki and Takahata are part
of the militant youth of the Sixties,

who questioned the decisions of
their elders responsible for the war,

and dreamed of another world,
with Marxist and pacifist values.

NAPIER: Early on,
Miyazaki really worshiped Takahata.

Takahata was older.
He was a mentor figure.

Miyazaki, really his only audience
for a long time was Takahata.

In his own mind. He was always
wondering what Takahata would think.

You know, and I think
that was probably very healthy,

kind of a healthy competition.

There wouldn't be
Miyazaki without Takahata.

Their relationship is
one of emulation,

rivalry and unfailing friendship,

leading them to become
two of the greatest masters

of Japanese animation.

Miyazaki spent nearly ten years
working as an animator

for a television series.

Then, he gradually freed himself
from Takahata.

He also received his first commission
as a film director

to adapt a successful
manga in a feature film...

(CHARACTER WHISTLES)

..The Castle of Cagliostro.

(CALMING HARP MUSIC)

(SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

This film reveals Miyazaki
as an animation prodigy,

capable of staging burlesque,
thrilling action scenes

that had never been seen before.

(ENGINE REVS, TYRES SCREECH)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(PLANE ENGINE ROARS)

(SMOOTH BRASS MUSIC)

NARRATOR: After this failure
in the movie business,

Miyazaki returned to television,

and even agreed to go to Los Angeles

for yet another job
as animation director.

This is for a Japanese-American
Hollywood co-production,

featuring Disney's top animators
and an entire Japanese team

including Isao Takahata
and Hayao Miyazaki.

The project is to adapt
the famous comic strip Little Nemo.

The problem is that the collaboration
goes badly from day one.

Miyazaki's proposals are rejected,

and he is unable to put
forward his ideas.

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(TRAFFIC AMBIENCE)

Every evening,
alone and far from home,

Miyazaki continues
his personal projects.

It was at this period of his life
that he created drawings

representing his deepest desires
and dreams,

already there since childhood.

Stories of connection between
the natural world and humanity,

that found no funding.

Miyazaki is 40 years old
and his career as a director,

that has barely begun,
seems definitely over.

(FAINT TRAFFIC AMBIENCE)

No one is interested
in his dreams of forests.

(INSECTS CHIRPING) (LEAVES RUSTLING)

"I've been dreaming
of an ancient forest.

There will be no concrete,
no asphalt,

no souvenir shops or alcohol.

If a tree was smothered by wisteria,

if an insect appeared
or if an animal was injured,

humans would not have the right
to take action.

If humans survive
for a thousand years,

this forest will become
the treasure of the world.

Let's erect a natural stone post
at its edge.

Let's engrave on it that this forest
represents the origins of humanity.

We are all born from the forest."

(TRAINS RUMBLING)

Back in Japan, Miyazaki
meets again with Toshio Suzuki,

an editor of the Animage magazine,

who has been interested in his work
since the beginning.

The manga,
a comic strip published episodically,

would finally allow Miyazaki

to gain total creative freedom
through drawing.

SUZUKI:

Nausicaa, a manga centred
on a heroine from Greek mythology,

with its publication
spanning 12 years.

During all these years,

Nausicaa will become Miyazaki's
incarnation of his anxiety,

his darkness, as well as his desires
for life and light.

The story of Nausicaa takes place
in a world plagued by pollution,

covered in deserts and acidic seas...

..which nevertheless shelters forests
with an abundant and toxic nature.

A world at war,
in which a princess, Nausicaa,

who loves insects and plants
as much as humanity,

does everything she can
to avoid annihilation.

A polluted world
for which Miyazaki was inspired

by one of the first
major ecological disasters

caused by the petrochemical industry.

"An important event led me
to the creation of Nausicaa.

The mercury pollution
on the Japanese coast off Minamata.

The bay became
a sea of death for humans

who were then forced
to stop fishing.

But then, after a few years,

schools of fish
that could not be seen

in any other seas of Japan
have reappeared,

and the rocks were full of oysters.

This news gave me goosebumps."

Nausicaa, an environmentalist
and pacifist manga,

the successful publication of which

would be the key to finally
convincing funders

to embark
on a feature-length cinema film

written and directed by Miyazaki.

(LAUGHS)

(LAUGHS)

(LAUGHS)

(EPIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC BUILDS)

NAPIER:
Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind

has this extraordinary opening scene

where the young protagonist,
Nausicaa,

lands and you see her going
into this jungle-y dangerous forest,

which has huge insects
and weird vegetation and everything.

(CREATURES CALL)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(CREATURES CALLING)

And this is the sort of messages
that he's trying to suggest

about the need
for human/nature interaction.

It's not just
humans dominating nature,

it's humans working with nature,

engaging with nature with respect,

and kind of intelligent love
and awareness

that we are all part of this huge
universe of natural connections.

(INSPIRING ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

(GASPS)

(SPEAKS IN FRENCH)

(GENTLE MUSIC)

(FAINT BIRDSONG)

(LEAVES RUSTLING)

Nausicaa tempted nearly
900,000 spectators in Japan

during the spring of 1984.

Miyazaki, Takahata and Suzuki

then decided to create
an animation studio.

Studio Ghibli.

(BRIGHT JAZZY MUSIC)

Miyazaki, who has been fascinated
by aeroplanes since childhood,

suggested using the name
of a military plane from the 1930s,

the Caproni 309 Ghibli.

The goal of the studio is
to finally give Miyazaki and Takahata

the means to create films that
live up to their ambition.

(BRIGHT MUSIC)

(MUTTERING IN JAPANESE)

A unique studio
which has even been available

in a museum in Tokyo since 2001.

This museum is a project
designed by Miyazaki

and transposed into architecture
by his son Goro.

"This is the kind of museum
I want to make.

A museum where those who
seek fun can have fun."

(PROJECTOR WHIRRING)

"Those who seek to think can think.

"And those who seek
to feel can feel.

A museum where you feel more
valuable leaving than entering."

(BELL DINGS)

(CROW CAWS)

(LAUGHS)

Since the early 2000s,

Ghibli has continued
to offer experiences

that extend the universe
of the films,

going so far as to open a Ghibli Park
near the city of Nagoya.

(BRIGHT MUSIC)

All these interior spaces
continue largely outside...

..within a park
designed by Goro Miyazaki.

(CROW CAWING)

(BELL JINGLES)

GORO MIYAZAKI:

(TRAFFIC AMBIENCE)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Ghibli's story starts in 1985,

when Miyazaki, Takahata and Suzuki

began producing together
the first film of the studio.

Castle in the Sky is an adventure

where two children go in search
of a mysterious flying city.

A castle, at the heart of which
lies a treasure,

a giant and stupendous tree that
seems to be a camphor tree.

(EPIC MUSIC BUILDS)

At this time,
Miyazaki was fascinated

by the world of plants
and camphor trees.

These trees, native to Asia,
are sometimes even sacred,

such as the one
at the Shinto temple in Nagoya

that is almost 1,300 years old.

(BIRDSONG)

This typically Japanese tree

serves as an inspiration
for Miyazaki's next film...

..a personal and intimate project
that he has dreamed of for years.

A film rooted in the reality of his
childhood spent in the countryside,

without robots or monsters,

without flying ships or pirates,

without explosions or antagonists.

A film centred on a forest spirit,

living in a giant camphor tree.

(OMINOUS ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

(MUSIC MELLOWS, BRIGHTENS)

(EXCLAIMS EXCITEDLY)

(GASPS)

(SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

(GRUNTING)

(BELCHES)

(GASPS)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(GRUMBLES)

(HOPEFUL ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

With this film, set
for the first time in his country,

Miyazaki makes us rediscover
a Japanese culture

that he feels is essential
not to forget today.

(BOY GRUNTS)

(GIRL GRUNTS) Ah!

(LEAVES RUSTLING)

(INSPIRING MUSIC)

Thanks to the magic of animation,

Miyazaki shows us a natural,
fantastic and magnificent world.

An imaginary world
which is nevertheless rooted

in the reality of a culture
where animism was,

not so long ago, still very present.

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

GORO MIYAZAKI:

(CHUCKLES)

(CLAWS CLACKING)

With Totoro,
Miyazaki invented a creature

that will gradually become cult.

(GASPS)

A source of happiness for a humanity

that is moving further
and further away from animism

and the living world.

This is what the anthropologist
Philippe Descola calls naturalism.

(UPBEAT POP MUSIC)

Tokyo, 1990.

The Japanese economic miracle
is at its peak.

Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli
have managed to establish

a reputation in the Japanese market,

thanks particularly to rebroadcasts
of the films on television.

At this time, everyone seems to be
having fun, except Miyazaki.

(LAUGHS)

(WATER WHOOSHES)

(DRAMATIC MUSIC)

(PLANE ENGINE ROARS)

(PLANE ENGINE ROARS)

Porco Rosso was a short film

telling the adventures
of a former war pilot,

now a bounty hunter
on the Adriatic coast in the 1920s.

(PEOPLE SHOUTING)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

The film shows a pilot pig,

reminiscent of drawings in which
Miyazaki represents himself as a pig.

Pig flag,

didactic pig,

tyrannical pig,

or a sad pig.

Impetuous pig,

scornful,

pensive,

or bossy.

Thoughtful old pig.

Or even in real life, Pig House.

(PLANE PROPELLORS WHIRRING)

(WATER SPLASHING)

With Porco Rosso,
Miyazaki creates a sort of alter ego.

A free and solitary hero
aboard a flamboyant red seaplane.

The problem is that
during the production of the film,

the Asian economic bubble bursts...

(OVERLAPPING SHOUTING)

..the Soviet Union collapses...

and in Europe,
the Yugoslav War breaks out...

..with the bombing of Dubrovnik
on the Adriatic coast...

..at the very location where the
action of Porco Rosso takes place.

Reality bursts into the film,

bringing Miyazaki
back to the present.

Porco Rosso can no longer be
just a fun and light short film.

The story becomes more complex,

and the film gradually becomes

a melancholic
and disillusioned feature film,

reflecting Miyazaki's
state of mind at that time.

(BIRDSONG)

Just generally, the 1990s were
a very tough time for Miyazaki,

in terms of his perception
of the world.

And his perception started
to change.

Even though Porco Rosso is...
I mean, it was a very fun film,

but at the heart,
there is this complexity

of feeling about
what kind of person should you be?

What kind of...
How do you deal with your past?

How do you deal with yourself?

(SONG LYRICS IN FRENCH)

"I had something of a realisation
while making Porco Rosso.

Put quite simply, that no matter
how messy things get...

..we have no choice
but to go on living."

(SIREN WAILING,
INDISTINCT ORDERS OVER MEGAPHONE)

March 20th, 1995.

The apocalyptic sect Aum
commits an attack on the metro,

dispersing sarin gas
in five carriages during rush hour.

A few months earlier, an earthquake
devastated the city of Kobe,

causing more than 6,000 deaths
and 40,000 injuries,

due to construction
unsuitable for earthquakes.

A series of disasters that delve
Japan into an apocalyptic mindset.

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

"The question then becomes:
what is hope?

And the conclusion I'd have
to venture is that hope involves

working and struggling along
with people who are important to you.

In fact, I've gotten to the point

where I think this is
what it means to be alive."

It is in this terrible context
that Princess Mononoke was born.

(CREATURE GROWLS)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

Princess Mononoke. One of the last
animated films on cel.

Entirely hand-drawn, hand-painted,

and filmed frame by frame.

Miyazaki, perfectionist
and obsessive,

redid over 80,000

of the 144,000 drawings himself.

(HAUNTING MUSIC)

(MUSIC CONTINUES)

(WATER TRICKLING)

This is one of Miyazaki's
most ecological films,

one of his
most explicitly ecological films.

That this idea that the work

is that the action is taking place
not on just a kind of stage set,

but in a kind of living world.

You know, Princess Mononoke
would be a great example for that,

right, where the actual
forest also has a spirit.

(CLACKING, JANGLING)

(JANGLING CRESCENDOS)

(JANGLING CONTINUES)

My absolute favourite scene
in all of Miyazaki's works

is when, in Princess Mononoke,

this deer God, the Shishigami.

And it's kind of
made of sort of phosphorescence,

it kind of gleams and glows.

And Miyazaki, through animation,

has captured a sacred,

non-human moment.

That is just...
It's a gift to all of us

to be able to see
this incredible beauty

of something that has
nothing to do with humanity.

(WATER TRICKLING)
(SLOW FOOTSTEPS APPROACHING)

(GRASS RUSTLING, WHOOSHING)

(WATER TRICKLING SOFTLY)

(LEAVES CRACKLE)

(SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

(SOMBRE PIANO MUSIC) (WIND GUSTING)

Princess Mononoke also marked
a personal turning point

in the life of Miyazaki.

(PAPERS RUSTLING)

MIYAZAKI:

(CHUCKLES)

A feature film
born of despair and chaos.

A film for which,
after being stuck for several months,

Miyazaki will make a decision.

For the first time, he will
no longer seek reconciliation,

but will depict
a living world and humanity

swept away together in fury
and destruction.

(TWINKLING)

(WOLF GROWLS)

(BOARS GRUNTING)

(WOLF PANTING)

(BOAR SQUEALS)

(PUNCHY DRUM BEAT)

In Princes Mononoke,
he creates this huge realm

in which you have animals and beasts

and gods and spirits and humans
all kind of combined together.

And how do you deal with it?

Well, he makes them fight,
because that makes sense.

This is what human beings
have been doing

since they sort of started taming
and domesticating nature.

And Miyazaki is, in a way, almost
kind of embracing that darkness.

As I said,
this is a turning point for him.

It's when he starts thinking

that maybe,
humanity can't save itself.

(EXPLOSIONS BOOMING)

(BOARS SQUEALING)

(EXPLOSIONS BOOMING)

Princess Mononoke becomes
an existential film

for which Miyazaki requires
complete commitment from everyone.

With this film,
Miyazaki draws on everything

that he's been concerned
about for the last 30 years -

spirits, forests, giant animals,

wars, diseases,

in the heart
of an ancestral animist culture.

All these elements associated
with his prodigious capacity

for rhythm and drawing.

(SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

(INDISTINCT CHATTER)

(PAPERS RUSTLING NEARBY)

(RHYTHMIC CLICKING)

MIYAZAKI:

WOMAN: (IN JAPANESE)

(SIGHS)

Oh, Miyazaki is not going
to give you the happy ending.

That's crucially important.

So he won't give us, you know,

humans happily living
in the forest with the beasts

who all suddenly,
magically know how to talk.

Instead, he gives us
a very ambiguous ending.

And this ambiguous ending
is very much part of Miyazaki.

And it also relates
to his vision of animism,

which is that you don't have
clear-cut endings in nature.

(LIQUID BUBBLING, BURSTS)

(PEOPLE YELL)

(LIQUID SQUELCHES)

(OMINOUS MUSIC)

(WOMAN'S ECHOEY SHRIEK)

A film that will remain
as Miyazaki's darkest,

while having nevertheless,
a phenomenal success.

CINEMA WORKER: (IN JAPANESE)

With more than 14 million admissions,

cinemas are sold out
for several months.

The film becomes a phenomenon...

..that will even exceed
the national level,

and mark a historic turning
point for Studio Ghibli.

(UPBEAT FUNKY MUSIC)

Thanks to Disney,
Miyazaki benefits from distribution

in the United States
for the first time.

Western audiences discover
Hayao Miyazaki,

a 57-year-old Japanese
animation film director...

MAN: Hayao Miyazaki.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

..who is already the author
of more than seven feature films.

MIYAZAKI:

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

Princess Mononoke,
mixing ecology, animism,

and characters inhabited
by good and evil,

appears to be a total discovery.

(APPLAUSE CONTINUES)

(CHUCKLES)

Despite the success, Miyazaki,

who completed
three years of production

followed by months
of promotional tours,

announces his retirement.

(RAIN PATTERING SOFTLY)

(FAINT EERIE MUSIC)

(BIRDSONG)

NARRATOR: Two years later,
Miyazaki seems to have changed.

He drives a Citroen Dolly with
its historic cormorant grey colour.

He had another studio built
to work peacefully,

not far from Studio Ghibli.

He has recently become
enthusiastic about a programme

to clean up the river
in his neighbourhood.

(WATER RUSHING)

"The Yanase River flows
next to my house.

Twenty-five years ago, it looked
more like a polluted ditch,

filled with leeches and midge larvae.

When I participated in the cleanup,

I was happier to see a real crayfish

than to have the grandiose feeling
of preserving nature.

What I'm trying to say

is that if you only look at problems
from the big picture,

like looking at them
from the top of a mountain

or from an aeroplane,

they can seem truly unsolvable.

But if you get closer to the ground,

if you can see a nice path
for about fifty metres,

you think it's a beautiful path.

And if the weather is good
and the sun is out,

you may feel full of energy."

(PEOPLE GRUNTING)

(MUD SQUELCHING)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(PEOPLE GRUNTING, YELLING)

(WATER AND MUD GUSHING)

(OBJECTS CLATTERING)

Spirited Away marks Miyazaki's return
after a four-year absence.

It's the story of a young girl
who must work in a witch's bathhouse

to save her parents
and return to the human world.

I'm thinking of that scene in the...
I think it's in a bathhouse,

where Chihiro is actually washing
this gigantic mud demon,

and out of this demon
comes all of this stuff, right?

All this human stuff
that it's absorbed, right?

That is literally the past.

This creature is filled
with the past

and out comes a bicycle
and out comes, like,

huge piles of trash, basically.

And then this being is free.

(WHOOSHING, SPIRIT CACKLES)

With this initiatory tale
intended for children,

Miyazaki highlights
a moral and ethical aspect

that has always run
through his characters.

Responsibility.

She's thrown into a situation
that she did not ask for.

You know, her parents have just
been transmogrified into pigs,

cos they're pigging
out on all this stuff.

CHIHIRO:

(GASPS)

(PLATES CLATTERING)

And then she has to be part
of this world,

and she doesn't know what to do,

but she takes responsibility for it,
right?

(GONG CRASH RESONATES)

Responsibility.

A value that resonates with a society
where adults are gorging themselves

and end up devoured
by a monstrous faceless being,

and where Chihiro's calm
and determined attitude

appears as an antidote.

(WOODEN CLATTERING, PLATE SMASHING)

She is a model of resilience
in the face of the temptations

of an insatiable
and terrifying creature.

(CREATURE GROANS)

And in a way those films
of Miyazaki are like that, right?

They're giving you
this beautiful suit of armour

with which to confront the terrible
things in our world, right?

Rather than saying
"Everything's gonna be fine",

they're actually saying,
"Sometimes things are not fine,

but you can show up for that
in an incredible costume."

(TRAIN RUMBLING)

(WATER LAPPING INTENSELY)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

With Spirited Away,
Miyazaki finds a balance.

A reconciliation
between his bleak outlook on humanity

and his long standing duty
to entertain and encourage children.

(BIRDSONG)

(UPBEAT POP MUSIC)

Spirited Away is a tremendous success
all over the world.

It will remain unbeaten at
the Japanese box office for 20 years,

and will bring 36 awards
and 19 nominations -

being recognised as an art
film with a Golden Bear in Berlin...

(APPLAUSE)

..as well as
great popular entertainment

with the Oscar
for best animated film.

Spirited Away, Hayao Miyazaki.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

A ceremony in which
Miyazaki doesn't take part,

as it's taking place
at the very moment

of the invasion of Iraq
by the American army.

(EXPLOSION)

"The world is currently facing
a very unfortunate situation,

and I am therefore sorry
that I cannot experience

the full joy of receiving
this award."

(LEAVES RUSTLING)

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

MIYAZAKI:

(VOCALISES TUNE UNDER BREATH)

Miyazaki is working on a new project,

which appears to be the final piece
of his vision of the world.

A film where
he resolutely addresses children,

in whom he has always
placed his hope.

MIYAZAKI:

(CHUCKLES)

A project echoing
The White Snake Enchantress,

the film that moved him
so much as a teenager,

about a love between human
and non-human.

(CHUCKLES)

(CAMERAMAN SIGHS)

(BRIGHT, EPIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

(WATER SPLASHING)

(EPIC MUSIC CONTINUES)

Ponyo tells the story
of a little fish who falls for a boy

and transforms into a little
girl to experience this friendship.

(SPEAKS IN JAPANESE)

It thus upsets the balance between
the human world and the ocean.

(WATER GUSHING)

(WAVES CRASHING)

A film that will echo,
three years later,

with one of the most devastating
tsunamis in several centuries,

causing the death
and disappearance of 16,000 people,

and the meltdown
of the nuclear reactor

at the Fukushima power plant.

(EERIE PERCUSSION NOTES)

(SOMBRE MUSIC)

"I believe the idea
that nature is always gentle

and will restore an entire
environment polluted by humans

is a complete lie.

And I believe that the idea
that we should cling

to such a saccharin worldview
is a big problem.

Nature that is generous is,
at the same time,

nature that is ferocious."

(PONYO SHRIEKS, LAUGHS)

Through the marvellous staging
of a terrible and destructive nature,

Miyazaki prepares us to live
in a chaotic world

due to the climate crisis.

(MOTHER GRUNTS)
(EPIC ADVENTURE MUSIC)

(GRUNTS)

There's a part
in the middle of Ponyo

where Ponyo
and her sort of adopted brother

are in the kitchen there,

and they're drinking
this hot drink to calm down,

I think the mother says,
"Let's calm down with a hot drink",

and outside, you see raging weather.

Right? You see waves, you see wind,

maybe the whole biosphere is
under attack right now, right?

In this little kitchen,
it's all nice and quiet, yeah?

This is
a very interesting interplay,

especially because what's
happening outside is silent.

(WHIMSICAL MUSIC)

(THUD)
(GIGGLES)

Watching that scene in the
Miyazaki film gets you ready for it.

And also reminds you that just
because the world is collapsing,

doesn't mean you shouldn't make
your son and your daughter

and your friend
a nice cup of hot something

with something sweet in it.

Right? Like, since when
were we not going extinct?

This has always been true, right?

(GULPING)

(SIGHS, HICCUPS)

(SIGHS)

This silence allows for
a kind of listening quality, right?

When you're listening to the world,

it's different
from imposing your will on it.

And I think this is
a very profound thing, right?

It's almost like the films are like
some kind of beautiful machinery

that actually allows you
and kind of makes you

and encourages you to kind of
pay attention in that way,

to kind of listen.

(WAVES LAPPING)

Then, the next morning,
the town is underneath the ocean.

Despite this world, which is turning
into a catastrophe...

..Miyazaki once again encourages
children to be curious,

adventurous and resilient.

And then they see creatures,

especially fish,
from a prehistoric era.

And it is strangely beautiful
and strangely peaceful.

And you viewed
this end of the world moment

all become part
of this much larger universe.

And I would say that
that's not totally unrealistic.

There may not necessarily be
humanity,

but there will be something.

And we are given, through Miyazaki,
a chance to see that.

(EPIC ORCHESTRAL MUSIC)

(HARP MUSIC OVERLAPS)

(TRAM WHOOSHES)

(GENTLE PIANO MUSIC)

(BIRDSONG)

WOMAN: (IN JAPANESE)

(DRINK POURING)

After Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea,
Miyazaki continues to work.

He makes two feature films
linked to his family history -

The Wind Rises, then finally,
The Boy and the Heron.

(WIND GUSTING) (INSPIRING MUSIC)

(SPEAKING JAPANESE)

(UPLIFTING PIANO MUSIC)

This film, what appears as a final
transmission to future generations...

..a film in which Miyazaki,
once again, challenges us,

and that could be summed up
by using its Japanese title,

"How do you live your life?"

So, how do you want to live?

(BRIGHT MUSIC CONTINUES TO END)

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