Turning Point, 1997-2008

Category: Books,Humor & Entertainment,Movies

Turning Point, 1997-2008 Details

About the Author Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's most beloved animation directors. In 2005 he was awarded the Venice International Film Festival's Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement, and his Studio Ghibli received the festival's Osella Award for overall achievement in 2004. Miyazaki's films include Spirited Away, winner of the 2002 Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film, as well as Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, and Ponyo, all of which have received great acclaim in the U.S. Miyazaki's other achievements include the highly regarded manga series Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Starting Point: 1979-1996, a collection of essays, interviews, and memoirs that chronicle his early career and the development of his theories of animation. Both are published in English by VIZ Media. Read more

Reviews

Really enjoyed this book but I had issues with so many interviews being similar. So you end up reading the same questions and same responses repeatedly. I also thought it was naive of Miyazaki to grossly generalize people on quite a few occasions in the interviews. In several parts he pretty much says Americans could never understand some aspect of cinema because their movies are all about blowing stuff up and that's what they all enjoy. I mean there are variations of this kind of thing where he takes American POP CULTURE (ACK!) and uses it to generalize 300 million people. He does throw around other generalizations about Japan, Europe etc as well. Anyhow, I did get a lot of what I was hoping for too. You get a sense of where he got certain ideas for movies and why he made certain decisions in directing a film a certain way. You can get some of these ideas about Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, and Howl's Moving Castle. Anyways, it was very much like the previous book, "Starting Point" but this one (Turning Point) was mostly interviews, some poems, and a few essays or they might've been speeches. No articles that I can remember. There were chunks of content that could've been left out without losing anything. As I said, content is repeated in a few places. Far worse in the first half of the book. Worth reading for people who want more insight into this masterful director with the understanding that there are a few awkward and unrelated comments to take with a grain of salt.I still give it four stars because for good or bad, it's mostly what I wanted. And in the afterword, Miyazaki writes about how uncomfortable he was/is about the book. That he felt it misrepresented him or at least didn't identify fully with the book in some ways which is probably the nature of biographies. Views change and also generalizations fade when you're standing in front of someone shaking their hand. And besides, pretty much everyone is contrary at some point, and it's going to be especially obvious when interview after interview is documented like this.

Share this post