Movies | A new Hayao Miyazaki film is always a case: in France it became number one, in Japan the film didn’t even have to be advertised

by Hayao Miyazaki new movie The boy and the stork is really expected. From the Japanese animation master’s previous direction The wind rises is ten years. Sometimes there was time to believe that the now 82-year-old Miyazaki would no longer direct. However, the new film was reported to have started production in 2017 and is now complete.

Having its Finnish premiere on November 17th The boy and the stork has already managed to conquer his audience in Japan. Such a name Kimitachi wa dô ikiru ka means approximately How do you want to live your life?

In Miyazaki-loving France The boy and the stork rose to number one on the list. Only a few Hollywood films and local folk comedies have matched this year’s success.

“Expectations in France were huge, and Miyazaki seems to be exceeding them,” he says Mika Siltala.

The distribution company Cinema Mondo, which Siltala runs, has brought the Miyazakis to Finland.

“Miyazaki is unique on a global scale. in Japan About the boy and the stork there wasn’t even a trailer or commercials, and it went to record numbers there. I can’t think of another director who could do this.”

Siltala emphasizes that the films of the director’s production company Ghibli are exceptions in that they still sell well even as home recordings.

Miyazaki’s the films are fairytale-like, but social and ecological. Japanese myths meet the modern world. The imagination is recognisably Miyazaki, although the subjects range from a child’s fantasy to the biography of a real-life fighter jet designer.

The Ghibli name became a worldwide guarantee of quality. In addition to his direction, Miyazaki’s company has produced ambitious animations for both children and adults. The line between target audiences is not at all as clear as, for example, in Hollywood.

Miyazaki was a national treasure in Japan for a long time, whose films became known in the West only to festival goers. The transition began in the late 1990s. Disney distributed Princess Mononoke (1997) in the United States in 1999. The first Miyazaki brought to Finland was Spirited Away (2001).

“We had already acquired it when, before its premiere, it won the main prize at the Berlin Film Festival as the first animated film ever. The Oscar award came after that,” Siltala recalls.

From then on, even older Miyazakis were brought to the big screen for the first time in Finland. One of the director’s most beloved My neighbor Totoro from 1988 had its Finnish premiere in 2006.

“The classics got just as wide premieres as the new movies, and year after year the people voted with their feet that this is how it should be done.”

in Finland Miyazaki’s films have charmed relatively wider audiences than, for example, in other Nordic countries.

“Per capita, we are Ghibli’s biggest success country after Japan.”

Before The boy and the stork after the premiere, a rumor spread that the film would be the director’s last. Although at one time Miyazaki claimed that The wind rises would be his farewell film.

In Western countries, it may not have been remembered that the director had also told about his retirement intentions before Princess Mononoke (1997) and Hidden by spirits (2001) premieres and always slurred his speech.

To the boy and the stork the instructor has not given any interviews. In September, the Ghibli boss Junichi Nishioka told CNBC in an interview that Miyazaki is not quitting. According to Nishioka, the director visits the office every day and develops ideas for his next film.

Mika Siltalan piloted by Cinema Mondo is a film import company founded in 1990, whose profile mainly includes French Dramas and Japanese animation. Over the years, the company has also been known, for example, as a distributor of Asian action films.

“Cinema Mondo works a bit like Ghibli, against the rules. The content determines, not the calendar or the budget”, describes Siltala.

“Over the years, we’ve had experimental puppet animation and horror. But now indie film is in pretty big trouble.”

According to Siltala, the results were uncertain before, but now they are outright flying, especially after the corona years.

“The ice sags, and sometimes there are fish.”

This fall Last turn was by Timothy Spall A small surprise success in Finland, fueled by a visit to Finland. Among the hits of Cinema Mondo in recent years is a documentary film Truffle hunters of Piedmont.

The company’s biggest success of all time remains Ameliewhich premiered in the fall of 2001. Very significant for Cinema Mondo has also been the representation of Ghibli in Finland.

Correction 2.11. 6:37 p.m.: The name of the movie is My neighbor Totorono My friend Totoro, as it was erroneously read earlier in the story.