 Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation : Films, Themes, Artistry Books In Print, Audio Books. |
| Home » All Books |
|
|
Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation : Films, Themes, Artistry
buy bestselling books in print, audio books
|
 |
List Price: $18.95
Our Price:
$12.89
You Save: $6.06
|
| [ + Zoom ] [ Buy Now ] |
Book : In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. |
|
|
Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation : Films, Themes, Artistry description
Director Hayao Miyazaki ranks among the most interesting and original figures currently working in world animation. His charming children's films My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service enjoy a rapidly growing audience in the U.S., and his brilliant Princess Mononoke, which broke box-office records in Japan, was released theatrically in the U.S. in November of 1999. Although storybook adaptations and a few Japanese volumes about individual films have appeared in the U.S., a major study of his work in English is long overdue. Miyazaki's many fans will enjoy Helen McCarthy's Hiyao Miyazaki and Mark Schilling's Princess Mononoke: The Art and Making of Japan's Most Popular Film of All Time, but neither is fully satisfactory. McCarthy, who has written extensively about anime, offers an overview of the artist's career in animation and manga. She discusses each film in detail, with character descriptions and plot synopses, but she writes as a fan (rather than a critic or historian), and her text overflows with superlatives. Miyazaki is an exceptionally talented director, and his work merits a more discerning evaluation. McCarthy is also surprisingly careless about details: the ill-fated Japanese-American collaboration, Little Nemo, was in the works far longer than six years; and she describes the boar-god Nago in Mononoke as being wounded by a "ball of stone" when it's a actually an iron bullet. The latter may seem like nitpicking, but the hero's search for the source of the iron sets the plot of the film in motion. Finally, like Schilling's Princess Mononoke, Hiyao Miyazaki would have benefited from more careful proofreading; for example, McCarthy misspells the name of animation giant Winsor McCay. The extensive, but by no means complete, bibliography is a useful resource. --Charles Solomon |
|
Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation : Films, Themes, Artistry Customer Reviews
|
|
|
|
♥♥♥♥♥ |
A handsome coffe-table book with a big heart
|
I did not write the title of this review to be sarcastic. The handsome cover invites the eye to have a look inside, and those who do so will have a good time just browsing through. That said, this is a book written by a fan for other fans, and not a medular academic monograph. If you are also a fan, you'll probably enjoy reading it.
This is an introduction to the life and work of one of the great creators of animation, who has influenced this art form not just in Japan, but worldwide. The writer of this book has long been, and still is an enthusiastic promoter of Japanese animation (or Anime) in the UK, and is recognized as an authority on this topic. She has dedicated a good part of her life to the subject, and written several books about it. They include "The Anime Encyclopedia", coauthored with Jonathan Clemens, and of which a recently updated edition has been published by Stone Bridge Press (Berkeley, California). Unlike that book, the one discussed here is tightly focused on just one artist, Hayao Miyazaki.
WARNING: This book was published in 1999 (reprinted "with revisions" in 2002) so it ends with "Princess Mononoke", and it does not cover Miyazaki's later work, such as "Spirited Away" (2001), which won the Berlin Festival "Golden Bear" for Best Picture, and the second ever Oscar for Best Animated Feature (2003), among other prizes, and is one of the biggest movie hits of all times in Japan, and has been very successful abroad.
To help understand Miyazaki's work and his place in contemporary cinema, the author gives some background information on the development of contemporary animation in Japan, particularly after WWII. Central to Miyazaki's later work was the gradual coming together of a group of creators: himself, Suzuki, Takahata, Kono and others, that started, in the early 80s, the famous Studio Ghibli (pronounced "Ji-bu-ry"). Japanese animation is cooperative ensemble work involving several key players that often have known each other for a long time, worked together in various jobs at different times, and mutually influenced themselves in the process. Foreign artists, such as Herge--of "Tintin" fame--with his "clear line" style of drawing (inspired by old Chinese and Japanese prints), have also been influential on Anime in general, and on Miyazaki and his Ghibli colleagues in particular.
The contents of McCarthy's book are best described by the author herself in a "Note to Readers": "Each chapter of this book focuses on a particular title or aspect of Miyazaki's work...the origins of a movie; the main literary, film, or technical influences on it; character sketches; a story synopsis; a short staff list, including available details of English-language casting; and a critical appraisal or commentary. A brief section on how animated films are made is included...A Miyazaki filmography... [and a list of comic books he has worked on]...and notes appear at the back of the book."
If you are already a Miyazaki fan, you'll probably enjoy this book. If you are not one yet, maybe you could begin where Helen McCarthy herself begun her life-long passion: buying or borrowing a tape or DVD of Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro". If watching it does not do much for you, do not buy this book. But if the movie delights you with the beauty of the drawings, of the colors, of the music, with the contrast between the whimsical, magical creatures that live in the summer woods, and the uncannily realistic portrayal of little children, of how they see the world, with the breathtaking details of everyday life closely observed---the story is set in Japan in the 1950s, but if it rings true, it could be anywhere---then this book is for you, and so is Miyazaki's work.
|
|