Mention "Studio Ghibli" and people who are familiar with Japanese anime will definitely enjoy it. Founded in 1985 by Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki, this "animation studio" is regarded as the "temple of the heart" in the hearts of many manga fans, and the well-known works "Castle in the Sky", "Totoro", "Princess Mononoke" and so on are completed by Hayao Miyazaki and the Studio Ghibli team. But there is another name about Studio Ghibli that may not be well known, and this person's name is "Takahata".
Takahata, who is 6 years older than Miyazaki and graduated from the University of Tokyo with a degree in French, is one of the most elite "scholars" in the Japanese animation industry, and when he was in college, he was interested in animation because of a French cartoon "Chimney Workers and Shepherd Girls". In 1959, Takahata entered Toei Animation, where he met Miyazaki, who was still unknown at the time. Takahata keenly discovered the young man's talents and abilities, and "promoted" him to the role of scene designer and art designer during the production of his first animated feature film, The Adventures of the Sun Prince Holes.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the world always mislabeled his works as Miyazaki, and he was willing to be a foil</h1>
Takahata's life's work is sparse, and his work is often mistaken by audiences as being written by Hayao Miyazaki. His "Grave of the Fireflies", which has touched countless people, has been misunderstood as Miyazaki's work, and his work "Changeable Tanuki" is often confused with "Totoro". The world always mistakenly thinks that Takahata and Miyazaki "secretly compete for a lifetime", but in fact, the low-key Takahata has always been "willingly" as Miyazaki's foil.
In 2013, the two elderly men unanimously announced the release of their own "sealed works" that year - Hayao Miyazaki's "The Wind Rises" and Takahata's "The Tale of Hui Ye Hime". Originally, "The Wind Rises" and "The Tale of Hui Ye Ji" were both planned to be released in the summer of 2013, but later Studio Ghibli issued a statement that because of the details of "Hui Ye Ji Monogatari", the premiere was changed from summer to autumn, and also avoided the fight between the two "same door" animations.
Takahata's life was so low-key, he created very slowly, but that was because he was too careful; he would ignore the cost when he created animation, it was because he pursued the extreme; you don't know him, because he didn't want to show his face too much, and willingly acted as a foil for others. At the first time of the release of "The Tale of Hui Ye Ji", Miyazaki Hayao rushed to see it, and it is said that after watching it, Miyazaki hayao fiercely complained about "The Tale of Hui Ye Ji": "This kind of movie is not like it at all!" But he went on to say, "But this work can represent the future of Japanese animation."
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the entire film "The Tale of Hui Ye Ji" cost 5 billion yen, took 9 years to create, and the original paintings reached more than 500,000 copies</h1>
Let's look at the revenue of "The Tale of Hui Ye Hime" from the box office point of view, and we take the animation "Your Name" from the previous Shinkai Makoto Fire. " to make a comparison, "Your Name." "Since its release in Japan, it has grossed 19.95 billion yen at the box office, and it is also the first non-Miyazaki animation to exceed 10 billion yen, while "Your Name." The cost of the film was only 800 million yen, and the expected box office was 1.5 billion yen. With a total investment of more than 5.15 billion yen, the story of Yukihime is unprecedented in the history of Japanese animation, but it only grossed 2.5 billion yen, topping the list of Ghibli's "most money-losing animations".
Let's look at the production aspect of the animation, Makoto Shinkai for "Your Name." "Can change the public's previous general concept of his only sophisticated picture and no good script, invited many well-known "big god" level painting supervision, script production and art supervision in the industry, and strive to achieve the purpose of telling a good story, from the result, Makoto Shinkai's choice is correct. If the production lineup of your name is the "golden lineup", then the production lineup of "Hui Ye Ji Monogatari" can be said to be the "Diamond Family Barrel", all the elite elders of Ghibli from its inception to the present have all been invested in the production of the film, the whole movie from planning to release a total of 9 years, the original painting has reached a staggering 500,000 copies.
If you look at "The Tale of Hui Ye Ji" from the perspective of the box office alone, it is indeed a failed work. But Miyazaki has said that this animation is the future of Japanese animation, and some people say that it is a national treasure animation film, which belongs to Japan's important cultural relics. In my opinion, these statements are not exaggerated. Takahata believes that too many animation directors' works are now to please the audience and cater to the tastes of the public, and strive to make the audience intoxicated, and his works are expected to be able to use their imagination and realize the projection of emotions.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Takahata tells a myth that truly belongs to the East from the perspective of the Orientals themselves</h1>
In the early years, while Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki were still at Toei, they collaborated on a television anime series, The Girl of the Alps, based on the German-language novel Heidi by the 19th-century Swiss writer Johanna Spiri. Like the Tale of Hui Ye Ji, The Girl of the Alps tells the story of a pure girl who originally lived in the countryside and was forced to live in a big city. Takahata said at the time, "I would like to present a little Heidi on the stage of Japan."
Nearly half a century later, Takahata Hoon", who "sharpened a sword for decades", presented us with an extreme animation "The Tale of Hui Ye Hime". He injected the color that a civilization should have in the animation, and the texture emitted from beginning to end was completely different from Western magic, but more like the Oriental epic like the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Its painting style absorbs and incorporates artistic blanks in Chinese art, classical Japanese bird and animal drama paintings, and modern watercolor depictions. The brushes used are thick brushes, straw brushes, etc. that only the East Asian cultural circles will reuse, although rough, but full of charm, absorbed but not equivalent to the pure ink painting style of "Little Tadpole Finds Mother".
The story of "The Tale of Hui Ye Hime" is based on the well-known Japanese fairy tale "Taketori Monogatari Monogatari", in which a princess from kyaukje moon palace is punished for making a mistake and is relegated to the human world. An old man who made a living by cutting bamboo found and took in the princess and named her "Bamboo". At first glance, this story looks a bit like a simple fairy tale, and Takahata personally rewrites the story into a satire full of realism.
The two-hour movie seems to tell the story of changing from "Bamboo" to "Princess of the Night" to returning to the Moon Palace, but it is actually a life of birth, growth and death. "Bamboo" in the countryside happy growing up childhood by the director deliberately portrayed more perfectly, then the "bamboo" smile is always hanging on the face, the director also through such a happy "bamboo" and later became the "Princess of the Night" after she made a strong contrast, the life in the field is her envy in the moon palace "born to be a human".
In the animation, the director also secretly threw one point of view after another to the audience, "happy and free field life" can not fill the stomach, and after going to the big city", "Bamboo" became the "Princess of the Night", and also had a "class gap" with his childhood playmates. In addition to the "class divide", the director who also belongs to the "East Asian Confucian cultural circle" also throws us the contradiction between "fatherly love" and "patriarchy", on the one hand, because of fatherly love, "Bamboo"'s father wants her to live a better life, so he needs to move to a big city, and on the other hand, because of patriarchy, he is arbitrary, forcing his daughter to stay away from the "comfortable mountain forest" and move into the "luxurious cage".
The childhood spent in the fields is colorful, but after coming to the big city and becoming the "Princess of the Night", you have to suppress your desire to break free. The director also tells us through before and after comparisons that once people have passed childhood, people's nature can only be suppressed. Like many of us in our lives, why not live in such a society: after spending a carefree childhood, being disciplined, bound, desperately learning things that are not interested, and being pushed forward by inexplicable forces. Only a few people have the opportunity to release themselves, and most people's lives are arranged for a lifetime. Takahata also made an "accusation" of this life in his later years through the mouth of Hui Ye Hime.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > written at the end</h1>
At the end of the film, the dying Hui Ye Hime escapes from the "cage" of life and finds her childhood friend, Brother Shumaru, and the two "soar freely" in the sky together, which shows the awakening of Hui Ye's independent consciousness and the pursuit of freedom. People often understand the meaning of "being born to be human" at the last moment, and Takahata also injected his philosophy of life into this "The Tale of Hui Ye Hime" at the age of 78. He let Hui Ye Ji accompany her to complete what he wanted to say and do, to feel life, to feel love, to feel true freedom and liberation.
"The Tale of Yukihime" is a great work of art, which represents the ultimate pursuit of animation for the art of the generation represented by Takahata. Its box office fiasco only represents that it cannot measure its value in terms of commodities now, which is not representative of the future. "The Tale of Hui Ye Hime" is more like a "suicide note" left by the elderly Takahata to the world, which is full of the old man's perception of life.