I love the works of Hayao Miyazaki[ref]My two favorites are Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and My Neighbor Totoro[/ref]. Sadly, as we covered back in September 2013, Miyazaki has retired. Perhaps that was the impetus behind the lovely tribute from the Simpsons in the video above. If you don’t catch all the references, and I didn’t get all of them myself, have no fear. Slate has an annotated version that tells you where they all come from.
miyazaki
Sad News: Miyazaki Retires
Oscar-winning director Hayao Miyazaki’s animation studio says The Wind Rises, in competition at the Venice Film Festival, will be his last film.
So says this article. I’m sad, but how could I complain? He has given us so much already.
Miyazaki’s Newest Film Angers Japanese Nationalists
I’ve been a fan of Miyazaki’s work ever since I saw a butchered version of Nausicaa in school as a kid. I rediscovered the movie as an adult, and then the rest of his work. I’m excited to see his most recent film The Wind Rises, but apparently a lot of Miyazaki’s fellow Japanese aren’t as enthusiastic.
Miyazaki said this about the film:
My wife and staff would ask me, ‘Why make a story about a man who made weapons of war? And I thought they were right. But one day, I heard that Horikoshi [designer of the WWII fighter named the Zero] had once murmured, ‘All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful.’ And then I knew I’d found my subject… Horikoshi was the most gifted man of his time in Japan. He wasn’t thinking about weapons… Really all he desired was to make exquisite planes.
That’s why the film is unpopular with some: it casts Japanese history in a negative light as the beautiful dreams of Horikoshi are warped by militarism. Which, you know, is exactly why I’m so excited to see it. It’s good to have the right enemies, I suppose.