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Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live is a beautiful relic – and the end of an era

187 points by DemiGuru 3y ago

jfax 3y ago
>titled How Do You Live in Japan and renamed The Boy and the Heron for the international market This might sound pedantic, but neither of those statements are quite right. It's not called "How Do You Live" in Japan, it's called Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka. And it wasn't "renamed" for the "international" market, it was given an English name that it didn't have until then. I'm irked by this because this is something I've been constantly correcting people with, mainly to indirectly challenge English-language exceptionalism (anything not Japanese is English - we don't know the French or German titles yet), but also a reminder that any publication worth its salt up have emphasised that "How Do You Live" was a tentative title.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- BalinKing 3y ago
  Maybe I'm misunderstanding the context you're coming from, but I've always presumed that international titles are implicitly translated into English in English-language material. For the benefit of other readers: To my beginner Japanese–learning ear, "How Do You Live" is a pretty straightforward translation of "kimitachi ha dō ikiru ka". I don't think there's any subtext of English-language exceptionalism, here or in general, especially since this translation is so straightforward (except for maybe an English translation losing the nuance of "kimitachi"). Again though, I readily concede that your online interactions may be very different from mine—just wanted to add my 2¢ :-)
  - astrange 3y ago
    The movie is based on a book which was released under the name "How Do You Live" in English. So this may be partly because they didn't want to license the name, since the movie ended up containing 0% of the content of the book. But yes, it wasn't renamed. It just has another name. Nobody's hiding the original name from you.
    - morelisp 3y ago
      AFAIK the book wasn't translated into English until after the film was announced, and was pitched as "the book Miyazaki's next film is based on." (I agree the OP's comment is ridiculous.)
  - manuelmoreale 3y ago
    Maybe his point is that “How do you live” is already a translation and not the actual name of the movie. The actual name is the Japanese version. Kinda like saying that Rome is not the actual name of the city. It’s Roma because that’s how it’s called in Italian and the city is in Italy so that’s the actual name.
    - BalinKing 3y ago
      > Kinda like saying that Rome is not the actual name of the city. To be honest, I'd probably disagree with this too—the way I see it, in English, Rome is the actual name of the city. (It's not the "native" name, of course, but English isn't the native language of the city, so that's not relevant either way.)
      - manuelmoreale 3y ago
        I mean, by the same logic you could also change the name of people? If your name is Michael should I call you Michele because that’s how it translates in Italian? I say no because that’s stupid. Still, even if the parent post is indeed technically correct I don’t think it really matters the same way it doesn’t really matter if you call Roma Rome or Milano Milan or Venezia Venice.
    - ronsor 3y ago
      Printing 君たちはどう生きるか is meaningless to anyone who speaks only English, and a transliterated version technically isn't the Japanese title either.
      - manuelmoreale 3y ago
        I agree with you. But I also personally don't really care if they translate the movie title or rename it.
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
  - BalinKing 3y ago
    A further observation, to add onto my reply: The article prominently displays the Japanese poster with 君たちはどう生きるか on it. I agree that they probably should've given the Japanese title in the body text for clarity, but I assume including the poster goes some way towards indicating the presence of an implicit translation.
- mananaysiempre 3y ago
  kimi-tachi wa dou iki-ru ka you-and.others TOPIC how live-NONPAST QUESTION “How do you live?” seems like an OK out-of-context translation? Those are always fraught for cinema—the Russian release of Inception was titled Начало načalo “beginning”, which of course wasn’t the translation of the titular concept during the film itself (that was внедрение vnedrenie “integration, infiltration”)—but if you have to give something to an English-speaking audience, it’s probably as good as it gets. (Specifying the translation is on shaky ground would be good journalistic practice, of course.)
  - ericol 3y ago
    The comment above _is_ pedantic. It's stating that the name of the movie IS Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, that could be roughly translated to "How do you live?" Any other post about this movie, in any other language, is going to make the same "mistake".
- raincole 3y ago
  Just in case you are not aware, How Do You Live (the film) is based on a book, How Do You Live. The book was translated and its English name is just How Do You Live. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54110592 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54110592
  - dfxm12 3y ago
    When something has an editorialized name change between regions, the first thing I wonder is if some media already has that name [0]. I wouldn't be surprised if the movie distributors fear copyright issues with whoever released the book under that title in their market(s), or perhaps they don't want to give them such obvious free marketing. 0 - Like how the Japanese videogame titled "It's a Wonderful World" had to have its named change to "The World Ends with You" in some (all?) regions because of copyright issues. https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/04/17/breaking-the-language-barrier https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/04/17/breaking-the-languag...
  - jfax 3y ago
    Yes, I've read the book.
- chimeracoder 3y ago
  > I'm irked by this because this is something I've been constantly correcting people with, mainly to indirectly challenge English-language exceptionalism (anything not Japanese is English - we don't know the French or German titles yet), This is needlessly pedantic. By that logic, your use of Romaji is "incorrect" and Euro-centric exceptionalism, because the official original movie poster uses Hanji/Katakana. (And in fact, it'd be "incorrect" to say it was released in Japan, because in Japan, they'd say it was released in Nippon.) It's an English-language article about a Japanese movie. Saying "titled 君たちはどう生きるか and renamed The Boy and the Heron for the international market" would make no sense because the audience of English readers won't be able to make sense of it. It's not "English-language exceptionalism" to provide information in English when writing for an English-speaking audience, especially when it's clear in context that the information is a translation.
  - titanomachy 3y ago
    > This is needlessly pedantic Needlessly pedantic?? This... is... Hacker News!
    - chimeracoder 3y ago
      > Needlessly pedantic?? This... is... Hacker News! I stand corrected.
  - zerocrates 3y ago
    While we're being pedantic: there's no katakana in the title on the original poster.
    - chimeracoder 3y ago
      > While we're being pedantic: there's no katakana in the title on the original poster. I think you're right. My Japanese is very rusty at this point, but I was taught that titles were always written in katakana, similar to how titles in English are always written in title case. But う is hiragana, for example. I'm curious if anyone has an answer for this.
- QuesnayJr 3y ago
  Who is this "correction" for? Is there an actual existing person who thought the title of the movie was in English, and not a Japanese phrase that translates as "How Do You Live?"
  - jfax 3y ago
    For the article.
gwern 3y ago
It'll be interesting to see how the box office does. It's been a while since _The Wind Rises_ and Miyazaki is more beloved than ever and all 3 reviews I've read thus far seem highly positive (and certainly more positive than _The Wind Rises_), but there's also an extraordinarily low level of discussion. I was shocked when I clicked on the first review and realized it was a review - "oh, huh, when did it come out?" The justification offered about 'people being tired of marketing' sounds absurd, and more like they are finding excuses to skip work because they are old & exhausted, and another step in winding down Ghibli. I expect lower box office than it deserves; even Hayao Miyazaki can't release a movie with zero marketing and expect no effect...
- anigbrowl 3y ago
  There were long lines snaking out of theaters to see it despite the almost complete lack of marketing. Maybe people are sick of being marketed to, I certainly am. I'm not reading this review because I don't want to know anything about the movie before I see it. Even the international title is a disappointing concession to the retailing of art as entertainment product.
  - wk_end 3y ago
    I'm not sure how I'd title it if I were the American distributor, to be honest. It's not an adaptation, but 君たちはどう生きるか is the name of a book for young adults that the Japanese audience might be familiar with; the reference will be lost on an English-speaking audience, draining it of some of its meaning and nostalgia. Imagine a film called "The Little Prince" or something...but of course, The Little Prince isn't the same book, with the same themes, as 君たちはどう生きるか. And even if there were a book which the reference mapped onto well, it still feels like referencing a different title in the translation would be egregious. In that sense, I'm somewhat fond of "The Boy and the Heron", though I acknowledge it isn't ideal and, as someone who prefers more literal translations, wouldn't necessarily be the route I'd take. Without injecting any specific (and thus wrong) reference, it evokes the nostalgic feeling of English childhood fables and aphorisms - and it lends it their feeling of moral weight, too, just as the Japanese title does. It's a good and evocative title. The literal translation everyone's using, "How Do You Live?", also isn't ideal. There's a couple of grammatical mismatches between the two languages; whereas the "you" in English can be both singular and plural, the Japanese is explicitly plural; and Japanese doesn't explicitly differentiate present and future tense, and here the meaning is actually likely more future tense. But the big problem is that, to my ears, it sounds deeply accusatory in English, along the lines of "How do you live with yourself?" - and given Miyazaki's views and temperament that wouldn't have surprised me! But in truth the intended Japanese meaning is more inquisitive and philosophical. The original title, in the original novel, is from a book inside of the book, left as a question to the reader. In prose I might translate it as, "How will you, readers, choose to live your lives?", but there's countless variations I've considered; none of them are quite right, and to be honest none quite have the original's punch of a good title! (disclaimer: I'm a reasonably advanced student of the Japanese language but not a native speaker. Apologies if I've gotten anything wrong.)
HellDunkel 3y ago
Interesting how the verge has fully rolled back its site redesign step by step.
tehnub 3y ago
They say we don’t see movies like this being made anymore, but when did we ever see movies like Miyazaki’s being made at any time by anyone other than Miyazaki?
- Avicebron 3y ago
  There's obviously no one-to-one, Miyazaki being a legend for a reason. But I've founded the work by Satoshi Kon to give me a blending of fiction and reality and depth of storytelling makes me think a little of what Miyazaki does.
  - dragontamer 3y ago
    > Satoshi Kon In particular, Tokyo Godfathers hits in a way that not even Miyazaki can replicate IMO. Satoshi Kon probably wasn't as consistent as Miyazaki. But damn, the good Satoshi Kon movies were just beyond excellent. Mamoru Hosoda is also pretty good. Wolf Children is one of the most "hits you in the real feels" movie that I've seen, despite its surface-level fantasy premise. A true masterpiece, though other movies from Hosoda aren't quite as good IMO. Still, his Digimon and Summer Wars are fun watches. ----------- There's that off-branch of Ghibli, Studio Ponac too. I've only seen their collection of 3x short films: Modest Heroes (one about a crab family, one about an egg allergy, and one about an invisible guy), but its extremely "Ghibli-like". Modest Heroes is that mix of fantasy but very much down-to-earth storytelling that reflects upon life, in a child-friendly storytelling style. "Ghibli-style" as people might say.
    - windowshopping 3y ago
      I was a huge fan of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children, and started watching everything he made, only to find that he was no longer able to produce movies of that quality. The last 3 - The Boy and the Beast, Mirai, and Belle - have been mediocre at best with stories and characters that were very poorly assembled. I continue to have some hope for future films, but frankly my expectations are very low at this point. Not many directors have produced 3 duds in a row in the prime of their career and then recovered with incredible stories later.
AlbertCory 3y ago
Now here's some argument-bait: I prefer Miyazaki movies dubbed in English, rather than as subtitled Japanese. This is not true for ANY other non-English movie, where I always prefer the original language with subtitles. Why? Well, it's anime and the characters aren't "really" speaking Japanese anyway, so there's less lip-mismatch. And apparently the Man himself doesn't mind them. https://www.reddit.com/r/ghibli/comments/7jef8m/miyazakis_views_on_dubs_vs_subs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ghibli/comments/7jef8m/miyazakis_vi...
- woodruffw 3y ago
  Miyazaki is pretty well known for having “world-class” dubs; I don’t think liking them is considered controversial. Liking the Akira dub or the dub on a Satoshi Kon film, on the other hand :-)
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    The English dub of Castle In The Sky was famously very poor[1]. Most notably, much of the movie's quiet parts got crammed with music and extra dialog because Disney felt Americans' attention span could not handle long stretches of silence and simple ambient environment sounds. Granted this was one of the earlier Ghibli films and Miyazaki reportedly clamped down on these shenanigans on future dubs. 1: https://screenrant.com/studio-ghibli-castle-in-the-sky-english-version-changes/ https://screenrant.com/studio-ghibli-castle-in-the-sky-engli...
    - the_af 3y ago
      Much was said about Mononoke's English dub, but I find it terrible and flat. In contrast, the Spanish dub was top notch!
    - woodruffw 3y ago
      This listicle is hard to follow: it seems to be confounding the 1988 dub (hilariously bad) with the 1998 dub (which was done by Disney and is, IMO, pretty good). In particular, the items about Sheeta's recharacterization and removed silences don't apply to the 1998 dub. Miyazaki has had his fair share of bad dubs (including one of the Castle of Cagliostro ones), but I think it's fair to say that he's fared the best of any major Japanese anime director.
dvt 3y ago
Is this a bug or something[1]? Or is The Verge seriously expecting me to read an entire article in black-on-red? This has got to be some kind of cruel joke, my eyes hurt after about 5 seconds. Who came up with this atrocious design language? Ironically, the polar opposite of Miyazaki. [1] https://i.imgur.com/f0E4br6.png https://i.imgur.com/f0E4br6.png
- lostgame 3y ago
  It is not black on red besides the title? Did you not scroll anywhere past the title bit? :/ https://ibb.co/Fm0zz35 https://ibb.co/Fm0zz35
  - dvt 3y ago
    The whole thing is red for me (the screenshot I took is from below the title). I use Brave, but I also checked it out on Edge and Chrome, and there it's only the title (so I do think it's a bug on Brave). To be fair, even the title being black on red is absolute garbage-tier design.
    - Santosh83 3y ago
      Yeah the article body is black on red for me too, on Firefox. Must be some glitch.
      - mholt 3y ago
        Huh, I'm on Firefox too and it's only red at the title.
NikkiA 3y ago
This is the second post in as many days about this 'no advertising' movie...
- ketzo 3y ago
  I mean, it's the final film from a legendary director being released with a total lack of a traditional marketing. Do you want people to not talk about that? Not everything on the internet is astroturfing or whatever.
grogenaut 3y ago
Why does he need to market. I know about this movie because of all of the "not being marketed" news posts. Media is giving them a free marketing coupon it seem. He's playing it well. That said I rarely see movie marketing anymore. Only movies I know are out are barbie and Oppenheimer due to the meme and my friend insisting we go to both. I just don't see ads much anymore.
djmips 3y ago
Article ends with "And let’s not forget the monster 2020 success of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, whose 40 billion yen domestic gross demolished Spirited Away’s record of the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan." Nitpick: From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_Japanese_films https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_Japan... - it shows Demon Slayer at ¥40,430,000,000 (2020) and Spirited Away at ¥31,680,000,0000 (2001). This is like comparing $220 million to $290 million so it's not exactly 'demolishing' IMO.
- azmodeus 3y ago
  If you factor in 19 years of inflation, I wonder who is the winner.
  - ketzo 3y ago
    Coincidentally, Japan has spent the last 20 years in an extremely low-inflation, or even deflationary, environment. 31 yen in 2001 -> 32 yen in 2020
crakhamster01 3y ago
Very excited for this. I wish more films went with the no marketing approach, but I suppose it can only (maybe?) work if you're as regarded as Miyazaki.

187 points by DemiGuru 3y ago

jfax 3y ago

>titled How Do You Live in Japan and renamed The Boy and the Heron for the international market This might sound pedantic, but neither of those statements are quite right. It's not called "How Do You Live" in Japan, it's called Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka. And it wasn't "renamed" for the "international" market, it was given an English name that it didn't have until then. I'm irked by this because this is something I've been constantly correcting people with, mainly to indirectly challenge English-language exceptionalism (anything not Japanese is English - we don't know the French or German titles yet), but also a reminder that any publication worth its salt up have emphasised that "How Do You Live" was a tentative title.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
BalinKing 3y ago
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the context you're coming from, but I've always presumed that international titles are implicitly translated into English in English-language material. For the benefit of other readers: To my beginner Japanese–learning ear, "How Do You Live" is a pretty straightforward translation of "kimitachi ha dō ikiru ka". I don't think there's any subtext of English-language exceptionalism, here or in general, especially since this translation is so straightforward (except for maybe an English translation losing the nuance of "kimitachi"). Again though, I readily concede that your online interactions may be very different from mine—just wanted to add my 2¢ :-)
- astrange 3y ago
  The movie is based on a book which was released under the name "How Do You Live" in English. So this may be partly because they didn't want to license the name, since the movie ended up containing 0% of the content of the book. But yes, it wasn't renamed. It just has another name. Nobody's hiding the original name from you.
  - morelisp 3y ago
    AFAIK the book wasn't translated into English until after the film was announced, and was pitched as "the book Miyazaki's next film is based on." (I agree the OP's comment is ridiculous.)
- manuelmoreale 3y ago
  Maybe his point is that “How do you live” is already a translation and not the actual name of the movie. The actual name is the Japanese version. Kinda like saying that Rome is not the actual name of the city. It’s Roma because that’s how it’s called in Italian and the city is in Italy so that’s the actual name.
  - BalinKing 3y ago
    > Kinda like saying that Rome is not the actual name of the city. To be honest, I'd probably disagree with this too—the way I see it, in English, Rome is the actual name of the city. (It's not the "native" name, of course, but English isn't the native language of the city, so that's not relevant either way.)
    - manuelmoreale 3y ago
      I mean, by the same logic you could also change the name of people? If your name is Michael should I call you Michele because that’s how it translates in Italian? I say no because that’s stupid. Still, even if the parent post is indeed technically correct I don’t think it really matters the same way it doesn’t really matter if you call Roma Rome or Milano Milan or Venezia Venice.
  - ronsor 3y ago
    Printing 君たちはどう生きるか is meaningless to anyone who speaks only English, and a transliterated version technically isn't the Japanese title either.
    - manuelmoreale 3y ago
      I agree with you. But I also personally don't really care if they translate the movie title or rename it.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
- BalinKing 3y ago
  A further observation, to add onto my reply: The article prominently displays the Japanese poster with 君たちはどう生きるか on it. I agree that they probably should've given the Japanese title in the body text for clarity, but I assume including the poster goes some way towards indicating the presence of an implicit translation.
mananaysiempre 3y ago
kimi-tachi wa dou iki-ru ka you-and.others TOPIC how live-NONPAST QUESTION “How do you live?” seems like an OK out-of-context translation? Those are always fraught for cinema—the Russian release of Inception was titled Начало načalo “beginning”, which of course wasn’t the translation of the titular concept during the film itself (that was внедрение vnedrenie “integration, infiltration”)—but if you have to give something to an English-speaking audience, it’s probably as good as it gets. (Specifying the translation is on shaky ground would be good journalistic practice, of course.)
- ericol 3y ago
  The comment above _is_ pedantic. It's stating that the name of the movie IS Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, that could be roughly translated to "How do you live?" Any other post about this movie, in any other language, is going to make the same "mistake".
raincole 3y ago
Just in case you are not aware, How Do You Live (the film) is based on a book, How Do You Live. The book was translated and its English name is just How Do You Live. https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54110592 https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/54110592
- dfxm12 3y ago
  When something has an editorialized name change between regions, the first thing I wonder is if some media already has that name [0]. I wouldn't be surprised if the movie distributors fear copyright issues with whoever released the book under that title in their market(s), or perhaps they don't want to give them such obvious free marketing. 0 - Like how the Japanese videogame titled "It's a Wonderful World" had to have its named change to "The World Ends with You" in some (all?) regions because of copyright issues. https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/04/17/breaking-the-language-barrier https://www.ign.com/articles/2008/04/17/breaking-the-languag...
- jfax 3y ago
  Yes, I've read the book.
chimeracoder 3y ago
> I'm irked by this because this is something I've been constantly correcting people with, mainly to indirectly challenge English-language exceptionalism (anything not Japanese is English - we don't know the French or German titles yet), This is needlessly pedantic. By that logic, your use of Romaji is "incorrect" and Euro-centric exceptionalism, because the official original movie poster uses Hanji/Katakana. (And in fact, it'd be "incorrect" to say it was released in Japan, because in Japan, they'd say it was released in Nippon.) It's an English-language article about a Japanese movie. Saying "titled 君たちはどう生きるか and renamed The Boy and the Heron for the international market" would make no sense because the audience of English readers won't be able to make sense of it. It's not "English-language exceptionalism" to provide information in English when writing for an English-speaking audience, especially when it's clear in context that the information is a translation.
- titanomachy 3y ago
  > This is needlessly pedantic Needlessly pedantic?? This... is... Hacker News!
  - chimeracoder 3y ago
    > Needlessly pedantic?? This... is... Hacker News! I stand corrected.
- zerocrates 3y ago
  While we're being pedantic: there's no katakana in the title on the original poster.
  - chimeracoder 3y ago
    > While we're being pedantic: there's no katakana in the title on the original poster. I think you're right. My Japanese is very rusty at this point, but I was taught that titles were always written in katakana, similar to how titles in English are always written in title case. But う is hiragana, for example. I'm curious if anyone has an answer for this.
QuesnayJr 3y ago
Who is this "correction" for? Is there an actual existing person who thought the title of the movie was in English, and not a Japanese phrase that translates as "How Do You Live?"
- jfax 3y ago
  For the article.

gwern 3y ago

It'll be interesting to see how the box office does. It's been a while since _The Wind Rises_ and Miyazaki is more beloved than ever and all 3 reviews I've read thus far seem highly positive (and certainly more positive than _The Wind Rises_), but there's also an extraordinarily low level of discussion. I was shocked when I clicked on the first review and realized it was a review - "oh, huh, when did it come out?" The justification offered about 'people being tired of marketing' sounds absurd, and more like they are finding excuses to skip work because they are old & exhausted, and another step in winding down Ghibli. I expect lower box office than it deserves; even Hayao Miyazaki can't release a movie with zero marketing and expect no effect...

anigbrowl 3y ago
There were long lines snaking out of theaters to see it despite the almost complete lack of marketing. Maybe people are sick of being marketed to, I certainly am. I'm not reading this review because I don't want to know anything about the movie before I see it. Even the international title is a disappointing concession to the retailing of art as entertainment product.
- wk_end 3y ago
  I'm not sure how I'd title it if I were the American distributor, to be honest. It's not an adaptation, but 君たちはどう生きるか is the name of a book for young adults that the Japanese audience might be familiar with; the reference will be lost on an English-speaking audience, draining it of some of its meaning and nostalgia. Imagine a film called "The Little Prince" or something...but of course, The Little Prince isn't the same book, with the same themes, as 君たちはどう生きるか. And even if there were a book which the reference mapped onto well, it still feels like referencing a different title in the translation would be egregious. In that sense, I'm somewhat fond of "The Boy and the Heron", though I acknowledge it isn't ideal and, as someone who prefers more literal translations, wouldn't necessarily be the route I'd take. Without injecting any specific (and thus wrong) reference, it evokes the nostalgic feeling of English childhood fables and aphorisms - and it lends it their feeling of moral weight, too, just as the Japanese title does. It's a good and evocative title. The literal translation everyone's using, "How Do You Live?", also isn't ideal. There's a couple of grammatical mismatches between the two languages; whereas the "you" in English can be both singular and plural, the Japanese is explicitly plural; and Japanese doesn't explicitly differentiate present and future tense, and here the meaning is actually likely more future tense. But the big problem is that, to my ears, it sounds deeply accusatory in English, along the lines of "How do you live with yourself?" - and given Miyazaki's views and temperament that wouldn't have surprised me! But in truth the intended Japanese meaning is more inquisitive and philosophical. The original title, in the original novel, is from a book inside of the book, left as a question to the reader. In prose I might translate it as, "How will you, readers, choose to live your lives?", but there's countless variations I've considered; none of them are quite right, and to be honest none quite have the original's punch of a good title! (disclaimer: I'm a reasonably advanced student of the Japanese language but not a native speaker. Apologies if I've gotten anything wrong.)

HellDunkel 3y ago

Interesting how the verge has fully rolled back its site redesign step by step.

tehnub 3y ago

They say we don’t see movies like this being made anymore, but when did we ever see movies like Miyazaki’s being made at any time by anyone other than Miyazaki?

Avicebron 3y ago
There's obviously no one-to-one, Miyazaki being a legend for a reason. But I've founded the work by Satoshi Kon to give me a blending of fiction and reality and depth of storytelling makes me think a little of what Miyazaki does.
- dragontamer 3y ago
  > Satoshi Kon In particular, Tokyo Godfathers hits in a way that not even Miyazaki can replicate IMO. Satoshi Kon probably wasn't as consistent as Miyazaki. But damn, the good Satoshi Kon movies were just beyond excellent. Mamoru Hosoda is also pretty good. Wolf Children is one of the most "hits you in the real feels" movie that I've seen, despite its surface-level fantasy premise. A true masterpiece, though other movies from Hosoda aren't quite as good IMO. Still, his Digimon and Summer Wars are fun watches. ----------- There's that off-branch of Ghibli, Studio Ponac too. I've only seen their collection of 3x short films: Modest Heroes (one about a crab family, one about an egg allergy, and one about an invisible guy), but its extremely "Ghibli-like". Modest Heroes is that mix of fantasy but very much down-to-earth storytelling that reflects upon life, in a child-friendly storytelling style. "Ghibli-style" as people might say.
  - windowshopping 3y ago
    I was a huge fan of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Wolf Children, and started watching everything he made, only to find that he was no longer able to produce movies of that quality. The last 3 - The Boy and the Beast, Mirai, and Belle - have been mediocre at best with stories and characters that were very poorly assembled. I continue to have some hope for future films, but frankly my expectations are very low at this point. Not many directors have produced 3 duds in a row in the prime of their career and then recovered with incredible stories later.

AlbertCory 3y ago

Now here's some argument-bait: I prefer Miyazaki movies dubbed in English, rather than as subtitled Japanese. This is not true for ANY other non-English movie, where I always prefer the original language with subtitles. Why? Well, it's anime and the characters aren't "really" speaking Japanese anyway, so there's less lip-mismatch. And apparently the Man himself doesn't mind them. https://www.reddit.com/r/ghibli/comments/7jef8m/miyazakis_views_on_dubs_vs_subs/ https://www.reddit.com/r/ghibli/comments/7jef8m/miyazakis_vi...

woodruffw 3y ago
Miyazaki is pretty well known for having “world-class” dubs; I don’t think liking them is considered controversial. Liking the Akira dub or the dub on a Satoshi Kon film, on the other hand :-)
- ryandrake 3y ago
  The English dub of Castle In The Sky was famously very poor[1]. Most notably, much of the movie's quiet parts got crammed with music and extra dialog because Disney felt Americans' attention span could not handle long stretches of silence and simple ambient environment sounds. Granted this was one of the earlier Ghibli films and Miyazaki reportedly clamped down on these shenanigans on future dubs. 1: https://screenrant.com/studio-ghibli-castle-in-the-sky-english-version-changes/ https://screenrant.com/studio-ghibli-castle-in-the-sky-engli...
  - the_af 3y ago
    Much was said about Mononoke's English dub, but I find it terrible and flat. In contrast, the Spanish dub was top notch!
  - woodruffw 3y ago
    This listicle is hard to follow: it seems to be confounding the 1988 dub (hilariously bad) with the 1998 dub (which was done by Disney and is, IMO, pretty good). In particular, the items about Sheeta's recharacterization and removed silences don't apply to the 1998 dub. Miyazaki has had his fair share of bad dubs (including one of the Castle of Cagliostro ones), but I think it's fair to say that he's fared the best of any major Japanese anime director.

dvt 3y ago

Is this a bug or something[1]? Or is The Verge seriously expecting me to read an entire article in black-on-red? This has got to be some kind of cruel joke, my eyes hurt after about 5 seconds. Who came up with this atrocious design language? Ironically, the polar opposite of Miyazaki. [1] https://i.imgur.com/f0E4br6.png https://i.imgur.com/f0E4br6.png

lostgame 3y ago
It is not black on red besides the title? Did you not scroll anywhere past the title bit? :/ https://ibb.co/Fm0zz35 https://ibb.co/Fm0zz35
- dvt 3y ago
  The whole thing is red for me (the screenshot I took is from below the title). I use Brave, but I also checked it out on Edge and Chrome, and there it's only the title (so I do think it's a bug on Brave). To be fair, even the title being black on red is absolute garbage-tier design.
  - Santosh83 3y ago
    Yeah the article body is black on red for me too, on Firefox. Must be some glitch.
    - mholt 3y ago
      Huh, I'm on Firefox too and it's only red at the title.

NikkiA 3y ago

This is the second post in as many days about this 'no advertising' movie...

ketzo 3y ago
I mean, it's the final film from a legendary director being released with a total lack of a traditional marketing. Do you want people to not talk about that? Not everything on the internet is astroturfing or whatever.

grogenaut 3y ago

Why does he need to market. I know about this movie because of all of the "not being marketed" news posts. Media is giving them a free marketing coupon it seem. He's playing it well. That said I rarely see movie marketing anymore. Only movies I know are out are barbie and Oppenheimer due to the meme and my friend insisting we go to both. I just don't see ads much anymore.

djmips 3y ago

Article ends with "And let’s not forget the monster 2020 success of Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, whose 40 billion yen domestic gross demolished Spirited Away’s record of the highest-grossing film of all time in Japan." Nitpick: From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_Japanese_films https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_Japan... - it shows Demon Slayer at ¥40,430,000,000 (2020) and Spirited Away at ¥31,680,000,0000 (2001). This is like comparing $220 million to $290 million so it's not exactly 'demolishing' IMO.

azmodeus 3y ago
If you factor in 19 years of inflation, I wonder who is the winner.
- ketzo 3y ago
  Coincidentally, Japan has spent the last 20 years in an extremely low-inflation, or even deflationary, environment. 31 yen in 2001 -> 32 yen in 2020

crakhamster01 3y ago

Very excited for this. I wish more films went with the no marketing approach, but I suppose it can only (maybe?) work if you're as regarded as Miyazaki.