In recent news, Japanese filmmaker and childhood animator Hayao
Miyazaki announced a plan that is as enticing as Disneyland and chocolate cake
mountains. Seventy-three-year old Miyazaki is spending about $2.5 million US
dollars to build his own imaginative playground, replicating scenes and images
from his movies that bring nature and childhood together in yet another way.
This new “utopian” theme park will be built on a remote island with an intended
completion date set for 2018.
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One critic and researcher of Japanese mass media and popular
culture, Alistair Swale, discusses Miyazaki’s work in context of nostalgia and
learning form our past, followed by the influence or use of magic. “We might
also describe it as a "culturalist" approach, given that it tends to
prioritize the aspects of Miyazaki's work that engage in nostalgia as a means
to reclaim a lost past—an attempt to retrieve something essential to Japanese
culture” and might also be one we can all learn from. With the use of magic,
what is found is the connection between the imagination and viewing the past,
helping the continuation of nostalgia. This is quite apparent in Spirited Away, the title that Swale
focuses on most carefully, with the transformation of the real world for
Chihiro into a fantasy world where her parents get turned into pigs and she
must learn to be brave all by herself—a similar sort of advice a child moving
to a new city might hear, which is Chihiro’s story.
In this sense, the past that these movies convey is lessons
children must learn when they are growing. Miyazaki’s movies manifest dream-like
worlds and characters, becoming costumed real world experiences and current
issues, to allow children to interact with larger and often scary ideas these
movies encompass. It will be a hard wait until the completion of this very
special theme park, which will work to bridge the gap between children and
nature, moving them into a space closer to nature.
Notes:
- Swale, Alistair. "Miyazaki Hayao and the Aesthetics of Imagination: Nostalgia and Memory in Spirited Away." Asian Studies Review, 39.3 (2015): 413-429.
- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/hayao-miyazaki-is-opening-a-nature-sanctuary-for-children-on-a-remote-japanese-island-10488123.html
I watched a documentary on Studio Ghibli (Myazaki's studio) on Netflix, called "The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness." To catch even a glimpse inside that remarkable studio and the creative forces within is magical.
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