Projector: “An auteur is a director who manifests a consistency of style and theme across his or her films.” (Item 15)
Speaker: Watching Miyazaki films you will be drawn into a fantasy world of awe and danger, child-like in nature but the message behind it being incredibly hard hitting. Miyazaki explores the relationship between humanity and nature in the majority of his films and this is clear to any active audience. This potentially means Miyazaki is an auteur, something I will be explaining later in much more detail. Not every director is an auteur but pay attention to the quote on screen.
Speaker: Watching Miyazaki films you will be drawn into a fantasy world of awe and danger, child-like in nature but the message behind it being incredibly hard hitting. Miyazaki explores the relationship between humanity and nature in the majority of his films and this is clear to any active audience. This potentially means Miyazaki is an auteur, something I will be explaining later in much more detail. Not every director is an auteur but pay attention to the quote on screen.
Projector: Clip of Princess Mononoke (33min-35min32) (Item 2)
Speaker: This scene clearly highlights the greed and selfishness of humans that Miyazaki is trying to put across. It talks of the human's quest to destroy the forest for their own personal gain of more iron, even when Nago, the boar God of the forest, attempts to stop them, the humans don't care. Miyazaki is making the point that human's do not care what consequences any of their actions will cause even when they are staring them straight in the face. In short, human greed is always the most important thing and anything can be done to achieve the human's goals.
Projector: “What “The Art of Princess Mononoke” is really about is the
art itself, in particular the richly detailed background and concept art, and
one theme dominates every frame: nature.” (Item 4)
Speaker: This quote on screen comes from a review of the book “The Art of Princess Mononoke” and having read the book, I can tell it’s true. The book written by Miyazaki explores the artwork used in Princess Mononoke, one of my focus films. The review of this book shows Miyazaki’s themes are easy to interpret and simply put, to Miyazaki nature is power. For a theme to be easily interpretable it must mean a lot to the director and this pushes Miyazaki further to that role as an auteur.
Projector: Clip of Princess Mononoke (56min30-57min) (Item 2)
Speaker: This scene shows the rift between the creatures of the forest, the ape tribe now wish to kill the humans whilst the others simply want to preserve the forest. The apes have been trying to regrow the forest and have been planting trees every night to try and achieve such goal but the humans tear up all their work. The apes have decided the only real way to save the forest is to kill the humans otherwise 'we will all die.' The apes have had enough of being treated like lesser beings, who have to make way for the want of humanity, humanity has damned itself by damning the forest, Miyazaki is beautifully putting across his theme of humanity's nature with relationship, just as he does with the majority of his films and as such is an auteur.
Projector: "This exotically beautiful action film features gods and demons locked in a struggle for the future of the unspoiled forest" (Item 10)
Speaker: This quote comes from a review of one of my focus films 'Princess Mononoke', it talks of the prominence of nature within the film and it's meanings. I believe the quote on screen does an excellent job of summarising the film in one sentence. When the summary of a film mentions 'the unspoiled forest' it is clear that is this forest is key to the narrative and so supports my theory that Miyazaki is indeed an auteur.
Speaker: This quote on screen comes from a review of the book “The Art of Princess Mononoke” and having read the book, I can tell it’s true. The book written by Miyazaki explores the artwork used in Princess Mononoke, one of my focus films. The review of this book shows Miyazaki’s themes are easy to interpret and simply put, to Miyazaki nature is power. For a theme to be easily interpretable it must mean a lot to the director and this pushes Miyazaki further to that role as an auteur.
Projector: Clip of Princess Mononoke (56min30-57min) (Item 2)
Speaker: This scene shows the rift between the creatures of the forest, the ape tribe now wish to kill the humans whilst the others simply want to preserve the forest. The apes have been trying to regrow the forest and have been planting trees every night to try and achieve such goal but the humans tear up all their work. The apes have decided the only real way to save the forest is to kill the humans otherwise 'we will all die.' The apes have had enough of being treated like lesser beings, who have to make way for the want of humanity, humanity has damned itself by damning the forest, Miyazaki is beautifully putting across his theme of humanity's nature with relationship, just as he does with the majority of his films and as such is an auteur.
Projector: "This exotically beautiful action film features gods and demons locked in a struggle for the future of the unspoiled forest" (Item 10)
Speaker: This quote comes from a review of one of my focus films 'Princess Mononoke', it talks of the prominence of nature within the film and it's meanings. I believe the quote on screen does an excellent job of summarising the film in one sentence. When the summary of a film mentions 'the unspoiled forest' it is clear that is this forest is key to the narrative and so supports my theory that Miyazaki is indeed an auteur.
Projector:
"Eboshi is depicted as an astute business-woman with a desire to make
money at the expense of the forest, even if she must kill all the gods,
animals and trees there."(Item 12)
Speaker: This quote comes the book 'Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies', a book about the environmentalism in two films, one of which being Princess Mononoke. This quote alone supports my theory again of humanity destroying their relationship with nature. This book goes into great detail about individual characters and their relation to overall themes such as the suggestion that Eboshi “embodies environmentalist evil.” The writers of this book summarise perfectly Miyazaki’s message “supernatural forces of destruction are unleashed by humans greedily consuming natural resources.” I couldn’t really have put it better myself, Miyazaki is really starting to look more and more like an auteur.
Projector: Clip of Princess Mononoke (41min50-42min20) (Item 2)
Speaker: This scene starts with Eboshi talking about the forest creatures coming back every night to replant the forest but she scares them off by firing her guns, the creature of the forest simply want to have a home to live in but the human's desires are more important. Eboshi says she wishes to kill the forest spirit so that the creatures will be 'dumb beasts' again and therefore it will be easier for her to wipe out the forest and make it the 'richest place in the world'. Again, Miyazaki is showing that human's care more about their won desires than anything else and as such do not care what consequences their actions may cause.
Projector: "This is the complexity in the relationship between humans and nature and since this is a big theme of this film, I didn't want it to be a story about a bad guy." (Item 7)
Speaker: Pay attention to this quote on screen, this is Miyazaki speaking in an interview about Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki cares so much about the theme of humanity's relationship with nature that he doesn't even want a bad guy in his film because he believes that would take away from the key message he is trying to get across. I believe this speaks wonders about Miyazaki as a person; he would rather put across his own personal message about nature than stick to the typical narratives and have a bad guy.
Projector: "He's also an environmentalist, of a somewhat dark and apocalyptic variety." (Item 5)
Speaker: The quote on screen comes from an interview in which Talbot discusses Miyazaki's films, his influences and his temperament. Reading this interview, I was noticed the talk about many of Miyazaki's influences one of which being his family and Japan in general. The most important thing from the entirety of the article was this quote on screen; it supports my theory that Miyazaki is an auteur thoroughly exploring the theme of humanity's relationship with nature across the majority of his films.
Projector: Clip of Spirited Away (1hr2min50-1hr6) (Item 3)
Speaker: This scene starts with the revelation that the supposed 'stink spirit' has a 'thorn in his side', any active audience member can infer from this that Miyazaki means that humanity is a thorn in the side of nature. There is actually a ridiculous amount of rubbish such as a bicycle and fish hook and once this has all been removed it is revealed that is actually a spirit of a river that had been badly polluted by humans. Miyazaki does a brilliant job of personifying nature so that we empathise with it and therefore are more likely to take the preferred reading that humanity needs to change it's ways to preserve nature.
Projector: "I like that we should all treasure everything because spirits might exist there, and we should treasure everything because there is a kind of life to everything." (Item 6)
Speaker: This quote comes from an article about Shinto perspectives in Spirited Away; Shinto is an old Japanese religion, and one that Miyazaki uses in his films. True to Shinto insight, all beings become polluted and so must be cleansed to become their true selves, this is why Spirited away is set in a bath house. This is made especially clear when a 'stink spirit' comes to the bath house and is cleansed of all sorts of rubbish, when the spirit is clear, it is revealed that is in fact the spirit of a badly polluted river, no doubt by humans.
Projector: "Not the last of his films to resound with a clear environmental message" (Item 9)
Speaker: This quote comes from an article that talks about Miyazaki's major films up until The Secret World of Arriety (2010). It discusses all of my focus films and actually has Miyazaki's insight on some of them. The most important thing about this article, I believe, is the inspirations for the themes of his films, the mercury pollution of Minamata Bay being one, the majority of them are environmental influences and this is reflected in Miyazaki's films. As the writer of this article says about Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds, "this is not the last of his films to resound with a clear environmental message", further evidence for Miyazaki in his role as an auteur.
Projector: "Millennia from now, civilisation is destroyed in a man-made cataclysm known as the 'seven days of fire'." (Item 11)
Speaker: This quote from an article all about Nausicaä and serves the purpose of establishing the setting of the text. The quote tells us that the problem was man-made and as the film explores has left humanity as a minority on a world now ran by the insects of the forest, in short, humanity vs nature. The narrative is basically about humanity having messed with nature so much that it becomes an enemy to them, this fits in with the general theme Miyazaki uses across a lot of his films and the one in particular I am using to show that Miyazaki is indeed an auteur.
Projector: "Post-apocalyptic dystopia brought upon by human pollution and troubled constant warfare between the 'great powers'." (Item 14)
Speaker: This quote is summarising the plot for Nausicaä, and comes from a brilliant book that really dives deep into Miyazaki’s themes. It later discusses both Nausicaä and Mononoke saying they both have ‘an ecological message and what is really sought is a proper balance between civilization and nature.’ Miyazaki once again putting across his theme of humanity’s relationship with nature, making him an auteur. The book talks of Japanese religion and culture and the animistic influence it has had on Miyazaki’s work, many of his films focus on the spirit world because he tries to tell us that nature is just as alive as us. This is why he feels the need to put across a message to those who watch his films that nature is important and bad things can happen if we mess around with it.
Projector: Clip of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds (Start - 2min) (Item 1)
Speaker: The beginning of the film shows the now desolate barren wasteland of Earth, we are shown skeleton and hear the on screen character confirm 'another village dead.' After this we hear a voice over give us some exposition on how this came to be, we are told it is 1000+ years into a dystopian future, industrial civilization collapsed 1000 years ago and all that remains are the toxic jungles that threaten the lives of the few remaining people. In essence, nature has finally fought back, Miyazaki uses this text to show what will happen if we carry on the way we are now, we are constantly damaging our own environment to better ourselves, we are unaware of the consequences or rather we ignore them, Miyazaki wishes that we have an epiphany and realise what we are doing to the planet before it's too late.
Speaker: This quote comes the book 'Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies', a book about the environmentalism in two films, one of which being Princess Mononoke. This quote alone supports my theory again of humanity destroying their relationship with nature. This book goes into great detail about individual characters and their relation to overall themes such as the suggestion that Eboshi “embodies environmentalist evil.” The writers of this book summarise perfectly Miyazaki’s message “supernatural forces of destruction are unleashed by humans greedily consuming natural resources.” I couldn’t really have put it better myself, Miyazaki is really starting to look more and more like an auteur.
Projector: Clip of Princess Mononoke (41min50-42min20) (Item 2)
Speaker: This scene starts with Eboshi talking about the forest creatures coming back every night to replant the forest but she scares them off by firing her guns, the creature of the forest simply want to have a home to live in but the human's desires are more important. Eboshi says she wishes to kill the forest spirit so that the creatures will be 'dumb beasts' again and therefore it will be easier for her to wipe out the forest and make it the 'richest place in the world'. Again, Miyazaki is showing that human's care more about their won desires than anything else and as such do not care what consequences their actions may cause.
Projector: "This is the complexity in the relationship between humans and nature and since this is a big theme of this film, I didn't want it to be a story about a bad guy." (Item 7)
Speaker: Pay attention to this quote on screen, this is Miyazaki speaking in an interview about Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki cares so much about the theme of humanity's relationship with nature that he doesn't even want a bad guy in his film because he believes that would take away from the key message he is trying to get across. I believe this speaks wonders about Miyazaki as a person; he would rather put across his own personal message about nature than stick to the typical narratives and have a bad guy.
Projector: "He's also an environmentalist, of a somewhat dark and apocalyptic variety." (Item 5)
Speaker: The quote on screen comes from an interview in which Talbot discusses Miyazaki's films, his influences and his temperament. Reading this interview, I was noticed the talk about many of Miyazaki's influences one of which being his family and Japan in general. The most important thing from the entirety of the article was this quote on screen; it supports my theory that Miyazaki is an auteur thoroughly exploring the theme of humanity's relationship with nature across the majority of his films.
Projector: Clip of Spirited Away (1hr2min50-1hr6) (Item 3)
Speaker: This scene starts with the revelation that the supposed 'stink spirit' has a 'thorn in his side', any active audience member can infer from this that Miyazaki means that humanity is a thorn in the side of nature. There is actually a ridiculous amount of rubbish such as a bicycle and fish hook and once this has all been removed it is revealed that is actually a spirit of a river that had been badly polluted by humans. Miyazaki does a brilliant job of personifying nature so that we empathise with it and therefore are more likely to take the preferred reading that humanity needs to change it's ways to preserve nature.
Projector: "I like that we should all treasure everything because spirits might exist there, and we should treasure everything because there is a kind of life to everything." (Item 6)
Speaker: This quote comes from an article about Shinto perspectives in Spirited Away; Shinto is an old Japanese religion, and one that Miyazaki uses in his films. True to Shinto insight, all beings become polluted and so must be cleansed to become their true selves, this is why Spirited away is set in a bath house. This is made especially clear when a 'stink spirit' comes to the bath house and is cleansed of all sorts of rubbish, when the spirit is clear, it is revealed that is in fact the spirit of a badly polluted river, no doubt by humans.
Projector: "Not the last of his films to resound with a clear environmental message" (Item 9)
Speaker: This quote comes from an article that talks about Miyazaki's major films up until The Secret World of Arriety (2010). It discusses all of my focus films and actually has Miyazaki's insight on some of them. The most important thing about this article, I believe, is the inspirations for the themes of his films, the mercury pollution of Minamata Bay being one, the majority of them are environmental influences and this is reflected in Miyazaki's films. As the writer of this article says about Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds, "this is not the last of his films to resound with a clear environmental message", further evidence for Miyazaki in his role as an auteur.
Projector: "Millennia from now, civilisation is destroyed in a man-made cataclysm known as the 'seven days of fire'." (Item 11)
Speaker: This quote from an article all about Nausicaä and serves the purpose of establishing the setting of the text. The quote tells us that the problem was man-made and as the film explores has left humanity as a minority on a world now ran by the insects of the forest, in short, humanity vs nature. The narrative is basically about humanity having messed with nature so much that it becomes an enemy to them, this fits in with the general theme Miyazaki uses across a lot of his films and the one in particular I am using to show that Miyazaki is indeed an auteur.
Projector: "Post-apocalyptic dystopia brought upon by human pollution and troubled constant warfare between the 'great powers'." (Item 14)
Speaker: This quote is summarising the plot for Nausicaä, and comes from a brilliant book that really dives deep into Miyazaki’s themes. It later discusses both Nausicaä and Mononoke saying they both have ‘an ecological message and what is really sought is a proper balance between civilization and nature.’ Miyazaki once again putting across his theme of humanity’s relationship with nature, making him an auteur. The book talks of Japanese religion and culture and the animistic influence it has had on Miyazaki’s work, many of his films focus on the spirit world because he tries to tell us that nature is just as alive as us. This is why he feels the need to put across a message to those who watch his films that nature is important and bad things can happen if we mess around with it.
Projector: Clip of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds (Start - 2min) (Item 1)
Speaker: The beginning of the film shows the now desolate barren wasteland of Earth, we are shown skeleton and hear the on screen character confirm 'another village dead.' After this we hear a voice over give us some exposition on how this came to be, we are told it is 1000+ years into a dystopian future, industrial civilization collapsed 1000 years ago and all that remains are the toxic jungles that threaten the lives of the few remaining people. In essence, nature has finally fought back, Miyazaki uses this text to show what will happen if we carry on the way we are now, we are constantly damaging our own environment to better ourselves, we are unaware of the consequences or rather we ignore them, Miyazaki wishes that we have an epiphany and realise what we are doing to the planet before it's too late.
Projector: "In the distant future, a thousand years after 'The Seven Days of Fire', the holocaust that rapacious industrialisation spawned, the earth is a wasteland of sterile deserts and toxic jungles that threaten the survival of the few remaining human beings" (Item 13)
Speaker: This quote comes from a book called 'Journal of Religion and Popular Culture' and discusses the idea of Nausicaä being a saviour in a world where humanity's industry has destroyed about everything there is. This quote in particular heightens the idea of industry being the demise of our planet and it summarises the film well, it's clear that this film again follows Miyazaki's theme of humanity's nature with relationship.
Speaker: This quote comes from a book called 'Journal of Religion and Popular Culture' and discusses the idea of Nausicaä being a saviour in a world where humanity's industry has destroyed about everything there is. This quote in particular heightens the idea of industry being the demise of our planet and it summarises the film well, it's clear that this film again follows Miyazaki's theme of humanity's nature with relationship.
