The Ghibli Marathon

Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke is considered one of Hayao Miyazaki’s highest achievements for many reasons. This ecological animated fresco filled with colourful characters doesn’t lead to clear conclusions. It focuses on difficult questions: about the relationship between man and the world around him, about violence that’s inherent to nature, the line between good and evil. We are in a Japanese village in the 15th century. Young prince Ashitaka is attacked and cursed by a demon disguised as a boar. He goes on a journey to the land of forest gods looking for salvation, and on the way, he enters a town where people live off deforestation. The plot which connects two elements – people’s destructive rush and nature’s wild call – brings Avatar to mind. Yet Princess Mononoke is much subtler, both in its tone and in the way it employs digital means. This is Miyazaki’s first film to use 3D animation, but only when it is needed to show how extraordinary forest animals are.

Igor Kierkosz

Spirited Away

There’s no film in Hayao Miyazaki’s ouvre that’s more uncanny than Spirited Away. The protagonist is ten-year-old Chichiro. She tries to save her parents who’ve turned into pigs after they’ve succumbed to unrestrained gluttony. She must work hard to gain their freedom in a bathhouse for spirits and gods. The Japanese director’s eighth feature-length animation is a delightful yet disturbing fairy tale, filled to the brim with his typical obsessions. The animated land, which sparkles with a myriad of colours, is a reference to Japanese amusement parks which were built during the prosperity of the 1980s. The funfair is a symbolic place where Shinto tradition meets middle-class consumerism. The magical permeation of the two worlds happens in accordance with Miyazaki’s method which involves constructing the plot by jumping from association to association. Spirited Away is one of the greatest achievements in the history of animation and the director’s only film to date to receive an Oscar.

Igor Kierkosz

Howl’s Moving Castle

After the success of Spirited Away Hayao Miyazaki didn’t rest on his laurels. Howl’s Moving Castle, which premiered three years later, is another triumph of his imagination which is able use any source (this time it was Diana Wynne Jones’s novel of the same name) to make an autonomous and unique work of art. Motifs typical of the director’s work are easily recognizable: an independent child protagonist, journeys between worlds, an anti-war message. What makes his ninth film unique is the fantastic setting of the castle which walks on mechanic legs, and a particularly moving story about trying to understand a young person’s identity. The premise is the transformation of the young Sophie into a ninety-year-old lady. The girl escapes to the castle to remove the mysterious curse. Together with the magician Howl whom she meets along the way, they form one of the most moving relationships in the whole of Miyazaki’s ouvre.

Igor Kierkosz