2012-12-News

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Press Conference Excerpt

Toho posted a detailed report of the "Kaze Tachinu" and "Kaguya-hime" press conference. Because the contents is very long this is a brief excerpt.

Toshio Suzuki: At first Takahata-san wanted to make "Heike Monogatari" (The Tale of the Heike). Akira Kurosawa also seemed to say that he wanted to make it. The reason being that the image of Japanese in its story is different from modern people. Because the outline of living and dying is clear, directors seem drawn to it. But, there are massacre scenes in the story. Though Takahata-san is a director, he cannot draw a picture. So he has to pair up with an animator. Takahata-san requested Osamu Tanabe-san. But Tanabe-san said, "I don't want to draw a killing scene. Why must I draw such a scene?" Takahata-san persuaded Tanabe-san in various ways, but Tanabe-san said, "If I draw, I want to draw the children. I want to draw a scene with a newborn child that moves energetically." Then I remembered that Takahata-san had said, "Japanese should make a proper Kaguya-hime." Tanabe-san likes drawing children and Kaguya-hime is born from bamboo, grows up, then goes to the capital. We have to draw a child. So I suggested Kaguya-hime to Takahata-san.

We credited "Executive Producer: Seiichiro Ujiie" on the poster and the teaser trailer. Ujiie-san loved Takahata-san's movies. This maybe a misunderstanding but when Spirited Away made it as a big hit Ujiie-san said honestly to me and Hayao Miyazaki, "I cannot understand it. Though it seems to be great, I cannot understand its meaning." And he said repeatedly, "I like My Neighbors the Yamadas most." My Neighbors the Yamadas is a warm and wonderful movie but Takahata-san never compromises so I have to keep him company 24 hours a day. Furthermore, Takahata-san has never made a movie within budget (laughs). So I did nothing while Ujiie-san said, "I see."

Then Ujiie-san saw through my heart and said, "Suzuki-san, what happened to Takahata-san's film?! I understand that it's your fault that he cannot make a film." (laughs) Then I said, "Ujiie-san, now that things have come to this I have to put you to work as executive producer. A producer cannot merely wait." Ujiie-san replied, "I see. Because the characteristic of Takahata-san's movie is poetic sentiment, appeal to the audience for it." Takahata-san was very pleased when I told him this story.

Storyboards were completed around December 20, 2010. Ujiie-san spent about two and a half hours in deep concentration reading it. When I asked, "How was it?", Ujiie-san replied, "Kaguya-hime is a selfish girl. But I like a selfish girl." (laughs) Takahata-san was very pleased again and said, "That's right, I'm drawing a selfish girl. Selfishness is the characteristic of the modern girl, isn't it? I do not intend to just draw an old tale. What will a modern girl who time traveled to the Heian era do there? I thought that it is a big theme to see it." Then, Ujiie-san died on March 28 of the next year.

By the way, "Kaze Tachinu" began around the summer of 2008. Because of Kaguya-hime's production lead we were going to release "Kaguya-hime" earlier and release "Kaze Tachinu" in the next year. But "Kaguya-hime" is careful work, and Miya-san did his best. Then Kaze Tachinu's schedule caught up with Kaguya-hime this summer.

  • Takahata says "a modern girl who time travels" but this does not means that Takahata's Kaguya-hime takes up time travel. His words mean "I'm making Kaguya-hime with such a feeling."
  • The manga version "Kaze Tachinu" was released in spring of 2009. In the NHK's documentary of From Up on Poppy Hill, Hayao Miyazaki writes a project paper to explain the movie version "Kaze Tachinu" on January 8, 2011.
  • Toshio Suzuki calls Isao Takahata "Takahata-san". He doesn't call Takahata by his nickname of "Paku-san" but he calls Hayao Miyazaki "Miya-san".

Yoshiaki Nishimura (producer of Kaguya-hime):

We setup a small studio called "Kaguya-hime Studio" and began preparations. One day while driving Takahata-san he told me, "Nishimura-kun, this may possibly become my best film." All staff members feel it may become Takahata-san's last and best film.

I've been involved with "Kaguya-hime" since 2006. When I was an assistant of Suzuki-san, I was called by him and went to his office. A predecessor was standing straight and stiff there. Then I was told by Suzuki-san, "You are in charge of Takahata-san starting tomorrow." Because Takahata-san is not an employee of Studio Ghibli, he is at his house. We have to make a phone call to meet him. The predecessor called and said, "Osewa ni narimasu. (Thank you for your help.) I am XXXX of Studio Ghibli." Then, Takahata-san replied "I do not remember that I helped you." He made another call the next day, "Osewa ni narimasu. I am XXXX of Studio..." Takahata-san replied, "I said, I do not remember that I helped you!" and hung up. He could not make a call to Takahata-san and I was called by Suzuki-san. Since 2006, it's been so much hard work. (laughs)

  • In Japan, for example, when make a call to a trading partner in the workplace, first say "osewa ni natte orimasu" or "osewa ni narimasu" as a matter of courtesy. Even if a partner has not helped you.

Suzuki:

Ujiie-san is related to "Kaze Tachinu" a little. In fact, Ujiie-san longed for Jiro Horikoshi and intended to become a designer for the airplane. He covered Jiro Horikoshi twice as a newspaper reporter. So, Ujiie-san had very big expectation toward "Kaguya-hime" and "Kaze Tachinu". I am very sorry that he died.

The voice cast of "Kaze Tachinu" is not yet decided. According to Miyazaki, Japanese in those days talked faster and had better flowing eloquence than modern people. We are looking for a voice cast who can speak in such a way, but it's difficult.

Q: Please tell the reason for releasing both films on the same day.
Suzuki: Because movies are entertainment. Audiences will be excited if Ghibli releases two movies on the same day. I was excited, too. (laughs)

Q: How many screens?
S: I talked with Toho and said, "I want to make it the same." Then got an answer, "it is not good to cause a difference." I'd like to announce the box office in a mass, because I want to avoid being off the essence of the films by winning or losing.

Q: Do you think there is the risk to smash each other?
S: I don't think so. 1 plus 1 is 3.

Q: Did they make any remarks about being conscious of each other?
S: Because they are careful, they do not do it. But I wanted to fan them. I was said to Takahata-san, "I understand your hidden reason. I'm not going to be fooled by that." (laughs)

Q: Were the stories of the two films revised by the East Japan Megaquake?
S: It's very important. The script was not affected by the disaster at that point because it was almost completed.

  • Miyazaki mentioned about it in an interview. At the time he was probably still working on the storyboards.

Q: How long are the films?
S: This is my expectation, but I think that they will be around two hours and five minutes. I think that they will synchronize runtimes exquisitely because they are conscious of each other. Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies were 86 minutes and 88 minutes.

Q: When will they be completed?
S: We must finish by the end of June, but I don't know what will happen in this world.

About "Kaguya-hime"

Q: The teaser looked like different from the original.
S: It is a story of the Heian era, same as the original. The frame of the story is the same.

Q: You mentioned "a modern girl who time travels."
S: It means that he is making a film with such a feeling. Because the audience cannot understand it without thinking about a connection with the present age. It is NOT a story of a girl who time travels to the Heian era and returns to the present age. There is something extra, but wait until you actually see it! (laughs)

Q: Nishimura-san mentioned "the last and best film." Is this Takahata-san's last film?
N: Last.
S: He (Takahata) would like to make it his last film. (laughs) You must not believe the director's words.

Q: The studio worked on a watercolor-like new technique in Yamada. Does this film use some new techniques?
N: This technique is a full version of Yamada.
S: Hayao Miyazaki also does his best and he is going to do all hand drawings. But we use some CG behind his back. (laughs)

Q: What is the role of Riko Sakaguchi with the script?
N: I had written the script at first, but my script went wrong. So I suggested to Takahata-san that he write the script himself but he did not write a script for ten months. (laughs) Then we looked for a scriptwriter and Sakaguchi-san helped us. Because Takahata-san wrote the basic story 50 years ago, she added branches and leaves to it.
S: Takahata-san hates to write a script suddenly by the reason of failure. He lets somebody write a script at first and beats it completely and makes a good script. (laughs)

  • Takahata submitted a planning paper about "Kaguya-hime" at Toei 50 years ago

About "Kaze Tachinu"

Q: What is the meaning of "Iza Ikimeyamo" (We must try to live)?

  • It is difficult to understand even by Japanese because it is not modern Japanese.

S: Paul Valery's poetry is quoted in French in the beginning of "Kaze Tachinu", and Tatsuo Hori translated it. It's "Kaze tachinu, iza ikimeyamo." Various people pointed out to say that this seems to be a mistranslation for some reason. It seems to be a meaning "wind begins to blow. We must try to live" by the literal translation. But Tasuo Hori translated it "kaze tachinu" (wind rised) in past tense. "Iza ikimeyamo" is ironic, it means "Let's live. No, let's die." A debate seems to continue all the time in Japanese literature history about why he did such a mistranslation. We were troubled, but thought that it is equivalent to respect to Tatsuo Hori to just use it.

Q: How does Miyazaki-san say about drawing an actual person?
S: Miyazaki has drawn the fact that happened on Jiro Horikoshi since the manga. But it is Miyazaki's creation about his personality. I visited Jiro Horikoshi's son to get permission and I got the consent with the word "Of course I do not mind such a thing." Miyazaki's Jiro Horikoshi has a calm character, so we do not understand what he thinks about at a glance. I thought he is possibly father of Miyazaki, then I pointed it out. He replied "I'd like to know my father in this film."

Q: The aircraft in the teaser looked like something that does not exist. How many imaginary aircraft appear in the film?
S: A considerable number of existing aircraft appear in the film. People back then were going to make aircraft with designs not thought about now but those were not able to fly well. Because Miyazaki knows them well, he draws them for the film. It differs from what is called creation. What Miyazaki draws certainly exists, if one follows the origin.

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

--LLin 13:45, 22 December 2012 (UTC)

History of Kaze Tachinu

Hiroshi Ichimura revealed several details during an interview with Kunihiro Suzuki (the president of Fine Mold) in the January issue of Scale Aviation magazine. Ichimura is the representative of Art Box which edits the Model Graphix, Scale Aviation, Armour Modeling, and several other magazines in this vein.

During World War II, Miyazaki's father managed a munitions factory to help a sickly uncle. According to Ichimura the factory produced windshields and vertical tails for the Zero fighter. It's not known whether this is the reason but Miyazaki seriously intended to purchase a Zero fighter from US. But his wish was not fulfilled due to Japanese law and the objection of his family. Then he tried to make a movie of the Zero fighter, but his ambition gradually faded. Then he drew the manga "Kaze Tachinu" in Model Graphix. "Kaze Tachinu" was a story of the Zero fighter at first, but it became a story of the KA-14 after many complications. Ichimura had talked with Miyazaki about the Zero fighter many times through his work. He revealed on NTV that he heard from Miyazaki, "I'll animate this( Kaze Tachinu)" and "considerable romantic elements will be included in it."

Zero fighter details at the 5:40 mark (in English)

The manga version of "Kaze Tachinu" official title is "Kaze Tachinu Mousou Came Back." In other words, it means Miyazaki's mousou (delusion) came back again from Tigers in the Mud as "Kaze Tachinu".

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

--LLin 23:39, 19 December 2012 (UTC)


Kaguya-hime Monogatari Details, Trailers

Kaguya-hime no Monogatari

Theme: "A princess's crime and punishment."
Synopsis: The story is the same as the original. However, the original does not describe Kaguya-hime's feelings, it just describes what happens to her. This film carefully draws her feelings out one by one.

  • Release Date: Summer 2013
  • Executive Producer: Seiichiro Ujiie (passed away on March 28, 2011 at the age of 84)
    • Toshio Suzuki mentioned that he would like to credit Ujiie as Chief Production Officer, but the official website poster credits Ujiie as Executive Producer
    • More from Suzuki on Ujiie: There was a thing Ujiie-san wants to do. It was Takahata-san's new film. He said, "I want to see his film by all means one more before I die." In this way preparations for Kaguya-hime began. Four or five years ago Ujiie-san seemed to say it this way in an officers' meeting, "this is not a business that I am concerned with directly because I leave my officiation to an operating officer. But there is the only exception, it's Takataha's film. I said this beforehand but this film is not profitable. But I have him make a good film because I don't mind a loss." (at the 19:45 mark) "I want to do something before I die." If Ujiie did not think this way, Kaguya-hime would not have been born.
  • Director, Original plan: Isao Takahata
  • Original: Take-tori Monogatari (the author is unknown)
  • Script: Isao Takahata, Riko Sakaguchi
  • Runtime: 125 minutes (not finalized)
    • The first script runtime as a feature film was 3 hours 30 minutes.
  • Producer: Yoshiaki Nishimura (it is unknown what kind of role Toshio Suzuki is playing)
    • He attended a press conference with Suzuki as a producer.
    • Cinematopics writes "producer Yoshiaki Nishimura of Kaguya-hime."
    • He appears in a documentary of the Tales from Earthsea as an assistant producer to Suzuki.
  • Music: Shinichiro Ikebe
  • Animation Production: Studio Ghibli
  • Production Committee: Studio Ghibli, NTV, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DYMP, Disney, D-rights, TOHO, KDDI (GNDHDDTK)
  • Special Support: LAWSON, Yomiuri Shinbun (they also special support Kaze Tachinu)
  • Production period: 2005 to June, 2013 (including pre-production)
  • Copyright: (C)2013 Hata Office GNDHDDTK

Toho started screening the first teaser trailers for Kaze-tachinu and Kaguya-hime on Saturday in theaters. They are 15 seconds each. Kaguya-hime begins from a scene of a thatched house of the country, and the beautiful Kaguya-hime appears at the end. In the Kaze-tachinu teaser a young Jiro Horikoshi who is handling an aircraft and Naoko who is painting a picture appear. Studio Ghibli will probably release a TV version of the trailer in February.

This is someone's impression of the trailer: "Saw the trailers for the new Ghibli films ('Kaze Tachinu' and 'Kaguya-hime no Monogatari') today when watching The Hobbit in the theater here in Japan. They both look promising, especially Kaguya-hime, which looks like a children's picture book come to life."

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

--LLin 14:02, 16 December 2012 (UTC)

Kaze Tachinu Details Extravaganza

  • Kaze Tachinu (The Wind Rises) - official website currently only hosting a poster

Top right of poster: Show respect for Jiro Horikoshi and Tatsuo Hori Top left of poster: We must try to live

Synopsis: The story begins with a 10 year old Jiro Horikoshi. He longs for the sky and aims to be a pilot. When he becomes an adult and begins working on aircraft times of war have come. The thing which he should design was a fighter for a warship...

The name of the girl painting a picture on the teaser poster is Naoko. Miyazaki is using the name of the heroine of Tastuo Hori's novel "Naoko".

  • Release Date: Summer 2013
  • Director, Storyboards: Hayao Miyazaki
  • Original: Hayao Miyazaki's manga "Kaze Tachinu" - 9 chapters in Model Graphix magazine (April to September 2010, November 2010 to January 2011)

Model Graphix editor shows a photo of Miyazaki's original painting for Kaza-Tachinu on Twitter

Lyrics:

白い坂道が　空まで続いていた
Shiroi sakamichi ga sora made tuzuite ita
ゆらゆらかげろうが　あの子を包む
Yurayura kagerou ga ano ko wo tsutsumu
誰も気づかず　ただひとり
Daremo kizukazu tada hitori
あの子は　昇っていく
Ano ko wa nobotte iku
何もおそれない　そして舞い上がる
Nanimo osorenai soshite maiagaru

空に憧れて　空をかけてゆく
Sora ni akogarete sora wo kakete iku
あの子の命は　ひこうき雲
Ano ko no inochi wa hikouki-gumo

高いあの窓で　あの子は死ぬ前も
Takai ano mado de ano ko wa shinu mae mo
空を見ていたの　今はわからない
Sora wo miteita no. Ima wa wakaranai
ほかの人には　わからない
Hoka no hito niwa wakaranai
あまりにも　若すぎたと
Amarinimo wakasugi tato
ただ思うだけ　けれどしあわせ
Tada omou dake. Keredo shiawase

空に憧れて　空をかけてゆく
Sora ni akogarete sora wo kakete iku
あの子の命は　ひこうき雲
Ano ko no inochi wa hikouki-gumo

  • Animation Production: Studio Ghibli
  • Production Committee: Studio Ghibli, NTV, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DYMP, Disney, D-rights, TOHO, KDDI (GNDHDDTK)
  • Production period: June 30, 2011 to June 2013

Miyazaki's manga Kaze Tachinu was affected by Tatsuo Hori's 1937 novel and masterpiece of the same name. The novel is based on the true story of Tatsuo Hori and his fiancee Ayako Yano who died of pulmonary tuberculosis. The book (in red) is visible on Miyazaki's bookshelf.

Miyazaki mixes the Kaza Tachinu of Tatsuo Hori and Jiro Horikoshi's life. In brief, Miyazaki's Kaze-Tachinu is not based on the true life of Horikoshi. Miyazaki mentioned it in an interview like this, "I think it is not a fantasy. There are some elements of fantasy, but it's not fantasy."

A section from French writer Paul Valery's "Le Cimetiere Marin" (The Graveyard By The Sea) was quoted at the beginning of Tatsuo Hori's Kaze Tachinu, "Le vent se lve, il faut tenter de vivre." Miyazaki's Kaze-Tachinu poster looks like this part:

"One of those afternoons, we were munching fruit, sprawled out in the shade of a a white birch tree with your painting still on top of its easel. Clouds swept across the sky like sand. Suddenly, from nowhere, the wind began to rise. Patches of deep blue peeking out above us between the leaves swelled up, then drew in. At nearly the same moment, we heard something fall with a thud in the bushes. It was the sound of your painting, left untended, falling over together with the easel. You were about to get up, but suddenly I stopped you, and held you by my side as if struggling to hold onto every bit of that single moment. You let me do just as I wished. The wind rises. We must try to live."

Twelve notes from the press conference:

  1. Both films will be released on the same day, and same scale, but separately. No double-feature like with Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies.
  2. Studio Ghibli was going to release Kaguya-hime earlier then Kaze Tachinu at first, but it will be released on the same day due to production delays.
  3. Both films run times will be about 125 minutes
  4. Toshio Suzuki revealed that Miyazaki "quivered with excitement" when he heard about the simultaneous release.
  5. Kaze Tachinu shows a love story that adopted Tatsuo Hori's Kaze Tachinu and the life of Horikoshi as an engineer.
  6. Kaze Tachinu begins with a 10 year old Jiro Horiko and runs through when the 42 years old sees his Zero fighter fly.
  7. Miyazaki has a profound knowledge about war. He thought what happened if he let Tatsuo Hori's love story dock with the story of the life of the person who designed the Zero fighter.
  8. Miyazaki was born in Showa 16 (1941) so he cannot avoid the war. His generation likes fighters and tanks but Japan lost the war and his youth was a time of pacifism. Miyazaki has lived in the contradiction. Weapons and pacifism. Miyazaki told Suzuki that he would like to clarify why a human being like him was born in the film.
  9. Kaguya-hime was elaborated in a plan in 2005, it was a 30 minutes short film at first.
  10. Toshio Suzuki expressed about the script of Kaguya-hime, "if Alpine Girl Heidi was set in Japan and made, it would be like this."
  11. Voice recording work of Kahiya-hime is already finished. Kaguya-hime adopts the pre-recording/post-animating style not common at Studio Ghibli. Takahata told Suzuki, "this may possibly become my best film."
  12. Studio Ghibli formally decided to make "Hikouki-Gumo" as the theme song for Kaze Tachinu.

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

--LLin 03:48, 14 December 2012 (UTC)

Kaze Tachinu and Kaguya-hime Monogatari Announced

Anime News Network (via eiga.com 2 has the details on Miyazaki's (Kaze Tachinu - "The Wind Is Rising") and Takahata's (Kaguya-hime no Monogatari - "The Tale of Princess Kaguya") films scheduled for release during the summer of 2013.

The official websites are now active: Kaze Tachinu, Kaguya-hime no Monogatari

Thanks to Heinz Freyhofer for the news.

--LLin 14:18, 13 December 2012 (UTC)

More Film Announcement Details

Toshio Suzuki and Yumi Matsutoya held a talk on Sunday for the upcoming Blu-ray releases of Kiki's Delivery Service (the opening and ending songs were done under her maiden name of Yumi Arai) and Only Yesterday. On the show Suzuki revealed that Studio Ghibli will unveil their new feature films this Thursday. Suzuki asked Matsutoya to use her song "Hikouki-gumo" (Vapor Trail) for Miyazaki's new film. According to Suzuki its lyrics fit the contents of the film. Miyazaki agreed to it as did Matsutoya but a final decision hasn't been made due to a procedural issue.

Thanks to T. Ishikawa for the news.

Film Announcement Immanent, "From Up On Poppy Hill" Up for an Annie, Other Bits

Toshio Suzuki mentioned on Tominaga's radio show that Studio Ghibli and Toho will unveil Miyazaki and Takahata's new films next week.

Toho always announces their film lineup for the coming year during the second week of December. Studio Ghibli usually holds a press conference at the head office of Toho at around 2:00 pm with Suzuki presenting the details. Previous announcement dates:

Kokuriko-zaka - Dec 15 Arrietty - Dec 16 Earthsea - Dec 13 Howl - Dec 13 The Cat Returns - Dec 13 Spirited Away - Dec 13

From Up On Poppy Hill was nominated in the "Writing in an Animated Feature Production" category for the 40th Annual Annie Awards. The film is not in the running for "Best Animated Feature" at the Annies but could still be part that category at the Oscars.

Previous reported upon in 2008 the following is a translation of Hayao Miyazaki's advice on how to use transparent watercolors in the booklet of the Ghibli Museum Sketching Set.

Title: My recommendation. Transparent watercolor is good.

"transparent watercolor has a strong habit", "do not paint stickily and paint after wiping the extra paint and water off", "paint thinly the bright part", "had better not use white", "paint other color after under color has dried", "let's mix the color and use it."

  1. Light the wool which protrudes on a new painting brush.
  2. Anything is fine for a water vessel.
  3. A retractable knife is enough for the pencil sharpener.
  4. One 2B pencil is enough for the pencil.
  5. Divide the palette into seven zones: Bright, Dark, Black, Green 1, Green 2, Blue 2, Blue 1.
  6. Do not use the eraser.
  7. Do not draw a guideline for a picture.

"these painting materials are enough for a 2-week trip and preparations for a movie."

Thanks to T. Ishikawa and Isaac Chambers for the news.

--LLin 16:32, 5 December 2012 (UTC)

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