WEEK 6 - Anime

Princess Mononoke is a film by Studio Ghibli and produced by Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki. Princess Mononoke is just one of Miyazaki's many Japanese anime films. Japanese anime has become increasingly poopular and is now usually referred to in both Japan and the West, and it's phenomenon of popular culture (Lent, 2000). It was interesting to research other Hayao Miyazaki's films and the awards they have won:

Princess Mononoke - 2001 won, for Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (USA) Best Home Video Release.   

Spirited Away - 2003 won, Oscar Award (USA) for Best Animation Feature, also won and has been nominated for many other awards.

Howl's Moving Castle - 2006 won, for Hollywood Film Award, also won and has been nominated for many other awards.

Hayao Miyazaki has even been nicknamed "The Japanese Walt Disney"; this could be because his anime's have become just as popular as the famous Walt Disney films.

Hayao Miyazaki's Japanese anime could be an example of the popularity of Japanese anime but why has it become popular? According to Lent (2000) anime texts entertain audiences around the world on the most basic level, but, equally importantly, they also move to provoke viewers on other levels as well, stimulating audiences to work through certain contemporary issues in ways the older art forms cannot. I've liked anime for as long as I can remember. The first Miyazaki film I fell in love with was Spirited Away, and it is also one of my favourite films that I can just watch over and over again. 

In Princess Mononoke the spirits of the forest are an important aspect of the film and in Spirited Away there are a lot of different spirits in the film but I don’t think they were the main focus of the film. Wright (2005) states that Miyazaki’s films describe an intriguing mixture of earthy spirituality particularly drawn from the Shinto tradition, Wright also says that there are many themes and symbols of Shinto mythology and spiritualism in Hayao Miyazaki’s films. Shinto means the way of the Gods, an indigenous faith that is one of Japans major religions along with Buddhism.

I also noticed that the romance in both Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away were quite similar. For example, the end of Princess Mononoke, Ashitaka and San go their separate ways in Spirited Away Chihiro and Haku also must go their separate ways. I would have loved to see the film end with the romance between the both the characters of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away to be together in the end, which Disney films are so good with but Miyazaki has chosen more of a bitter sweet ending for both films. Maybe he didn’t want to be cliché about the romance but I think that’s what makes Miyazaki’s films different that Disney films.

Miyazaki is also known for creating characters that seem to be good within the film but then they are actually bad or vice versa. Miyazaki creates characters that are mysterious in a way because they seem unpredictable. It’s not that black and white to judge if a character is either good or bad because the characters seem to have a bit of both. For example in Princess Mononoke, the character of Lady Eboshi comes off as the bad person because she is trying to destroy the forest for her Iron Town but at the end she realises she was wrong and decides to do the right thing. However, the character Jigo came off as a good person who helped Ashitaka in the beginning but then turned around and wanted to kill the Deer God of the forest. 

Hayao Miyazaki’s films have become well known globally as he continues to create more films that capture the hearts of many audiences like me. Princess Mononoke has definitely been added to my favorite Miyazaki films. 

Reference

IMDb (n.d.). Hayao Miyazaki. Retrieved 22 August 2012 from http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0594503/awards

japan-guide.com (n.d.). Shinto. Retrieved 24 August, 2012 from http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2056.html

Lent, J. A. (2000). Animation in Asia: appropriation, reinterpretation, and adoption or adaptation. Retrieved 24 August, 2012, from AnimeResearch.co

Wright, L. (2005). Nature Spirits, Giant Insects and World Trees: the nature vision of Hayao Miyazaki. In the Journal of Religion of Popular Culture. Volume X: Summer 2005

WEEK 4.

Le Guin’s (2004) reaction to the film ‘Legend of Earthsea’ was interesting because the title states ‘A Whitewashed Earthsea’ followed by ‘How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books’. Just from reading that, it clearly shows Le Guin’s didn’t like the film at all. Le Guin says in her review that Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote the scripts for the Lord of the Rings, was the principal writer. It would make sense that if there were also similarities to the Lord of the Rings it could have come from Boyans. According to Le Guin (2008) science fiction mostly pretends that the future is happening in the present and usually avoids the actual present time, while fantasy is more direct in its fictionality. I couldn't  The Sci Fi Channel could have changed the the story because science fiction can be a bit different to fantasy.

From the book to the film of Wizards of Earthsea there are many obvious changes that have been made to the film as expected. There were some parts of the story from both the book and the movie that reminded me of the story of Harry Potter. It was interesting to research the original published/released dates for both of these stories. I found out that ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was released in 1997, while Wizard of Earthsea was originally published in 1968. So although Le Guin’s Wizard of Earthsea and J.K Rowling’s Harry Potter have some similar story lines, both stories are also very different. Some of the similarities from the Wizard of Earthsea and Harry Potter are:

• Male protagonist
• Powerful Wizard
• Wizard School
• Pet (Harry Potter – Hedwig.  Ged – Otak)
• Best Friend – (Harry Potter – Hermonie & Ron. Ged – Vetch)

In my personal opinion, I think that producer of Wizard of Earthsea film could have thought up some of the same concepts of the Harry Potter film but not on purpose. The film Wizard of Earthsea wasn’t all that great. I did find it interesting just to see how the producer would present it. I knew there would be differences between the book to the film.

Reference

Le Guin, U. (2008, July 13). Plausibility Revisited . Retrieved August 8, 2012, from Ursula K. Le Guin: http://www.ursulakleguin.com/PlausibilityRevisited.html 

week4 - dis/similarity fantasy and science fiction

How is science fiction different from fantasy

 According to Ursula K. Le Guin, although science fiction(s.f) differs to fantasy there are similarities. Most science fictions have different time frame with the present. It often pretends that the future is the present or the past, and then tells us what happened in it. S.f is the outcome of imagination. In other words writers can write anything contrast to the present trends. In many fantasy stories, there are non-human characters which behave unexpected ways. Another similarity is that people, who have not read s.f or fantasy, consider the stories are useless and irrational ideas. However, people read them with desire to be extraordinary, they want to be more than just human. Fantasy is the suspension of disbelief. When I was 5-ish years old kids, I always wanted to be invisible so I can enter amusement parks for free. Maybe the reason I wanted to be invisible was because of boring life, same life-style doing the same thing all the time like hamsters in cage. We all know that cannot become true. Back to the difference, in s.f there is rarely a hero but men in arm with modern technology, such as machine guns, rockets and so on but no magic. But in fantasy there most likely is a hero who has magnificent power, save people, help weakers doing all the heroic things by using magics and special forces. Why do we watch heroic films? ‘Desire’.

 

Week 2

So while reading through the articles, I couldn't help thinking if Herge actually DID go to China for his research. I may have to find out later.

Anyway, back to the job at hand.


Herge's Research for The Blue Lotus


Herge, being the perfectionist he is, wanted to make his comics as polished and as well-made as possible. This all extended to his research into every physical and mental aspect of China he could gather, such as fashion, vehicles and even advertisements and banners. His meeting with Chang helped make all that possible, with Chang helping Herge gain a deeper and more realistic understanding into their present-day China.

The "apology" that Herge makes through Tintin: "But Chang, all white men aren't wicked. You see, different peoples don't know enough about each other. Lots of Europeans still believe... that all Chinese are cunning and cruel and wear pigtails, are always inventing tortures, and eating rotte eggs and swallows' nests...The same stupid Europeans are quite convinced that all Chinese have tiny feet, and even now little Chinese girls suffer agonies with bandages... designed to prevent their feet developing normally. They're even convinced that Chinese rivers are full of unwanted babies, thrown in when they are born. So you see Chang, that's what lots of people believe about China!"

The apology was made because Herge had made a few ignorant mistakes in his portrayal of the Chinese in his previous comic.

Personally, I believe that because of that chance meeting with Chang, Herge started to look into and understand more about the Chinese culture. Seeing as this was back in the 1930s/1940s, it would've been easy for him to simply stay ignorant and keep his completely eurocentric view of the Chinese in his comics, while still being friends with Chang. He still kept his eurocentric view in The Blue Lotus, as seen by the look of the character Chang, but through liberal use of newspaper cuttings of locales he made the world of The Blue Lotus look genuine and believable. At least, to the readers he made it look genuine.

Week 2 Tintin

Blog Discussion Threads for Week 2 Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media? According to Farr (1991), Tintin was aimed for all young people aged from seven to seventy-seven. Thus the comic book of Tintin, for children's view would be a little superhero's adventure and saving the saving the world. For adult’s view it is more likely to focus on political and irreverent of many topic in society for example the underground focusing on the drug world. However I personally think that comics were first introduced and targeted as entertainment for children. However comic genre became wider aged group as teenagers and adults were also interested with comics genre. So comics in terms of ages rather than genres. Reference Farr, Michael. (1991). Tintin the Complete Companion. London: John Murray

Week 2 Daehun Kim

Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media?
The comic book Tintin’s have been around for a long time. It has been published in Newspapers and graphic novel itself. At the beginning of the comic book Tintin’s I personally thought that the comic book is targeted for low aged child due to its immature and unrealistic stories. The drawings are also deceptive simplicity. This gives clear message to young aged child. However, as I read through, I spotted few violence scenes which would be more suitable for mature audience.  After finishing the book, I thought it was targeted for all age of people. The drawings and stories may seem immature, however people with different age range will identify different message of the story. Tintin’s definitely have strong subtext in the story. The subtext I identified was evil can not win against the good. This maybe an immature subtext. However, the primary audience is still the young children, I thought this message will be admiring for them.

Do you think the movie Tintins’ have disappointed the viewers?
The movie Tintins’ was surely had fewer details than the book. The movie wasn't clear enough for audience to understand the clear subtext. However, the Tintin’s was targeted for younger audience. We can identify this is because if you have read and watched both movie and the comic book, you will find that Tintins’ movie had no violence scenes at all. When violence scene is needed, they would describe it by words by using bang, bam, pam etc. This scene gave a clear idea that the movie was surely targeted immature viewers. Then I realised the reason for less descriptions. It was easier to understand the movie than the book. The book had too much writings, and vocabs that young people might not be able to understand the full message. The book was very much succeeded and better for people my age or older, however I personally think that movie was successful of its own by focusing on the storyline and making the story interesting rather than the subtext. If I was younger I would definitely choose the movie over the comic book.

For Week 2 - Tintin the Blue Lotus

Tintin and the Blue Lotus and the film
Do you think comics are a children's or adult genre/media? 


Although Herge created the comic books of Tintin for the age of “seven to seventy-seven ” (Far, 1991) from reading the comic and watching the film of Tintin the Blue Lotus, I feel that the comic books of Tintin are more suited for adults. Simply because of the stereotypical views that adults would understand more than a young child would. For the film of Tintin the Blue Lotus, it is more suited for children because the film moved really fast in terms of the plot and would probably keep the interest of children. The film didn’t include all the stereotypical views of which the comic had, and by not including that made the film better suited for children to watch.

Hergé researched China through meeting Chang. In Farr’s (1991) second extract he states that when Hergé met Chang, he gave Hergé a “true taste of China” that gave him a better understanding that what he would collect from newspaper cuttings… “sweeping away of prejudices”. However, in both the comic and the film the Japanese are seen as “evil” through the characters, for example the character of Mitsuhirato. In an early Tintin comic called “Tintin in the Congo” it was seen that Hergés portrayals of Africans were racist. Hergé illustrated his Africans with having big “Negro” like lips and as seen in the NZ Herald, 19 July, 2007 overleaf, consumer affair reporter McNaughton states that “The material suggests to (children) that Africans are sub-human.” Borders of Asia during that time advised New Zealand and Australia to remove the copy of "Tintin in the Congo" from the children's section to the adult's section.

Comparing Tintin in the comic and in the film, it is noticeable that there were some scenes where Tintin was illustrated differently in the film and the comic. For example, on page 43 in the comic of Tintin when he saves Chang from drowning, Tintin is drawn with skinny arms but in the film Tintin has been drawn with some muscles. For children seeing their hero being drawn with muscles would be more appealing than a hero drawn with stick arms. With that said, Tintin’s companion Snowy is also appealing to children in the comic there is a thought bubble for Snowy but in the film audience can’t see what Snowy is thinking.

Other Tintin comics could contain stereotypical views on other races, which children could unconsciously pick up. As seen in Tintin and the Blue Lotus comic there are quite a bit of stereotypical views that weren't included in the film. I think this is done so it can be better liked not just children but also adults.


Reference
Farr, M. (1991). Tintin the Complete Companion. London: John Murray

McNaughton, M. (2007, July 19). It’s adults only for Tintin and Snowy. NZ Herald. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10452498