What I Learned from Watching a Hayao Miyazaki Documentary
It’s about more than just his artistry and film prowess
Hayao Miyazaki is the creator and owner of Studio Ghibli, a Japanese production studio that has put out some notable animated films like Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, and, of course, Spirited Away.
Point Blank: The man is a legend, and he’s tried to retire several times only to come back and animate once again. Following his 2013 announcement, this happened again when he returned to create his first CGI short film called Boro the Caterpillar, except this time a film group recorded him in the process.
Throughout the movie, the crew follows Miyazaki between his home and Studio Ghibli as you see his process for creating animations, the level of detail that goes into his craft, and his struggles with getting older. The documentary was a fascinating insight that I’d recommend to anyone interested.
If the movie is tl;dw for you, here are some takeaways:
Attention to Detail…EVERY Detail: This man is a fiend for focus and minutiae. He analyzes every little movement of characters and animals and ensures that it matches what would happen in the natural world. He makes sure the opening scenes look flawless as they grab the audience’s attention. He’s even shown observing a caterpillar on a plant through a magnifying glass in preparation for making Boro the Caterpillar.
At one point, you see him throwing out the work of one of his animators into a box containing discarded drafts while he tells the animator to start over or quit now. Clearly, he sets a high standard and is not going to have him or others waste time if they’re not willing to clear that bar.
Finding Beauty in Everyday Life: Miyazaki notes in the documentary how his films aim to show the world’s beauty that goes otherwise unnoticed. This goes beyond his use of nature and people in a variety of fantastical ways. It’s the small details, the prolonged pauses in scenes, and all the little things that feed into the overall experience. Unless you’re intent on sitting down and watching a film that takes these aspects into account, it can be easy to miss them in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.
Try taking a moment to consider the little things that make life interesting. Just sit and observe. Maybe don’t sit there watching paint dry, but people watch, bird watch, watch the rain, or be like Miyazaki and look at a caterpillar through a magnifying glass.
Getting Old is a Real Bi– Struggle Over Aging: People grow old — it’s the way of life. That doesn’t make getting older any easier though. Throughout the film, Miyazaki makes many references and remarks on his age and what he’s experiencing. Friends dying with some being younger than him, exhaustion when he tries to focus intensely as he once did, and general physical challenges that come with older age. He notes that continually pursuing animation is his deluded way of trying to regain his youth. Sometimes he makes a comment about how he thinks he’s a used-up old man.
Even the greats question themselves and struggle as their lives change.
Valuing a Sense of Humanity: One scene in the documentary sticks out in particular to this point and raises the question of technology’s future alongside film. A group from the Japanese telecommunications company DWANGO set up a meeting to demo their use of AI and deep learning in animation by displaying a zombie figure created for gaming*. After seeing a grotesquely deformed zombie writhe as it hobbles around the screen, Miyazaki remarks how every morning he regularly visits a friend who has a disability and recounts how his friend struggles with basic movements, like a high five. Following this, he was not short with words about his thoughts on the technology:
“Whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever.”
“I am utterly disgusted.”
“It strongly feel that this is an insult to life.”
For Miyazaki, instilling a sense of humanity and empathy into his movies is paramount. This goes beyond having an eye for locomotion of characters or nitpicking how the physics would behave in real life. You truly see how he fundamentally believes in the value of instilling humanity in his work and his belief that hand-drawings allow him to do so more than computers.
Having a Purpose: In the 2016 book Ikigai, the authors Francesc Miralles and Hector Garcia explore how the inhabitants of the world’s Blue Zones experience greater longevity and life expectancy than other parts of the world. In particular, they focus on Okinawa, Japan and the concept of Ikigai, or having a sense of purpose in one’s life. They attribute Okinawa’s longevity to this concept in addition to several other factors (sense of community, active lifestyle, diet, etc.).
With a book that discusses the importance of having a purpose and focuses on Japan, it’s no surprise that they use Miyazaki as an example of having an Ikigai and getting lost in the flow of his work even on a Sunday.
“Miyazaki is so passionate about his work that he spends many Sundays in the studio, enjoying the state of flow, putting his ikigai above all else. Visitors know that under no circumstances is one to bother Miyazaki, who is known for his quick temper — especially if he is interrupted while drawing.” — Ikigai
In a later part of the film, Miyazaki is shown drawing with intermittent scenes from Ponyo playing while he repeatedly says how making this current project is such a hassle. Yet he continues to show up and do the work. He cannot stand the idea of releasing a film that would embarrass him and remarks that important things in life are a hassle.
This intensity and willingness to persevere despite challenges and difficulties demonstrate his absolute obsession and commitment to his purpose in life through animation and filmmaking. Early in the film, he supports this by noting how he wants to create something extraordinary even if he’s not sure he can do it.
Miyazaki may never quite find a successor of his caliber and intensity or be able to create a clone of himself. But the lessons gleaned from this documentary can be applied in much broader contexts than animation that can truly empower others in inspiring ways. Whether you take away something from his films or this documentary, there are plenty of things to learn from the Never-Ending man.
Footnotes:
- *For those unfamiliar, deep learning is a method of machine learning that essentially focuses on teaching a computer to think and learn how a human does. The machine teaches itself from feedback iteratively and corrects course.
