"Ponyo" opens, on its way to be another monster hit for Miyazaki

by Chris MaGee

While everyone here in North America is gripped by Batman hysteria a different kind of film blockbuster was taking shape in Japan this weekend. Yes, that's right folks... Hayao Miyazaki's 10th animated feature "Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea" opened to rave reviews and a take of nearly ¥450 million ($4.2 million).

Not only does this seem to be a huge commercial success for Studio Ghibli, but also for Hayao Miyazaki who suffered a creative crisis of conscience after the release of his 2004 film "Howl's Moving Castle". “After I made 'Howl’s Moving Castle' I regretted that people said it was not understandable," Miyazaki explained in an interview posted at Ghibli World, "Basically, my belief was to make movies for children. Despite of this, I made Howl’s. I had worried till I decided to make a next movie." In order to mull over the successes and failures of "Howl's" and to recover from what Miyazaki describes as a "autonomic imbalance" he spent two months living alone in the town of Tomonoura in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture on the Seto Inland Sea. It was this experience of living be the ocean that eventually inspired "Ponyo", the story of a little fish who is saved from a mason jar by a little boy named Sosuke and their ensuing friendship. It's this bond with a human child that gets Ponyo dreaming of becoming human.

Critics have been gushing over this new film, with Mark Schilling of The Japan Times saying, "If 'Ponyo' is the start of his artistic second childhood, I say welcome to the sandbox," and the Japanese language film site Eiga.com declaring that Ponyo is "a tidal wave bubbling over with imagination, a fantasy masterpiece that will revive the starving spirits of the Japanese people," but even with this praise there are doubters.

The opening day's box office reciepts are still far short of the record breaking numbers of Miyazaki's 2001 film "Spirited Away", in fact there were reports of empty seats in Tokyo theatres for screenings of "Ponyo" this past weekend. Could Miyazaki-san have peaked in popularity and creativity with that earlier landmark film? Well, in the end it's not for a little film blogger like me to say. I'm just going to impatiently wait for the North American release of "Ponyo" that is currently being coordinated by Hollywood super producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy.

Thanks to Variety Asia Online and Yomiuri for background on this story.