![]() ![]() Half an apple and a drained glass of wine sit next to him. It begins idly enough on a secluded beach in a secret cove where a man lay stretched out under an umbrella, reclining on a chair, listening to the radio. The film takes place at the late 1920’s/early 1930’s, after World War I and at the start of the Great Depression, in the Mediterranean Adriatic Sea and nearby Italy. ![]() It seems as if it’s a love letter to early aviation. Heck, the whole movie is based around aircraft and a tenderness was put into the amazing animation of these old planes. However, though conscious deliberation seems to have taken place to set apart Porco Rosso as its own entity, the film still carries Miyazaki’s favored feminist and flying themes. The film has a classiness to it, like Casablanca, and in ways it seems to parody the nightlife, tough guy talk and romance of the first half of the 1900’s. It is also a departure from the Miyazaki norm in that it is set in the real world outside of Japan, drawing from actual world history, with real geographical locations as its settings. ![]() Porco Rosso is a straight up action flick, nigh a summer blockbuster, with a more straight forward plot structure than the episodic structures of Totoro and Kiki’s. Nausicaäwas a sci-fi epic, Castle in the Sky was a fantasy adventure, both My Neighbor Totoro and Kiki’s Delivery Service were told from the angle of kids and dealt with issues of childhood wonder and growing up. Porco Rosso is a step away from the previous works Miyazaki directed. And once you see it, “the comedy is over”. For all of the womanizing and the booze and the recklessness, he is still haunted by what he’s experienced. This only shines through strongest at a single point in the film when everything drops back and you see the naked truth about Porco’s condition. Beneath the laughs and the abrasiveness of Porco himself lies a sober perspective on war, the life of human life, and the trauma it causes. Yet Porco Rosso’s humor is the animation equivalent Pagliacci. It is one of the only Miyazaki movies I’d actually consider popularly underrated. It easily climbed up to the top of my Ghibli list. From the loudmouth pirate leader to the over-the-top tough guy protagonist, Porco Rosso is impossible to watch without grinning at least once. I’d consider it to be his funniest film with tons of characters riddled through with trademark charm, wit, and caricature. Now on to my favorite Studio Ghibli film! Porco Rosso is an action-comedy directed by Hayao Miyazaki. “‘Is Porco Rosso dead or alive’? Good question.” ![]()
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