Monday, March 18, 2013

Family Movie Night: Porco Rosso

Title: Porco Rosso
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Original Release: 1992
Choice: Our Girl's
My Overall Rating: 4 stars out of 5
Image via Wikipedia

The Armchair Squid is practically a Studio Ghibli fan blog at this point!  The work is certainly worthy.  Porco Rosso (Italian for Crimson Pig) is based on Hikotei Jidai, a three-part watercolor manga by Miyazaki himself.



The story stems from the master animator's passion for antique aircraft.  Porco is a WWI veteran fighter pilot, now operating as a freelance bounty hunter.  He is wanted by the Italian Air Force for desertion.  He has been cursed to look like a pig for reasons never explained in the story.  The tale begins as he rescues a group of schoolgirls from a band of pirates.

The artwork for the film is stunning.  That almost goes without saying for a Ghibli film but some of the landscape work is downright Monet-worthy.  Of course, if you want a beautiful film, setting it in the Adriatic is a good way to start.

A new Ghibli film was released in the United States this past weekend: From Up on Poppy Hill.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be showing anywhere in Vermont just yet.  My pal Suze found an interesting link about the film: http://io9.com/pessimistic-optimism-goro-miyazaki-on-his-post-nuclear-453752467.


12 comments:

  1. What fantastic news about the new Studio Ghibli film! You are making me want to revisit my Miyazaki collection now ...

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  2. The porcine motif reminds me of Chihiro's parents in 'Spirited Away.'

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    1. Hey, you're right! Different sort of curse, though. Porco still functions as a human - just looks like a pig.

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  3. For my January Birthday, daughter gave me tickets to the month long Studio Ghibli Retrospective of 8 films at The Loft Theater.
    This Summer there will be another retrospective of the movies they didn't show. Plus they are getting the movie Up On Poppy Hill. Can't wait.
    I have been to the Ghibli Museum in Mitaka Japan and I keep thinking I need to move there.

    cheers, parsnip

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  4. Porco Rosso is one of our favorites too!

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  5. Just watched 'On Poppy Hill.' It's left a craterlike impact on me. Very positive. I'm thinking of writing a post on it.

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    1. Now that it's out on DVD, I'm hopeful we'll be able to see it soon - all the more meaningful now that Tokyo has been awarded the Olympics again!

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    2. I didn't even know that. Awesome. Nice to find out through this blog. :)

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    3. 2020! They should really get it more often. Nobody hosts international sporting events better than the Japanese. Building infrastructure? Hospitality? Opulent spectacle? Nobody does it better.

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