I have never really been one to write segments on my blog, but I decided to try one out about a director who I seem to never have enough to say about. As the title suggests, I am referring to Miyazaki. As both a director and individual, Miyazaki is extremely interesting and expresses a lot of important ideas through his films.
In these posts which I have no set date to even be completed, I hope to explore some of the motifs and themes seen in a good deal of his films. And trust me, there are many! To start things off, I’m going to be talking about his repeated motif of water throughout his films.
The importance and use of water throughout Miyazaki’s films is something my sister had pointed out to me on account of her teacher some time ago. At first mention of this, I got instantly hit with the reality of this fact. The most instant explanation one could give to this motif would be Miyazaki’s environmental concerns, but I think it’s clearly much more than that.
To start off with one of this earliest works with one of the most prominent uses of water, we begin by discussing Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. This is one case where environmental concerns clearly are present, but the water also seemed to be expressed as a life force. This idea of water being the source of all living things carries throughout his other films as well.
Most people appropriately view water as the thing that prevents us from dying, but rarely is it seen in the light as the reason life is created. In Nausicaa, areas of the jungle continue to thrive because of an untainted water source. Insects become giant in order to fight back against the humans, while humans continue to decline and head in the direction of their eventual extinction. Water is what should join both the world of humans and nature seeing as it creates life between them both, but it ends up being the cause of what separates the two.
The thought of an inability to coexist between nature and humans (I guess adding in spirits would be appropriate) is what leads us to Princess Mononoke. The story where humans once again try to fight nature. In this case, the water present throughout the film isn’t nearly as present as the last film, but the moment where it is presented, is clearly very significant. It is shown as a small sorta of mote where the spirit of the forest lies. It is a source of water that heals and brings life (or death) to humans and spirits, and also the whole forest. It is the one little area in the whole film that holds the most power to effect every other area presented in the world of Princess Mononoke.
To go back a few years from that film to back in 1988 with My Neighbor Totoro, water also has it’s own spotlight in it too. Of course the most significant use of water in this film is while it is raining at the bus and with a sleeping Mei, Satsuki meets Totoro for the first time. As pretty much all of Miyazaki films present, this scene is dedicated completely to the magic children possess. Satsuki’s only reaction to meeting Totoro, which at first is almost fearful with his big feet being all she sees passed her umbrella at first, turns into a new friend made.
In contrast to the inability for humans to coexist with nature, this is one of the few instances where the exact opposite happens. Satsuki offers an umbrella which Totoro turns out to love. The gift she gives turns out to give her access, along with her sister, to the spirit world with the catbus. This rainy encounter is what connects the two worlds.
The idea of a world connected by both spirits and humans, leads us to Spirited Away. The uses of water throughout are extremely varied, and it no doubt has some strong roots to Japanese cultures and religions, but I’ll try my best to interpret it as I see it personally.
The first scene with water is when Chihiro discovers what was once the path to go home is now just a river that she is unable to pass. In Japanese tradition, there is an equivalent to the River of Styx known as the Sanzu River, which ways out your deeds in life to determine how difficult it will be for you to be able to cross it. I won’t read too much into that since that’s just a guess, but clearly the idea presented in this theme was to show that Chihiro was not ready to cross and couldn’t until she experiences the growth seen throughout the whole film.
The story is one where she is presented with a series of trials that she grows from to reach her ultimate goal. One of them was the one with what was at first thought to be a “stink spirit”. Chihiro was given the task to take care of this customer because nobody wanted to accept such a smelly thing. Although Chihiro is at first repulsed herself, and her old self probably wouldn’t have been able to handle the situation, she soon sympathizes with the spirit and ends up helping him and is rewarded with the “key” that saves NoFace. The water is what engulfs her and allows her to be present with this spirit.
Another instance in the film was when it rained for so long that the world outside became similar to a sea. In the times where it was raining, was when NoFace had swallowed three people and tried to communicate in any way he could to Chihiro. He bought everything and offered everyone around him as much money as they wanted, still, when presented to Chihiro she rejected it. Eventually, he had literally puked all the bad in him and went to cross the river with Chihiro by the train.
In this scene, the area is seen to be vast and wide, and also empty. Greed and desire are gone, and instead it feels much more like a giant breath of fresh air than anything. This water came from rain against a dark side, but managed to become a cleansing ocean. This can be seen as the new rebirth for both Chihiro and NoFace, as well as Yubaba’s henchman and her child. Each of them has at this point reached a new understanding in their life where, and have become “new people”.
The last important instance of water in this film is with Haku, the (spoiler) Kohaku river. He is the one who saved Chihiro back when she was young, The significance in this, I feel, is mostly to show the role reversal now seen between the two. In the other world Chihiro was a girl who was apparently selfish and spoiled. In this instance, much like he did a long time ago, Chihiro manages to save Haku from death. The reuniting between the two brings Chihiro to tears, and although she was once critiqued for being a crybaby, this is to show that not all tears are a sign of weakness, and in this case shows her strength. All this leads her to her final test which she passes and then allows her to cross what was once a river with ease.
Miyazaki often uses water as both a way to bridge two worlds or to create a way to show growth in characters. This was seen throughout his most recent film Ponyo. Also, much like with Nausicaa or Princess Mononoke, it is shown to be life, and not to mention beauty. This is directly implied with Ponyo’s mother, who is literally the mother of the sea. In contrast to the father, she is a giant godlike person which really brings home the message that water is the foundation of life and rebirth.
To conclude, I’m sure there is more that can be said, and if I were to brush up on East Asian Religions, I could probably rewrite this whole post. I’ve come to the end of my first analysis, and I hope you enjoyed reading it, as I have plenty more to say about other themes in Miyazaki’s films!