{"id":77617,"date":"2020-06-15T16:00:14","date_gmt":"2020-06-15T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/?p=77617"},"modified":"2020-10-27T11:34:16","modified_gmt":"2020-10-27T11:34:16","slug":"isao-takahata-on-classic-nature-of-the-tale-of-princess-kaguya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scifinow.co.uk\/interviews\/isao-takahata-on-classic-nature-of-the-tale-of-princess-kaguya\/","title":{"rendered":"Studio Ghibli’s Isao Takahata on The Tale Of Princess Kaguya"},"content":{"rendered":"

Studio Ghibli founder Isao Takahata has been an integral part of the studio’s success story, and has directed such classics as Grave Of The Fireflies<\/em><\/strong> and Pom Poko<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Back in 2015, we spoke to him about his long journey bringing The Tale Of Princess Kaguya<\/em><\/strong> to the screen and his favoured style of animation.<\/p>\n

What made you adapt this particular story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The original is of course a very well known Japanese story, and I had an idea over 50 years ago that it would be interesting if it were treated in this way. It wasn\u2019t as if I thought I would want to work on it; it\u2019s just that I thought somebody else should make a film out of it. I\u2019ve never really wanted to make a film of this story! I was only thinking of the Japanese audience, and I realised it would be wonderful if I could present it so that the Japanese audience would think, \u2018Oh my, is this the kind of story it really was?\u2019 And also, if I can be presumptuous, \u2018Can it be this interesting?\u2019 That\u2019s what I was aiming for.<\/p>\n

What is significant about Kaguya\u2019s interest in nature?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think it\u2019s any particular interest in nature, but the fact that she grew up surrounded by nature is very significant, and really that\u2019s what we have \u2013 the world around us is full of nature. Even in the West, poetry is full of nature \u2013 British poems are full of nature \u2013 or love and human feelings; those are the two main subjects of poems. We\u2019re dealing with the fundamentals of human beings.<\/p>\n

\"Isao<\/a>
Isao Takahata is one of Studio Ghibli’s founders and one of its greatest directors<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In many ways, the film is about a young girl forced to grow up very quickly, and strong, vibrant young girls have always been an important part of your work, particularly in Only Yesterday<\/em> and your TV series, Heidi of the Alps<\/em>. <\/strong>What makes youth so appealing to you as a subject? <\/strong><\/p>\n

For over a century, there have been on-going changes in the relations between men and women and in the social standing of women. I have sought to refrain from projecting onto the young girls who are my main characters any \u201cwishful thinking\u201d from the male point of view about how women should behave. Despite being a man, I love vibrant women not only to fall in love with but also as human beings and as friends. I also like to put myself in a women\u2019s position as much as I can and think about things even though I am a man.<\/p>\n

Do you consider yourself a feminist filmmaker?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I may well be a feminist filmmaker. On occasion I half jokingly remark that \u201cI am an ally of women.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"kaguya1\"<\/a>Both Princess Kaguya<\/em> and your previous film, My Neighbours The Yamadas<\/em>, are drawn in an imprecise, loose way, which makes them feel freer and more expressionistic than they would if they were animated traditionally. How did you arrive at this style? Do you prefer it to the traditional style of your earlier work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I certainly prefer this style. I had initially wanted to use this style, but various problems had made it impossible. What made it possible was my meeting up with those who are brilliantly gifted (Character Design and Animating Director Osamu Tanabe and Art Director Kazuo Oga) and advances in computer technology.<\/p>\n

Since the Renaissance, Western painting has attempted to give viewers the illusion as if they are seeing people and things as they really exist upon a flat canvas surface. This effort was a singularly uncommon behaviour within the course of world history, and began to be abandoned in the latter nineteenth century in the West. Rather than paintings that declare \u201cI am the real thing\u201d or \u201cI am an abstract expression that has nothing to do with the real thing,\u201d I prefer paintings that say \u201cAs you can see, I am not the real thing, but please use me as a means to imagine or remember in a vivid way the real thing that is behind me.\u201d Nowadays the main stream of animation films consists of 3D CD and such techniques that blatantly shout out \u201cI am the real thing.\u201d To counter that trend, I want to make sure that we don\u2019t forget the great power of paintings drawn by lines on paper to stir our imaginations and memories.<\/p>\n

The sketch-like feeling of quickly drawing what is occurring right in front of us at the moment is what I learned from Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Back, the animation filmmaker of \u201cCrac!\u201d and \u201cThe Man Who Planted Trees.\u201d Mr. Back was the first one to use sketching techniques to \u201cdraw and capture on a flat surface\u201d things and people that are real, and he taught us how wonderful this method could be.<\/p>\n

There are two major explosions of emotion in the film: one of pure joy, the other of pure sadness, and both times, the style of the animation changes to reflect this. What do you think the animation style adds to the film? <\/strong><\/p>\n

As I mentioned earlier, what is happening here at this moment is being vividly sketched, which to my mind means that the emotions of the scenes are reflected in the drawings. My intent was to have the viewers be there at the moment when the sketches were being drawn, that is, to have the viewers share in the emotions. I believe I was able to accomplish that intention of mine.<\/p>\n

\"Tale-of-Princess-Kaguya\"<\/a>What will you do next?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In my case, since I have to think of my age, I\u2019m not sure if I have the physical energy or the mental energy to make another feature film, and also whether there is the money that might be invested in a film that I might want to make. Of course, I would have to have an excellent producer who could gather that money, perhaps, for me to be able to make it. In terms of animators, of course there are talented top animators that could work on all the drawings. Even for this project, we hired the majority of animators outside of Studio Ghibli, so I know we can hire people on a project basis. I think all those conditions would have to be met for me to make any film in the future.<\/p>\n

Will we see a new generation of animators begin to take the mantle?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well for example, Disney, at one point, was almost going to wither away, but it had the assets that it had, and it was resurrected, and now it\u2019s a large company. There could be a completely different direction and a completely different force that comes into being, in terms of Japanese animation. Or animation itself might decline. I\u2019m not sure.<\/p>\n

Do you find your output influenced by Western animation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

At my age, I don\u2019t know if I can be influenced that much anymore. Of course, in my youth, I really respected and honoured Disney and what he had done, but I always thought it was too different from the way things are in Japan to really take something from that and be able to utilise it. Our starting points were very different, I think. For example, when you make animation in films in English or Japanese language, they\u2019re very different. In Japanese, we can talk just by moving our mouths, without large gestures, and that\u2019s a normal way of talking in Japanese, whereas you look at American or Western animation \u2013 and there\u2019s too much action, or the action is too broad to fit into a Japanese context, or to be an influence on us. If we use those kind of large gestures, then people say, \u2018That smells like butter,\u2019 meaning, \u2018It\u2019s too Westernised.\u2019 It\u2019s a sort of derogatory sense. In that way, even animation is very culturally bound, so I think we need to be careful about influences. For example, my Anne of Green Gables<\/em>, the television series that is of course based on a Canadian girl \u2013 she talks a lot, and of course she would be speaking in English, and using gestures probably, but if I had shown that to a Japanese audience, that would look very strange, so I didn\u2019t use many gestures. It\u2019s been well-received in Japan, and it\u2019s a very popular TV series, but now, when that is shown in the West, dubbed into other languages, then I feel like, \u2018Oh, is it really going to work in those other languages?\u2019 \u2013 for example in Italy, where people use a lot of gestures to talk. So if it\u2019s dubbed in Italian, and the girl\u2019s just standing there, straight, without any gestures, isn\u2019t that going to seem a little off to them? I worry about the kind of reception that it gets in the West.<\/p>\n

The Tale Of Princess Kaguya<\/em> is now available on Blu-ray and DVD<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n