Ecofeminism and Spirituality in the Realm of Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki is a man of many wonders. The director, animator, and co-founder of the acclaimed production company Studio Ghibli has created films that have changed the lives of many. Miyazaki’s works reflect upon the human need for companionship, as well as themes of youth, free spiritedness, friendship and (eco)feminism. Nature is an essential element of his films. Miyazaki offers a perspective that is not often seen in film; the perspective of society’s youth, animals and spiritual beings.
In Spirited Away the protagonist -a young girl named Chihiro loses her parents to the spirit realm. She embarks on a journey to the spirit world to find not only them, but a sense of self and belonging. During her journey she encounters the villainess Yubaba and a boy named Haku. While Yubaba is portrayed as a cruel dictating person plagued by greed, Haku is a child trying to gain his freedom. Chihiro and Haku defeat Yubaba, free Chihiro’s parents’ spirits, and Haku gains his freedom and transforms into a dragon; his true self. In the end Chihiro and her parents return to the human realm. While Chihiro must live a life without her companion Haku, she lives with the memory of him forever as he has always been with her without her knowledge. Spirited Away reminds us that it’s important to cherish what we have and always stay true to ourselves.
Princess Mononoke exists in the same vein as Spirited Away in regards to a lot of elements. Prince Ashitaka is a noble young man who, in an effort to protect his village, kills a demon boar. However, he is injured during the encounter and becomes possessed by the demon; this is said to be what will soon kill him. Once again, this character embarks on a journey to find a cure. On his journey, he discovers a village under control of Lady Eboshi. She has driven out the forest creatures in order to maintain a prosperous village. Prince Ashitaka soon learns that she is the one responsible for shooting the boar and turning into a demon; transforming it into a creature of hate and vengeance. He soon meets San who is intent on killing Lady Eboshi for the atrocities she has committed against nature.
The theme of ecofeminism occurs through San’s companionship with the land and forest creatures. Miyazaki has given the creatures of this film human voices as he does in many of his films; it is an effort to humanize them and allow his characters to understand and form connections with them. Ecofeminism is defined as “an activist and academic movement that sees critical connections between the domination of nature and the exploitation of women…”1. In Lady Eboshi’s pursuit to make her village the most prosperous in all of the land, she has neglected not only nature, but her people. The village’s women work four day shifts in a grueling workshop. They provide fire for the town through monotonous physical labor, which they deem better than the former work they did which was in the city’s brothels as sex workers. The exploitation of both these women and the degradation of the village’s surrounding nature are both directly caused by Lady Eboshi, hence San’s rage.
However, Miyazaki creates contradicting characters that are neither perfectly good or downright evil. He believes in the capacity for not just humans, but for our understanding for change. Despite Lady Eboshi’s shortcomings she is not entirely a “bad” person. The village has a leper community due to those that she has taken in. In Howl’s Moving Castle the protagonist, Sophie eventually has to take care of a witch who once did her wrong and cursed her into becoming an elderly woman, but because she’s spent all this time in an older body, she shows compassion and kindness to her. She is able to extend empathy to someone to her because she has experienced her life in a sense. The boar that bit Ashitaka wasn’t always evil. Yubaba, a money hungry, manipulative woman extends love and compassion to her child.
In Hayao Miyazaki’s films there are often no sole protagonists. However, the central character often goes on an adventure in a search of a cure for something of a journey of freedom and the self. These journeys are also tied to helping other people, animals or spiritual beings as displayed in the three films previously mentioned. These central characters are often young girls; a stark contrast to the films of their time. Young girls were at the helm, leading us down a path to self discovery. Miyazaki explores many genres and approaches many world issues, such as industrialism and modernism, in his films. He is staunchly anti-capitalism and anti-globalism.
Miyazaki’s central characters and protagonists are often battling a curse, and it’s often made as a physical element of them (Ashitaka’s wounded arm, Sophie’s aged body) but he has also made points about emotional wellness and what it means to have your joy or your loved ones taken away from you, even if momentarily (Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service) and above all he gives his characters the choice to heal and shows what that looks like in how he imagines and unfolds the resolutions.
In terms of his animation and music choices the attention to detail is seen clearly in the drawings of elaborate nature scenes paired with harmonious music leading us to often be in awe of nature and its inhabitants. Since Miyazaki is mostly a traditional artist the process is very extensive and detailed because it’s drawn out and then put together — a majority of directors could never do this. The landscape is always just as much a character as everyone else and the wide frame shots are aplenty. He also uses the composition of the wide frame shots to draw attention to either the character’s loneliness or the overwhelming nature of their mission and uses close up shots when drawing attention to characters connectedness (My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke with San and her wolf mother). Miyazaki uses every element of his films to tell stories that everyone can relate to in some way as we are all on our own journeys.
Hayao Miyazaki has crafted worlds that will never leave the minds and hearts of those that are allowed to enter.
http://www.wloe.org/what-is-ecofeminism.76.0.html, “What is Ecofeminism?”, Lois Ann Lorentzen, University of San Francisco, and Heather Eaton, Saint Paul University (2002)
(This was done for my film aesthetics class!)
