Hayao Miyazaki Filmography Retrospective Introduction

Imari Williams here and you're listening to GeekCast

Radio Network. Hello and welcome to another very

special episode of The Cinema Geeks as we enter

into our second direct direct perspective as

we talk about the films of Hayao Miyazaki. And

joining me on this episode, actually we have

a jam packed group here. As last week, last time

we did this, Kevin Osomoto told me and of course

he's coming again. Kevin, how's it going? Not

too bad, excited to get into another director

spotlight and this time, unlike the Tarantino

spotlight, it's going to be something I'm completely

unexposed to. Interesting, interesting. And we

are actually bringing in the full crew for this

retrospective. Hard Candy Mandy, your first retrospective.

Are you excited? Popping the retrospective cherry.

I'm on board. Very nice. And joining us, probably

the expert when it comes to this category, Matt

Fridley Setman. How's it going? It's going well.

Yeah, it's probably the person who could actually

pronounce the director's name correctly, unlike

myself. I gave it a try. Alrighty, so what we're

gonna be doing here, this is our intro episode.

So before we get actually into the films, what

we wanna do is just give you guys an idea of

where we're starting off. Like how familiar are

we with the films of Miyazaki? Again, maybe by

the end of this, I will get it right. Who knows?

It will be an adventure, join us, won't you?

But Kevin, you kinda hinted already going into

this. So we did the top 100 anime series way

back when. Curious of any of his films like where

they drink for you, or are you simply just not

very exposed to his work? I Can honestly say

that I have not seen a single film that he has

directed so this is going to completely be new

stuff for me. I mean, I've heard of all of them.

I know a lot of them were very highly rated when

we did our top 100 animated films, so I'm definitely

looking forward to this. I'm not opposed to watching

these. I'm not opposed to close -minded as far

as liking or not liking it. I have no opinion

whatsoever, positive or negative, on any of the

films, so I'm just kind of excited to see which

ones resonate with me and which ones don't, to

see if it lines up with everybody else's opinions.

I'm in it. Are you around the same lines any

experience watching his films from the past?

A little bit I've really only seen Kiki's delivery

service and I loved it. My little brother was

a huge fan of this When he was younger and I

watched it a ton with him I I know of a handful

of others like Ponyo and Princess Mononoke is

spirited away. I've never seen them, but I'm

aware of them and I think if they're anything

like The style of Kiki's delivery service. I'll

probably have fun with it. I'm not like a huge

I don't know. This is pretty close to I Don't

know. It's almost like an anime feel to me, but

not really I think it's more just as a Japanese

style or something like that And I don't I don't

mind it really I've heard some bad stuff about

Princess Mononoke, I think Is that the one that

everybody's shitting on? No, I don't think so.

Well that one's from the I think 1999 I believe.

97? That's one of my personal favorites. So hopefully

not I mean I'm excited to see the rest of them

definitely because especially Kiki's delivery

service getting to Go back and revisit that one.

It's been a long time. So it'd be fun Matt, how

about you? I think you're probably much more

versed in this topic than we are. Yeah, a lot

so apparently. The first Miyazaki movie I ever

saw was Princess Mononoke back in late middle

school, early high school. One of my best friends

gave it to me. He's like, I just saw this movie.

It's amazing. It was before Spirited Away won

the Academy Award. I think it won okay. And I

know it got nominated. It might have won. It

was before that happened. So Miyazaki was not

really well known here to non -anime fans. And

it blew my mind. It was amazing. So I've always

been a fan of Miyazaki for most of my life all

of my adult life and then when I met my now fiance

I found out she loved Miyazaki movies and so

we've collected all of them Even ones that he

was like even studio gilly movies that he didn't

directly worked on but use a lot of his assets

and his storytelling style I've seen I haven't

seen them all like that's one thing is though

I've collected them all I haven't watched them

all So I'm excited to watch the ones I haven't

watched and rewatch the ones I have because they're

all amazing. Miyazaki is the guy I go to whenever

I meet a jingoistic American who's like, I don't

like Japanimation because they're like super

racist or whatever. I go, no, no, no. You're

thinking speed racer. Watch a Miyazaki movie

and you will be changed because you will be.

They're amazing. So we're all going to be changed

by the end of this is what you're saying. My

hope there is there are some doubts like My neighbor

Totoro, which might be in my top five favorite

films of all time is very slow. It's very even

keeled There's not a massive buildup. There's

not a massive conflict. There's not a climax,

but it's just amazing piece of slice of life

storytelling done perfectly It's so good. It's

magical. It's amazing And if you can't love it,

then there's something wrong with you. See I

do have some experience with with Miyazaki, I

have the first movie I saw him was Princess Mononoke

and it was I think like it was on a cable or

stars or something like that and I turned it

on and like I had no idea what I was watching

I'm like this is I'm at that time, you know middle

schoolish age and used to like cartoons of like

Disney cartoons and then I'm watching this deer

and then things happen to it and or not to to

explore other things, but it is, it was, I was

kind of captivated and then actually I ended

up going through a good amount of his filmography

to get ready for the top animated films countdown

that we did a few years ago and so I did catch

up with a bunch of them but I felt like in that

I was in the speed rush mode where maybe I didn't

sit down and appreciate them nearly as much but

i'm excited to go back and revisit them some

for the first time some for the second time uh

and i'm actually really interested in seeing

uh actually you know kevin your opinion on these

because i know i don't do you have any past experience

with anime at all like do you is there any ones

that you can go and go to and think that you've

I did, I have exposure to some of the old older

stuff. I mean, I'm not going to be able to throw

out titles, but I mean, I have seen some, but

man, the most recent watch that I had was when

Marnie was there and it was not good. So I'm

hoping that this kind of cleanses the palette

from that because I know a lot of the same people

that, uh, they like a lot of the Miyazaki stuff,

like all studio Ghibli stuff and man. There's

a couple of them that I've seen that I did not

like, but none of them have been Miyazaki films.

So I'm hoping that this is what I've been missing

because I'm not opposed to it. It's not, you

know, anime is not necessarily something that

I seek out, but it's not something that I have

like, I'm not gonna hold it against the film.

I'm not gonna say I'm not gonna like this just

because of the style. Amit, different questions

for you. Like, have you ever, you know, one thing

we noticed doing the... Quentin Tarantino retrospective

was just what you were able to see going from

a director's first film to his last film. Have

you ever done that previously, where you kind

of sat down and watched a director from beginning

to end? I did watch all of the Tarantino films

with Kevin while you guys were doing the... He

forced you along with it all. No, I mean I'm

a big fan of Tarantino so it wasn't like a chore

by any means I don't know if I've sat down and

just you know gone through film by film to see

the the progression of one director's work or

to really see the themes going in there. I know

that I'm not the best one to ask about that.

I don't really super pay attention to the directors.

Maybe now that I'm an adult and I have a little

bit more stake in how I watch movies as far as

taking away more from them instead of just going

along for this ride. I think that things you

know, resonate with me emotionally a lot more

and I see a lot more things that are from it.

technical aspect where I wouldn't when I was

younger I just wanted to you know see explosions

and gunfights and cool karate stuff but I think

that it'll be an interesting ride to see the

development of a director I'm not familiar with

I think that if I had a choice I would definitely

take Guillermo del Toro and try to do that with

him I've seen I try to see everything that he

puts out and that I know of and I can get my

hands on but as far as like release date I haven't

done that so I think it'd be a pretty cool journey

to see the progression I think along with that

what's interesting especially with this one is

the time span that we're covering because the

castle of Caliostro which is the first film that

we're talking about it was 1979 and of course

the wind rises which is the most recent one is

2013 so that's a 34 year if I'm doing the math

right about 34 year span which is a long period

of time we're talking about about 12 movies here

11 movies so I mean it's gonna be interesting

it's not just like the progression over a decade

where we had five or six films this is a long

career so it's gonna be a little bit of a different

animal I think with this one definitely definitely

and Matt knowing that you know this is well Kevin

and Amanda's and someone like this is a new Thing

for us anything you think that people should

keep in mind when they're maybe watching these

films when you're going into a Miyazaki film

maybe to prepare yourself to So you kind of have

an idea of what you're going to be experiencing?

The only thing I could really suggest is if anything

seems a little off They are steeped in Japanese

culture And if you don't know a lot about Japanese

culture some things might seem a little weird

to you but note know that they're they're legit

and like Very true to life and even if you are

from an entirely different culture Some of them

will really ring true to you. Even if they're

a little different. Yeah Looking forward to it

cuz I I I thought I watched his first film But

I realized that there were I always thought Castle

in the sky was his first movie, but I wasn't

correct He's actually I think that was his third

or fourth film third. Yeah And so many to catch

up with and um, this actually brings up a good

point too because how did we get here exactly?

Well, we actually got here where we got gave

you the vote and we Last time we did a retrospective

kevin and I gave out a bunch of different options

into the different retrospectives we were thinking

about doing and Miyazaki ended up winning actually

pretty pretty significantly if I remember correctly,

it's been a long time since actually look at

it Yeah, I think it was pretty significant win

there amongst the other three choices. So this

is what you guys voted for So hopefully you're

excited along with us to it to see this and if

all goes well We'll give you guys a choice for

what we do after this as well So yeah, so for

those of one knowing what we're doing basically

what after this the next episode will be the

first Mizaki filming and after that we will be

going into these movies in order reviewing them

giving our thoughts and then at the end we do

a little bit of a wrap -up episode kind of looking

back and Talking about our favorite or least

favorite awards all that great stuff But looking

forward to it and should be coming soon very

very shortly Anything else you guys wanted to

bring up before we end this intro episode. I'm

just looking forward to getting into it It's

like a huge blind spot. So this is gonna be able

to knock 11 films off of my List of shame, I

guess so to speak and I'm looking forward to

seeing which ones I like and which ones I don't

like All righty. Well, we were definitely looking

forward to hearing what you guys have to say

what we should be keeping in mind Maybe in you

know, what have you watched any of his movies?

Why did you vote for him? Because a lot of you

did Just be are you also gonna be following along

with us? It's a lot of fun. So looking forward

to what people have to say There's a lot of ways

to get in contact with us. You can email us at

feedback at geekcastreader .com. There's actually

also a Twitter handle at cinemageekcast. And

you guys are also on Twitter. What are your Twitter

names? Mine is at optimistsolo. I'm hardcandymandy,

eyes no whys. And I am at friendlycent. And I

am at Movie Revolt. But that'll be the end of

this episode. We'll be back shortly as we enter

into the crazy world of Hayao Manazuki. And by

the end of this, I'm hoping I get close to saying

that correctly. Who knows? We'll see you next

time.