‘Watched Porco Rosso, the last of Miyazaki’s Ghibli films I hadn’t seen – and I found it to be one of his best. It was light and comic, with cute scenarios, wonderful gags and some superb characters. It seemed to be very much an homage to Western cinema, but all the Miyazaki hallmarks were in place. The minor characters were delightful, especially the pirate captain (reminiscent of Popeye’s Bluto), whose camera moment was sublime. And of course the old oba-chans in Piccolo’s workshop’ - Oct 13, 2003
Over seven years later, with a sequel in development (a first for Ghibli, unless you count the ‘Mai and the Catbus’ short that is exclusive to the Ghibli museum, or consider The Cat Returns a sequel to Whisper of the Heart, which is something of a stretch), and 1992’s Porco Rosso remains in my favourite three or four Miyazaki films. Often a thin plot is grounds for criticism, but here it manages to work extremely well, giving focus to the characters and setting and lending an impression of gravity to a film that at its core is about a man with a pig’s face flying a plane.
The screenplay was based more or less in its entirety on a strange little manga Miyazaki drew in just ten pages, and was originally intended as a short to be screen on commercial flights. From an extremely fast-moving and minimal basis comes a slow-moving, wonderfully old-fashioned story about a man proud of his flying skills falling in love and being challenged by a flashy rival. There is a lot of absurdity here, and physical comedy, and slapstick, but everything is so wholesome and the tone so varied that it is never boring or overly frivolous, and when it is at its best, it is fantastic.
Of all Miyazaki’s films, this is the one I would argue feels most like Takahata directed. It is a little more European in feel than the rest of his work, smaller-scale and more charming, and yet more sophisticated, too. If a sceptic had seen Mononoke-Hime and Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi but remained convinced Miyazaki was just peddling cutesy fare for adolescents and younger, this is what I would show them to change their minds. It is much more meticulously researched than anything else he wrote, set against the rise of fascism and with a great love for inter-war aircrafts.
I am very much looking forward to see where the sequel will take Miyazaki and his studio, and wait eagerly for its release.
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