Dani Cavallaro

I wish I could recommend this ER book to a wider audience, but The Late Works of Hayao Miyazaki is really only for Miyazaki enthusiasts, and even that group needs to be ready for an obfuscatory academic writing style. What saves the book is the enthusiasm of author Dani Cavallaro and some interesting insights and background facts sprinkled along the reading path.

Miyazaki was the artistic force behind animated films like Spirited Away (which won the Academy Award) and My Neighbor Totoro. It show more was almost worth the price of the book (well, it was free) to get the forgotten (by me) Voltaire quote that she gives at the outset: "It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." Miyazaki is a well-known pacifist, and anti-war themes repeatedly crop up in his movies. The author has some interesting discussions about that, particularly in connection with his movies Howl's Moving Castle and The Wind Rises. She also provides some fun anecdotes, like this one, from the director of the English version, about Lauren Bacall voicing the cigar-smoking Witch of the Waste in "Howl's Moving Castle": "We were a little bit scared before she came in . . . 'Oh, I don't know if she's going to appreciate being the voice of this blobby, fat, kind of disgusting character.' So we tried to explain to her a little before we went in that her character is maybe a little despicable. And she said, "Dahling, I was born to play despicable."

Those who appreciate Miyazaki's artistry and attention to detail in his films will understand his retirement comment that what has mattered most to him is "animating a cut that barely even matters, drawing the wind well, doing the water well, and making sure the light shines right."

Miyazaki declared The Wind Rises his last feature film because of his age. The author provides a good discussion of that movie's basis in the real life of Jiro Horikoshi, famed designer of Japan's Zero war planes used in World War II. Horikoshi was an engineer enthralled with the challenge of designing a sleek, fast airplane, but like his Italian counterpart Giovanni Caproni, knew his creation would end up being used for further killing in the war. This tension between a decent person's career based on his love of flight, and the purpose to which his work is put, makes for an ambitious and engaging final film. The author fairly presents Miyazaki's goal of "stimulating thought, instead of dishing out precooked morals."

The book also gives us glimpses of short films on view at the Studio Ghibli museum in Japan, and the good news that Miyazaki will be devoting himself to creating more such short films in the coming years, even as he lets go of feature film-making.

Mainly because of the unfortunate writing style (e.g. "Howl's intensification of the more serious facets of Miyazaki's vision is brought home not only by the film's sustained critique of ideological and political evils, but also by its exposure of hypocrisy and deceit within the microcosm of the family"), this one gets two and a half stars. show less

As a fan of horror fiction, I'm interested in the question of why people read horror. After all, why seek out fictional cruelties when the world is so full of real ones. Horror authors themselves, from Stephen King to Thomas Ligotti, have provided interesting answers, but Cavallaro's book provides a very interesting perspective. The Gothic Vision shows how works of dark fantasy allow us to contemplate and even accept the dark facets of our lives and our own beings that we do not tend to show more acknowledge in our "daytime" vocabulary. If you're interested in horror and the Gothic not just as sources of dark amusement but of philosophical insight, I would highly recommend this book. show less

An absolutely fascinating read. I'm a big Miyazaki fan and have seen his movies numerous times over the years, but author Dani Cavallaro is doing more than preaching to the choire. This study sheds light on the many facets of Miyazaki's works: his dedication to environmentalism, his optimism for the human race, his cynical views on uniformity - the themes of Miyazaki's later works are closely examined and presented in this thoughtful, thought-provoking study. Highly recommended for fans of show more Miyazaki, animation, or movies in general. show less

In her book, The Late Works of Hayo Miyazaki: A Critical Study, 2004 – 2013, Dani Cavallaro examines six movies produced by Studio Ghibli between 2004 and 2013 and directed or overseen by Miyazaki. She argues that these films represent an intensification of themes Miyazaki developed in his earlier work, demonstrating the core values that drive the director and inspire Studio Ghibli’s productions. These themes, from environmentalism, an examination of the human impact of war, and tempered show more nostalgia, are readily apparent to any casual viewer of the movies: Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), Tales of Earthsea (2006), Ponyo (2008), The Secret World of Arrietty (2010), From Up On Poppy Hill (2011), The Wind Rises (2013), and several shorts produced for the Ghibli museum. The greatest theme is nostalgia, though not in the manner understood by the West. Miyazaki’s films evince a uniquely Japanese form of nostalgia in which one laments the loss of possibility, the loss of an era, while treasuring both its artifacts and that it existed at all. This theme, pervasive in Ghibli’s films, is what elevates them above other animated features. Cavallaro’s work draws upon her extensive research and understanding of Japanese culture, resulting in a compelling academic work. The casual fan of Ghibli or Miyazaki may find The Late Works of Hayo Miyazaki a difficult read, though, as its target audience is academic with a background in English or Film Studies. Despite this caveat, the book is an excellent work of scholarship coming just as Miyazaki retires and will lay the groundwork for further academic study on the director and Ghibli. show less