Studio Ghibli is named for the hot wind of the Sahara. Established in the mid-1980s, it was a new venture for two directors who had worked together since 1964: Isao Takahata (b. 1935) and his partner Hayao Miyazaki (b. 1941). Ghibli's premiere work, Nausicaä, became the first anime ever to make the top ten list of Japan's prestigious film journal Kinema Jumpo. By the late eighties Ghibli's work was topping the Japanese box office, and in 1994 their Pompoko became the first anime ever to be offered in consideration for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. When, in 1996, Disney announced an unprecedented deal to distribute their work worldwide, Ghibli had already earned an international body of admirers, yet their greatest triumph and loss were to follow in rapid succession. 1997 saw Princess Mononoke become the highest-grossing Japanese film ever made; the very next year, junior Ghibli director Yoshifumi Kondo, seen by many as the future of the studio, died at the age of 47. The directors have long pursued their own creative path, and whether based on adaptations of others' manga (illustrated novels) or on their own original stories, Ghibli's screenplays are influenced by the strong background of Miyazaki and Takahata in left-wing politics. Both in Miyazaki's fantasy adventure stories, with their love of flight and European-inspired landscapes, and in Takahata's more realistic works set amidst the issues of a recognizable Japan, Ghibli has championed the laborer, artisan, villager, and the ecology-while at times also acknowledging the contradictions that arise in these stands. This is a studio admired even by those progressive Japanese directors who have taken anime in very different directions; American audiences are just beginning to discover, on screen, the reasons for Ghibli's universal respect.Carl HornCarl Gustav Horn, who has written our program notes, is the co-author (with Patrick Macias, Mason Jones, and Yuji Oniki) of Cadence Books' Japan Edge: The Insider's Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture. Japan Edge is a collection of Gen-X observations and notes on Japanese animation, comics, live-action movies, and music, including Horn's "To the Revolution Now," a feature article on the creative struggles of Ghibli and the crisis of conscience that led to Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke.This is a touring series originating at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, organized by Laurence Kardish, and is presented courtesy of Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Shinchosa, Toho International, and Central Park Media. We thank Cowboy Booking International for facilitating the tour. Saturday November 13, 1999
