Japan’s greatest filmmaker - not Kurosawa?
I think if you ask most people whom they regard as Japan’s greatest filmmaker, the consensus would undoubtedly be Seven Samurai director Akira Kurosawa. A recent article at the Japan times, aptly titled ‘Hayao Miyazaki - Japan’s Greatest Director’, wonders if that august title might not fit their greatest animator…oh and, um - sorry about the picture…I couldn’t resist.
Most praise his works. Haruhiko Kamijima, a novelist who authored a book about Miyazaki’s movies, said no Japanese director — including Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu or Takeshi Kitano — has had a bigger impact on the worldwide movie industry than Miyazaki. That is partly because his movies are animated, an area in which Japanese artists shine, he said. He favors Miyazaki’s recent works, and “Ponyo” is Miyazaki’s best, he said.
Miyazaki is an excellent animator, Kamijima said. He is good at drawing. “Ponyo” was done without using computer graphics, which means Miyazaki and his staff drew all the pictures needed to produce the movie, Kamijima said.
“Miyazaki goes against the current trend by not using a computer,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kaoru Kumi, who wrote a book critical of Miyazaki’s movies, dismisses him as a mere animator and says his scripts are of low quality. Miyazaki does not begin with a script. Rather, in many cases he first comes up with a visual idea, and then thinks of a story to back up the visual, resulting in strange and arbitrarily made-up plots, Kumi said. He also complains that Studio Ghibli has not turned out a great director because Miyazaki cannot teach scriptwriting.
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