Thirty years ago, Miyazaki Hayao’s most unique adult animation

The writer of this article is @ Ghost Feet of Xiaowan Family.

The only function of movies is to make life more interesting than movies.

Talking about animation, you can’t bypass Miyazaki Hayao.

　

But when it comes to Miyazaki Hayao’s works, everyone may have his own best, and all kinds of pure and romantic imagination in his works have left us precious memories.

　

However, to say that Miyazaki Hayao’s works have the most special "painting style", it may belong to "Red Pig" 30 years ago.

　

Red Pig, released in 1992, is a mid-term work in Miyazaki Hayao’s creative sequence.

However, compared with the previous My Neighbor Totoro’s The Witch’s Help, or the later Spirited Away’s The Ghost Princess, Red Pig has received little attention and is rarely mentioned at present.

　

But for Miyazaki Hayao, this is perhaps his most self-dissected work. Why do you say that? Let’s analyze it today.

　

As the name implies, the protagonist of Red Pig is a pig. This pilot named Boruk was once the trump card of the Italian Air Force, but somehow he became a pig, and now he is a bounty hunter who is complacent in the Adriatic Gulf.

　

At the beginning of the story, Poluk set out to pursue a group of air thieves who kidnapped the little girl.

However, he is not going to severely punish evil, nor is he going to maintain public order. Instead, after rescuing the hostages, he will leave half of the money robbed by the air thieves as the maintenance cost of the plane and let them live.

　

For Pollock, flying and fighting seem to be more like recreation and fun, just like smoking and drinking at ordinary times, just a little entertainment in plain life.

　

"Red Pig" is the only one of Miyazaki Hayao’s works with adults as the core, and this man is a real greasy uncle.

Miyazaki Hayao said in an interview that the theme of Red Pig is, "When a man reaches middle age, he becomes a pig."

　

Boruk used to be a high-spirited pilot, but he chose to retire in the changes of the times. "I’d rather be a pig than a fascist." He left the military camp and began to fly alone in a free place.

　

Dreams, honors and responsibilities have nothing to do with Boruk. The setting that he becomes a pig in the film is not a common magical element in Miyazaki Hayao’s other works, but the most realistic side.

He is different from that world, so he chooses to be different.

　

In the second half of the story, the air thief invited Kadish, an American pilot, to confront Boruk. After experiencing the twists and turns of the plane being destroyed and repaired, Boruk finally turned his enemy into his friend in hand-to-hand combat with Kadish and returned to a free and leisurely life.

　

The story of Red Pig is actually very simple, and even most of the time it is more like a leisurely work showing local customs and natural scenery.

But in fact, this animation tells the story of a middle-aged crisis with a protagonist who is not handsome at all and a battle that is not bloody at all.

　

Miyazaki Hayao described the sadness of a middle-aged man in "Red Pig". Boruk preferred to exile himself because he didn’t want to be a fascist, but at the same time he didn’t want to be an empty thief and insisted on his principles.

　

He loves Gina, the proprietress of the hotel, but he always hides his feelings. His mouth and mouth are free and easy, which actually comes from his inner escape and disappointment with reality.

　

Every day, I fly a plane across the sea and clouds, fight with stupid air thieves, go back to the island for a few drinks, and use the money I earn to maintain my plane. Even if I have to duel with pilots from the United States, I still don’t want to hurt the killer.

　

Even if the whole film is full of blue sky, white clouds and seaside scenery, it can’t hide this faint sadness. Like a reclusive chivalrous man who loves mountains and rivers, Poluk is ready to spend the rest of his life like this.

　

Give up responsibility, lose dreams and escape from reality, and people become pigs.

"Red Pig" here writes about the helplessness that has to be experienced and overcome in life. When people reach middle age, the possibility of life is running out, rather than living, they are at the mercy of life.

　

Therefore, the reason why Red Pig is the most special of Miyazaki Hayao’s works is precisely because it writes the truth of life that is not dreamy or romantic at all. It seems to have all the classic elements in Miyazaki Hayao’s animation, but it is not a work for children at all.

　

In fact, the creation of "Red Pig" is also closely related to Miyazaki Hayao’s own mentality.

In the early 1990s, Miyazaki Hayao was over 50 years old, just as the passion of his youth gradually faded, and he began to look to the turning point in the second half of his life.

　

At the same time, the disintegration of the Soviet Union had a strong impact on Miyazaki Hayao. The drastic changes in reality and the inner vacillation became the reasons why Boruk lived alone in the Red Pig. When someone suggested in the bank that "buy some national debt, this is to support the country", Boruk replied "that is your human business".

　

By becoming a pig and flying aimlessly in the blue sky, Miyazaki Hayao found a chance to breathe. In a sense, The Red Pig is a projection of Miyazaki Hayao’s heart.

When Red Pig was first produced, it was originally just a short animation for Japan Airlines to play on the plane, with the purpose of "a film for middle-aged people who are tired of their brains". Simply put, it is good-looking.

　

At that time, the story only ended when Poluk rescued the little girl. Old partner toshio suzuki asked Miyazaki Hayao, "Why is this guy a pig?"

Miyazaki Hayao replied, "What does it matter? I just want to draw pigs."

　

Headstrong to headstrong, but it was precisely because this project came from a "random" project that Miyazaki Hayao was able to naturally put his ego into it and made a Miyazaki Hayao animation that was completely unlike Miyazaki Hayao.

　

At the end of "Red Pig", Boruk, who was flying a plane, never appeared again. The story suggests that he faced his responsibilities again and became a man again.

Perhaps this is Miyazaki Hayao’s expectation and encouragement for himself, or perhaps it is his still vague belief in confusion.

　

After Red Pig, in 1997, after a lapse of five years, Miyazaki Hayao took out his next work, Princess Ghost, which was a very long interval.

Perhaps in this process, Miyazaki Hayao finally slowly digested the helplessness of middle age and finally found a new direction in life.

　

Now, 30 years later, Miyazaki Hayao is over 80 years old, and the original "crisis" has become a master of understanding the world, but this unique self-analysis in those years now looks even more precious and rare.

　

Note: Some pictures in this article are from Douban and the Internet. If there is any infringement, please contact us actively.

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