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Miyazaki Magic: From Up on Poppy Hill (Kokuriko-zaka Kara)


Those familiar with Hayao Miyazaki's animated films, such as Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Ponyo, and Kiki's Delivery Service, will be prepared for the U.S. release of From Up on Poppy Hill (Kokuriko-zaka Kara). The movie was directed by his son, Gorō Miyazaki, and co-scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. It is set in Yokohama 1963 and tells the story of the burgeoning relationship between Umi and Shun as they try to prevent the demolition of a dilapidated clubhouse (called the "Latin Quarter") next door to Umi's high school. The story is wonderfully engaging and the visuals stunning. The characters are depicted with typical "anime" features (big eyes, flat shading), though the background scenery is vivid with extraordinary detail or at times with a painterly, watercolor style.

For those not familiar with Hayao Miyazaki, he is often compared to Walt Disney, as his full-length animations have been cherished by generations of children in Asia. A relative from Japan once told me that her kids watched their VHS recording of My Neighbor Totoro so often that the tape wore out from use. Indeed, even before last month's U.S. release of From Up on Poppy Hill, the movie had already grossed $60 million. What is special about movies by Miyazaki is that one can find playful stories aimed primarily toward young children, such as Totoro and Kiki, as well as darker tales, such as Princess Mononoke and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, which are directed more toward older children (of course all of these are suitable for adults!). If one looks beyond to other animations from Studio Ghibli--the production company co-founded by Miyazaki and Isao Takahata--one can find Grave of the Fireflies by Takahata, a tale of two children trying to survive in Japan during World War II. This adult-oriented story is so heart-wrenching that I would have difficulty watching it again. The broad use of animation to describe a manifold of thoughts and emotions likely comes from the cultural foundation of manga, the comic books of Japan, which span the market from children's stories to adult pornography.

Although comparisons between Miyazaki and Disney are valid, what is apparent while watching a Miyazaki movie is how much our sense of storytelling is culturally based. For one, a Miyazaki movie typically involves a young girl as the main character who must confront a coming-of-age situation, which is true for Umi in Poppy Hill. For Umi, however, the relationship with Shun becomes quite complicated to the point where in the middle of the story Shun comments, "It's like a cheap melodrama"! The heroines in these movies are refreshing, especially compared to the "princesses" in Disney movies; yet, of course Miyazaki's characters are themselves grounded in their own cultural myths of gender and youth.

More interesting to me, from a cultural standpoint, is the lack of a true villain in a Miyazaki movie. In Western philosophy, we are ingrained with a sense of polarity—there's good and evil, right and wrong. We expect to have a defined bad guy that the hero must overcome and defeat. Eastern philosophies tend to acknowledge that goodness or badness often depends upon the context or situation. Psychologist Kaiping Peng has considered how such cultural influences play our thoughts and feelings. Early on, I had problems with Miyazaki movies as there wasn't a defined "bad guy." In fact, sometimes a character that started out seeming to be the evil archenemy suddenly works to assist the hero. In these movies, such as in Poppy Hill, there are of course questions and confrontations that must be addressed and resolved, yet the success of these stories is not the overthrow or defeat of some evil villain. In these movies we don't even need a final chase scene. My point: for a charming and engaging movie that is universally appealing, go see From Up on Poppy Hill

Comments

  1. I found the idea that cultural biases can largely effect how enjoyable our movie experience is to be quit interesting. For example I recently watched The Secret World of Arietty (which by the way is worth watching if you are a fan of Miyazaki) and found it to be very anticlimactic (although the movie overall was quit well done). After looking at it from the perspective of cultural differences I can see how it may differ from the "western" ideal of a fight between good vs evil and lean toward a search by the characters for inner resolution, which may be why I was slightly let down at the end. Plenty of movies follow this molding, such as both Cohen brothers movies No Country For Old Men and True Grit. I was wondering if any psychological (fMRI) work has been done to look into differences between how people like me, who prefer the classic good vs evil story, view these kinds of movies vs people who prefer these stories. For example is it due to cultural differences or perhaps personality traits? Just curious and really interesting ideas. Great blog by the way.

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  2. I am a Coen Brothers fan...and actually tend to enjoy a good revenge flick, which I think satisfies our lust for good overcoming evil. I don't know of any fMRI studies on this issue specifically. Two brain scientists may be of interest: Joshua Greene studies brain activity during moral decisions (see http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/morality10/morality.greene.html), and Rebecca Saxe studies how we consider other people's thoughts, which is the basis for empathy and moral behavior (http://www.ted.com/speakers/rebecca_saxe.html).

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  3. The ending of 'Fatal Attraction' comes to mind. Some may recall that after test screenings, the ending was famously changed. Originally the pregnant single woman played by Glenn Close suicided and left evidence framing married lover, Michael Douglas. But US viewers seem to have seen that as a major anti-climax and retained a strong desire for the 'home wrecker' to be punished. So a new ending was shot where Alex was suddenly a knife wielding psycho inside the family home. This allowed for a more traditional (Western) battle and for the wife to blow the single career girl away to the sound of many audience cheers. The film was a huge hit and the climax, however formulaic, proved memorable. But the original ending was retained for the Japanese market! The explanation offered was something like "suicide is not seen as a passive act in that culture" or something-a-rather. ie That it was climax enough without the battle. But I think this research hints at a fuller explanation as to why the ending was acceptable there: that viewers from a Zen culture do not necessarily come with expectations that 'good' need defeat 'bad', nor that they believe there can ever be any definitive resolution between these poles.

    Kyle, 'No Country For Old Men' is an interesting example. The Cohen bros appear to have been interested in that message/theme that the world in simply good AND bad, and bad cannot be stopped or even always explained...but in setting up such strong expectations that we were watching a genre thriller, I feel that they broke the contract they made with the audience in the last 30 minutes. This just goes to show how important expectations are to our response. Viewers with no knowledge of thrillers may not of experienced such a swell of desire to see (what was implied was) the central conflict solved in a 'satisfying' Western way as per expectation.

    Art, does this research mean that viewers in Asian cultures may be less prone to Fundamental Attribution Error & Actor-Observor Bias because they do not feel the need to jump to fixed labels about people's personality/nature? Is there any support for such a claim? ...Those two cognitive biases seem, to me, central to movie reception in the West.

    p.s Love the blog! ;)

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  4. Thanks for sharing information about the two endings in Fatal Attraction. There are cross-cultural studies of the Fundamental Attribution Error, which shows that in the West, we tend to attribute someone's action as a personality feature (e.g., the grumpy waiter is an a__hole), whereas we attribute our own actions as a result of the situation (e.g., we're having a bad day). This "person bias' is less strong in India and China (see Krull et al., 1999, http://psp.sagepub.com/content/25/10/1208.short)

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