Hayao Miyazaki
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Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, director, producer, screenwriter, author, manga artist, and co-founder of Studio Ghibli.
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"Renowned animator Hayao Miyazaki states that he’s not the biggest fan of Lord of the Rings and other Hollywood franchises for a reason his many fans all over the world will be surprised to hear at first. However, you’ll most likely come to understand why this Academy Award-winning filmmaker feels this way.
Farout Magazine reports Miyazaki, at the time, reflected on the destructive messages he often found in Hollywood films. According to him, these films tend to push a narrative that believes wrongdoing can only be punished through bloodshed, and that the slaying of countless lives of innocent individuals is permissible so long as it brings retribution to evildoers.
“Americans shoot things and they blow up and the like, so as you’d expect, they make movies like that,” Miyazaki expressed at the time. “If someone is the enemy, it’s okay to kill endless numbers of them. Lord of the Rings is like that.”
Continuing on, Miyazaki stated, “The Lord of the Rings is a movie that has no problem doing that [not separating civilians from enemies, apparently]. If you read the original work, you’ll understand, but in reality, the ones who were being killed are Asians and Africans. Those who don’t know that, yet say they love fantasy are idiots.”[1]
Original Interview[2]
Miyazaki:
–Did you feel any difference compared to Hollywood films?
Americans always make movies about shooting and explosions. They never change. The simplest and most memorable movies are the ones where they just kill the enemy.
Even in The Lord of the Rings, they kill whoever they want just because they’re "the enemy." Civilians, soldiers—there’s no distinction. They just slaughter everyone.
Where’s the boundary of mistaken identity? How many people do they kill in one attack? Are these filmmakers even sane?
In The Lord of the Rings, if you read the original books, you’ll understand—but in the movie, the people who get killed off en masse are clearly coded as Asians or Africans.
And the ones who say “I love fantasy” the most? They’re always white people.
Spielberg’s Indiana Jones? That’s ridiculous. The first one came out in 1981. It’s just white people doing whatever they want.
Shooting people with bazookas and celebrating with others? And Japanese people are there too, celebrating along with them.
That’s unbelievable—shameful, even. Being on the side that fires the bazooka without any self-awareness... That’s disgraceful.
They have no historical perspective, no pride. They don’t realize how others view them, being from a country like America.
They might not even understand how they’re being perceived as Americans.
A young guy I know went to Paris wearing a shirt that said "U.S. Army" across the chest.
When I asked him why, he said, “It’s fashion.”
I told him, “Are you an idiot?”
And sure enough, as soon as he arrived, he got detained at customs and his passport was taken. Serves him right.
But whatever. That part doesn’t even matter. (laughs)==Citation and Legal== Treat the SpiritWiki as an open-access online monograph or structured textbook. You may freely use information in the SpiritWiki; however, attribution, citation, and/or direct linking are ethically required.
Footnotes
- ↑ Nosa. “Why Hayao Miyazaki Hates Lord of the Rings and Other Hollywood Movies.” Fansided, 2022. https://hiddenremote.com/2022/04/18/hayao-miyazaki-hates-lord-of-the-rings/.
- ↑ “Hayao Miyazaki Criticizes ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘Indiana Jones.’” Torotter (とろ速), 2014. https://torotter.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-11109.html. I have the plates saved on disk (Sociology 420/readings) in case these disappear