

Hayao Miyazaki upsets some fans and angers conservatives with his latest film - doctoboggan
http://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21582490-celebrated-director-upsets-some-fans-and-angers-conservatives-above-fray

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tomflack
> Conservatives have responded by telling Mr Miyazaki to stay out of politics.

The nexus of creative entertainment and politics alienates many. If one of
your well respected entertainers makes a political statement that you don't
agree with it can come as a shock. This attitude of "Stay out of politics and
stick to entertaining us you court jester" is present probably in every
country, and the most saddening because it has an implicit attitude of "I'm
allowed to state my opinion, but you are not."

~~~
GuiA
Generally, it's dismaying to discover that someone whose work you respect
holds worldviews that you disagree with. An example that many readers of HN
will relate to is the one of Orson Scott-Card, whose books are pretty great,
but who holds some pretty outdated views towards homosexuality*

*: [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-becker/orson-scott-card-h...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-becker/orson-scott-card-homophobia_b_3569146.html)

~~~
xenophonf
His books are entertaining, but "great"? Speaking as someone who suffered
through Speaker and Xenocide and couldn't get past the first chapter or so of
the first Thomas Covenant book, I beg to differ.

~~~
bennysaurus
(The Thomas Covenant series was by Stephen Donaldson by the way)

Card definitely has his own style with his work. Whether it's great or not is
dependant on the reader - [http://one-starreviews.tumblr.com/](http://one-
starreviews.tumblr.com/) gives some fantastic examples.

If you can, try the Seventh Son series though. easier read than Speaker or
Xenocide, and very interesting IMO.

~~~
xenophonf
Whoops! I meant Alvin Maker. Well, I'm not a huge fan of Donaldson either, for
whatever that's worth.

------
cing
Perhaps some casual Miyazaki fans were confused about why Grave of the
Fireflies
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grave_of_the_Fireflies))
was not mentioned in this article. It was animated by the same studio but was
not written or directed by Miyazaki.

~~~
dsuth
Thanks! This was my first thought. One day I'll have the courage to re-watch
that movie; it takes on a slightly different tone when you have a son and
daughter about that age...

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doctoboggan
> A SOMBRE exploration of love, responsibility and death, “Kaze Tachinu” (“The
> Wind Rises”) is being described as Hayao Miyazaki’s first animated film for
> adults.

I have been a fan of Miyazaki since childhood and am looking forward to what
he can do with more adult themes.

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bswap0
A trailer for those interested:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DthK9nX3UQY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DthK9nX3UQY)

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johnchristopher
Well. There were some spoilers.

~~~
rhizome
That sucks. Thanks for taking one for the team.

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jjjeffrey
Princess Mononoke a film for children? I'd say it's a touch too bloody for
most parents to deem it appropriate for their children.

~~~
sebcat
I wish I had seen it as a kid. It really has a lot of depth in it, a lot of
empathy. Self-sacrifice. Not showing the world as good/bad but as the complex
system it really is. Not giving up. A lot better than your average saturday
morning cartoon. Kids need to learn these things (not by watching cartoons
necessarily, that's just the carrier), or they might end up as adults with a
too simplistic world view.

Of course, for the younger children, Spirited Away might be a better choice.
And Totoro.

~~~
michaelbuddy
naruto never gives up.

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ekianjo
A very poor article on the topic. I saw the movie last week in Japan, and it
was alright, but not extremely good either (But since I hated the stupid
"Ponyo" movie, it could only be better than the previous one...).

It's very difficult to make a movie about an engineer who does not fly himself
(and therefore where there is not much action involved). Conveying his process
of thought was near impossible and most of the time you end up seeing him
scratching stuff on paper in the movie, or making paper airplanes. Mmm. This
could have been better.

The love story felt very pointless (and almost fake), compared to his other
movies as well. And since the movie was set in a realistic setting, there was
not much of the imaginative fantasy that I like from his previous works.

I liked some other aspects, like how he refers to the cultural exchanges
between Germany and Japan before the War, and how Japan felt that they were
clearly behind in terms of technology vs Junker. That was insightful and well
done.

All in all, an OK movie. I won't go and watch it a second time, however, I
don't think it deserves a second viewing. Unlike most of his other movies that
I watch from time to time.

Funny trivia, that you may have heard of: the director of Evangelion (Anno
Hideki) was chosen to dub the hero's voice in 'Kaze Tachinu'. However you can
clearly see he's an amateur and he does not put much passion in his lines.
Maybe that was on purpose. You get used to it after a while, but it really
feels like he's reading.

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gaelian
During a visit to Japan, I had the opportunity to get along to the Ghibli
Museum in Mitaka[1]. I've enjoyed the Ghibli/Myazaki stuff that I have seen,
even though my tastes generally lean towards the Seinen side of things. But
the point I wanted to make here is that the Ghibli Museum was totally awesome
and I'd recommend it to anyone with any interest in manga or anime.

1\. [http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/](http://www.ghibli-museum.jp/en/)

~~~
jayfuerstenberg
I also visited it a few years back.

It's no Disneyland but there's a wholesomeness to it. It's not just about
money, but also about humanity.

I really love Ghibli films and want to support the studio.

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otakucode
At what point would conservatives have been happy with any of Miyazakis films?

