Source@Zhihu

Over the weekend, I revisited several Miyazaki films. I don't know why, I always feel that there is a very faint sense of sadness and loneliness in his movies. Especially the scenery, there is always some feeling of memory when you look at it. After reading it, I felt a feeling of sadness in my heart, but I didn't know what the reason was. Why is it that there is a kind of picture that is just presented quietly like this, and it makes people feel sad? How does this work?

BYSmail, a Ghibli diehard, chases One Piece every week

Thank you very much for your approval.,Originally, it was just a refutation of an answerer's interpretation of My Neighbor Totoro.,As a result, it's now topped to the first position but not answered the question well.,If it goes on like this, it's time to be folded.。 In that case, I'm going to organize the language seriously, first explaining why My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away are not black fairy tales, and then interpreting why Miyazaki's or Ghibli's animations give people a touch of melancholy.

=== Still can't play the dividing line ===

Reject all views that interpret My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away as black fairy tales. Especially on this question, Uncle YOL's opinion on My Neighbor Totoro, what is so good about "My Neighbor Totoro"? What are the non-cinematic factors to its success? -animation

Anime with profound ideas will concretely surface the cruel reality and give the audience the right guidance. Instead of hiding the black core under the warm surface, it makes people's hearts chill.

Ghibli's animations are mainly divided into three categories:

On the one hand, "Valley of the Wind" and "Princess Mononoke" express Miyazaki's reflections on man and nature, and it is difficult for even adults to answer the question he left behind: how should man and nature coexist. This theme is also expressed in another form by Takahata in Heisei Tanuki War; "Porco Rosso" and "The Wind Rises" express thoughts on war: how to survive the happiness of individuals in the turmoil of war. Similarly, "Grave of the Fireflies" directed by Isao Takahata, which is one of the most profound animated films I have ever seen, reflects on this issue.

The second category is pure warm healing movies, Hayao Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro", "Witch Home Delivery Service", "Goldfish on the Cliff"; Takahata's "Panda Family", "Fairy Tale of Time", "My Neighbor Yamada-kun"; "Listening with the Ear" by Yoshifumi Kondo; Hiroyuki Morita's "The Cat's Kindness"; Including Goro Miyazaki's "Poppy Blooming Hillside". It is a representative of this type of healing system.

The third category is between the first two, which not only has a more complex context and thinking, but also gives people warmth with a happy ending, and this category is also the highest-rated category of Ghibli films, such as Hayao Miyazaki's "Castle in the Sky", "Spirited Away", "Howl's Moving Castle", Momotsuki Mochizuki's "Hearing the Waves" and Yonebayashi Hiromasa's "Arietti the Villain Who Borrowed Things". Goro Miyazaki also wanted to achieve such a goal in "The Battle of the Earth and Sea", but it failed.

To sum up, Ghibli's films are not without deep reflection, there are many movies that think about death, disease, war, and nature, but their fame is relatively not very high. If Hayao Miyazaki or Isao Takahata wanted to add their own voice to their work, they could have made films like "The Wind Rises" and "Grave of the Fireflies." Why hide the negative, deathly, black elements in the warmth of My Neighbor Totoro? I can't think of a reason to do that.

Nowadays, social networking sites (including Zhihu) seem to have a tendency to interpret a work in a bizarre and perverse way, and the more informative it is, the more it reflects the depth of the interpreter and his understanding of the work.

"My Neighbor Totoro" was released at the same time as "Grave of the Fireflies", but the fireflies were too profound, and they were only applauded, but not popular. My Neighbor Totoro, on the other hand, is applauded and applauded, just because warm healing animation is more attractive to the audience, and everyone has suffered enough setbacks in reality, and of course they are more willing to go into the cinema in order to find warmth.

The box office contrast has also changed the status of Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata in Studio Ghibli, which is certainly not the focus of this article. After Totoro's extraordinary success, Studio Ghibli's logo was named Totoro, the equivalent of Pixar's little jumping lights. It has also become the hottest image of Ghibli's best-selling dolls. This shows that it is just a cute and cute monster, and it is impossible to be a symbol of death.

As for the faceless man in "Spirited Away", is he a metaphor for death? It is also impossible that he is just a symbol of human excessive greed. In the same way, Granny Yu, Chihiro's parents, are all stored as symbols of greed. The theme of "Spirited Away" is kindness, affection, and pure friendship. What is opposed is unbridled greed. Hebo's part clearly expresses the subject content, and those who only care about whether the white dragon will die will probably not remember this part at all. It is true that Bailong still has to fight against Granny Tang, and of course it is possible to fail. But this is not the main theme of "Spirited Away" at all, let alone the shadow of death.

Miyazaki's mother did suffer from tuberculosis, but can this be used as evidence for a black fairy tale? Because of the misfortune of childhood, and passing on the shadow of death to children, it is not Miyazaki, it is Hitler.

If you watch too many Ghibli anime, you will find that even the villain will have a cute side, and Lady Tang in Spirited Away is just a crazy old woman who is greedy for money, has a strong desire for control, but is crazy about spoiling children. The Witch of the Wilderness in Harry, who lost her mana and became just a cute grandmother. Even Morita Hiroyuki's "The Cat's Kindness", the Persian cat king is just a stupid uncle.

Ghibli has such magic that can make villains cute. On the contrary, the original cute character has a black metaphor, which is probably the biggest misunderstanding.

===The second bullet of the dividing line===

So why do Miyazaki's films give people a touch of melancholy?

First of all, I don't think that's what most people feel, at least what I personally feel from Miyazaki's movies is more warmth. On the contrary, "Hearing the Waves" brought me more sadness.

Some people feel sad that it may be because Ghibli's painting style has remained largely unchanged since "Valley of the Wind", and he insists on hand-drawing (only my neighbor Yamada-kun did it by computer). This will give people a sense of nostalgia in the current era of 3DCG graphics, as if returning to the peaceful and diluted time of childhood. People always feel sad when they reminisce.

Then there's the soundtrack, Miyazaki's films and Hisaishi's soundtracks are legendary. Hisaishi's compositions are characterized by softness and warmth, such as Spirited Away's interlude "That Summer", which is still my favorite movie interlude. This piece calms down the anxious feelings, and at the same time tends to cause a sad mood, but this mood is not negative. Except for a few cheerful and light-hearted episodes like "My Neighbor Totoro", Hisaishi's composition is more or less like this.

Enjoy the beauty of Ghibli's animations, there really aren't many such beautiful things in the cruel and anxious modern society.