Martin KraftNever meet your heroes. That is a saying that goes a long way and perhaps Steven Spielberg found the same to be true. There can often be moments when a person would like someone, perhaps even look up to them, but the same feelings aren’t reciprocated back to them. While teenagers would experience this a lot in their friendships, the same could be a parallel for people and their inspirations.
While in most cases things would be smooth for a director as renowned as Spielberg, his reputation with Hayao Miyazaki is worse for wear. Both of them are legendary filmmakers, one mastering the live-action while the other the animated. For Spielberg, things are very different, seeing Miyazaki as an inspiration. For the former though, that is far from the case.
Steven Spielberg has High Praise for Hayao Miyazaki
Steven Spielberg is regarded as one of the most respected filmmakers in Hollywood with multiple accolades and awards to back the claim. There has never been a doubt about his skills and that only makes his praise for Hayao Miyazaki even better. Talent recognizes talent, the saying goes a long way and Miyazaki’s films caught his attention for this exact purpose.
I especially, you know, admire the whole world of Miyazaki, and his taste and his storytelling abilities. His Spirited Away is one of the greatest animated films ever made, might be better than any Disney film I’ve ever seen. He was a real influence.
Spielberg talked about meeting Miyazaki and how his movies were always different than what animation was to the rest of the world. In an interview (via Comicbook), he spoke up about the impact that Studio Ghibli movies have and how he stands as a big pillar of influence.
Comparing the films to that of Disney’s vast range of animated projects, Spielberg was very clear with the fact that Studio Ghibli was far superior in every way possible. Spirited Away in particular caught his attention and rightfully so.
Hayao Miyazaki and the Oriental Image
Orientalism is a book by Edward Said that proposed the idea of the Western eye. According to the book, Western perceptions divided the world into Orients and Occidents with Orients being the Eastern and Middle Eastern people through Western eyes. What Hayao Miyazaki presses on during an interview via Kotaku is in relation to the same.
Even in the Indiana Jones movies, there is a white guy who, ‘bang,’ shoots people, right? Japanese people who go along and enjoy with that are unbelievably embarrassing. You are the ones that, ‘bang,’ get shot. Watching [those movies] without any self-awareness is unbelievable. There’s no pride, no historical perspective. You don’t know how you are viewed by a country like America.
According to him, the representation is foul and inexcusable. On top of that, what the movies show lacks any sense of self-awareness and deep research of the places they visit.
He expressed his disdain about how Japanese people would never indulge in media that lacks any sense of proper representation. Miyazaki was strict about the fact that such movies only distorted already blurred images instead of making it better.
