Week 8: Porco Roso

This week's film Porco Roso is a return to the epic storytelling style of Miyazaki's earlier works (i.e. Castle of Cagliostro, Naussica, Castle in the Sky). However there is a definite difference between the styles of his earlier and this, Porco Roso. It's interesting to note that his previous film was centered around very fantastic storylines and set in various 'non-real' places. However, this time, Miyazaki sets the film in a definite historical location: Post World War I Italy and mentions various real world locations (Milan, the Adriatic, etc.). Previously we were only exposed to the Miyazaki who wrote fantasy, but this new Miyazaki is a breath of fresh air.

On the topic of setting, I believe Susan Napier said that Miyazaki uses unfamiliar (sometimes fantasy) settings to de-familiarize the viewer with the surroundings, erasing any prior rules or constraints that applies to their familiar world, such that the viewer's mind's eye will be drawn outward, and instead of focusing primarily on and inner conflict, we focus on more overarching themes (think Nausicaa where there is very little inner conflict/change). If we look at a film like Totoro, we are set in a very 'familiar' setting, the Japanese countryside which I'm told is familiar to most Japanese people. As a result we have a very inward focusing story focusing on themes like childhood imagination and coping. However with Porco Roso Miyazaki sets us in a place somewhere in between familiar and unfamiliar. On one hand we have historic locations paired with historic locations, yet to many it's something only familiar through text books and stories (i.e. Casablanca)

Perhaps by doing this, Miyazaki is trying to tread the middle-ground where the outward meets the inner, and what we get is a very romantic (in the sense of the movement and not just romance) story that explores topics like the definition of freedom, what makes a hero, and the power love has int it's various forms (phileos, eros, etc.). These themes cant be explored on just a single level, rather they are explored in both an internal context, i.e. Porco's internal struggle between being a rouge-gun bounty hunter or the hero and lover that his friends believe him to be. There are many more and it's cool to know how much a detail like setting can affect the flow and interpretation of an entire story.