This recent video essay by Aidan Villani-Holland looks at the similarities in camera work between Hayao Miyazaki‘s Princess Mononoke and Akira Kurosawa‘s Throne of Blood.
Miyazaki is of course a familiar name around these corners. Our film club even discussed Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke about two years ago.
3 July 2016
Ugetsu
4 July 2016
Vili Maunula
I suppose it’s really tough teaching audiences a new visual language, so they decide to go with what people are familiar with.
That’s an interesting point about Takahata, though. And it reminds me that I really need to watch The Tale of the Princess Kaguya which has been in my to-be-watched pile for ages now. Somehow I find the time for films like the new Independence Day film (which I know isn’t even that good) but can’t seem to get to the films that I would actually like to watch!
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I’ve often thought that Miyazaki is the true Japanese heir to Kurosawa in terms of the ambition and scope of his film making. I do find it curious though that so many animators follow cinematic conventions so closely when they are (in theory) more free to show whatever they want. I suppose you could argue that Miyazaki’s colleague in Ghibli, Isao Takahata is more of an ‘animator’ in that sense, as his films are closer to scrolls or picture books (I’ve often thought he is more of an acolyte of Mizoguchi).