Porco Rosso : Un pilote de légende

The thing I like most about Studio Ghibli's films are that they are always beautifully animated and nimbly voiced. Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away are my favourites, but I will say that I love all the Studio Ghiblis for differentiating reasons. Porco Rosso is a very charming animated film, that is very imaginative as well. The animation is just stunning, with vibrant colours and picturesque Italian landscapes. Also the visuals with Porco's plane is just mind blowing. The visuals are perfectly matched by a truly beautiful music score, that helped make it a very relaxing watch. The story is a very intriguing one, and original, the characters are engaging and the story is of good quality. The English vocal characterisations were excellent, Michael Keaten being the biggest surprise, voicing a hugely engaging character, and while not exactly handsome, Porco has a heart of gold and genuinely cares for Fio, beautifully dynamic voice work from Kimberley Willaims-Paisley. Cary Elwes is also impressive as Curtis, Susan Egan is lovely as Madame Gina and David Ogden Stiers as Piccolo brings some well timed comic relief to the role. Overall, a stunning animated film, yes the ending is a little ambiguous, but Porco Rosso is well worth watching. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Porco Rosso is not just one of those movies that you watch and give back to Netflix. It is one of those movies that genuinely makes you hate your life, but in a good way. Watching a movie like Porco Rosso makes you wish that you lived in their world, and that you could fly your own plane between the Adriatic Islands and your own private hideaway. It is the kind of film that takes you inside it and leaves you with a sort of culture shock when you are forced to realize that you are in your modern-day room with no way to get around but a car or a bike. It is the sort of movie that you watch again not only because you love it so much, but also so that you can have a portal back into that magical world and dream that you can become like one of the characters in the movie with some sort of "reality". Who cares if there are flaws? Is the world absolutely perfect? So what if there is ambiguity about the ending? Is life always crystal clear? Porco Rosso is one of those movies that has the perfect mix of reality and fantasy; it gives you a world that you wish you were a part of, and COULD be, if only you can find it....

Porco Rosso is a World War I veteran flyboy who is cursed with the face of a pig. He flies his seaplane after the war as a bounty hunter working for the money. He is hired to rescue a group of kidnapped girls and retrieve a loot of gold from flying pirates. Gina is one of his oldest friends who is the respected owner of a local bar. Donald Curtis is an American rival who is eager to defeat him. After he gets shot down by Curtis, he brings his plane to Mr. Piccolo's repair shop where he's introduced to Piccolo's brilliant plane designing granddaughter Fio.

This is a little different than Miyazaki's other works. Most of the time, his protagonists are much younger. Porco Rosso is a much older protagonist. The world has literally left its mark on his face. Before watching the movie, I assumed it to be a magical curse. It may still be magic but I'm more convinced that its a substitute for those soldiers who were left with horrible facial scars after fighting WWI. Many were horribly scarred by the war. Porco is also very world weary. His cavalier attitude seems to have more to do with his lack of fear for his own safety. There is an overall tired nature to his character and as a consequence, the world has a piece of that. In the end, he's alone. There is less magic in this one even if it is still a flight of fancy.

Miyazaki is an inspiration for artists everywhere. His total mastery of all aspects of storytelling craft makes the amazing seem easy.

Kurenai no Buta manages to be over-the-top fun and exceedingly subtle at the same moment. The dialogue is at once straightforward yet with layer upon layer of dramatic meaning. The animated wizardry is stunning as usual, yet never over the top. It always comes across as so natural.

This film is a homage to so many different genres, places, people and attitudes one could go on ages pulling them all out. Amazing amount of detail packed into every scene.

Well I am running out of superlatives. Like all master works of art, this leaves you with something special. In this case I find it hard to describe perhaps since the Pig himself is such a mysterious character.

See it.

This movie is so beautiful, well thought out, both in story and artwork, yet it is way too underrated. In my review, I will be focusing on addressing those critical/negative comments rather than repeating how good it is, which is already done by many others. I think the complaints mostly falls into 2 categories, mostly because they overlooked the hints, and maybe because of the inaccurate dub/sub. As a Japanese, I watched the film in original Japanese, and I hope I can contribute to the review by adding some accuracy and new perspectives. Followings are the 2 main complaints I've found, and my replies to them.

1. No Explanation for why he became a pig.

To tell the truth, I didn't get it either when I first watched it as a kid, but now that I've grown older, it is quite clear that the curse that transformed Marco into a pig is self-inflicted. Someone wrote a perfect interpretation which I'm quoting here: "The curse that transformed Marco into a pig is self-inflicted, because he survived the battle while Gina's husband (and Marco best friend) didn't. He feels guilty and he transformed into a pig because he feels he doesn't deserve love and happiness". Pig is often used to describe "worthless" or "disgusting" person in Japan, and it is understandable that he sees himself as a pig out of survivor's-guilt. This self-deprecation is shown many times throughout the film, such as when Gina told him that her 3rd husband didn't make it home alive, he responded "the good guys never do," making explicit this contrast between himself and a good guy. Also, another thing to take note is that he was sick of the wars, and had very little faith in mankind. Living in isolated island alone, and his phrase "I'd rather be a pig than a fascist", "You should do those kind of things just between you humans" all imply that.

How come he turned back into human (although the face was never shown, it is clear that he returned to human) in the end then? His phrase "Fio, you're a good girl. You make me feel like mankind are not that bad after all" might be the key. While spending time with Fio, seeing her innocent affection to him and to the aircraft, Marco slowly recovered from self-deprecation, and also recovered the faith to mankind. Although Fio was never an object of romantic interest for Marco, she's the one who helped Marco to change the view on himself and to the mankind. That's why the kiss from Fio worked.

2. Open Ending / no conclusion (Gina or Fio, not being shown. Which is actually not true)

I've seen many people complaining that the film didn't show whether Marco chose Gina or Fio in the end. Some even criticizing Miyazaki as "lazy", that he couldn't decide the conclusion himself so left it to viewers imagination. This is very wrong. Miyazaki showed the result in a very subtle way, that only careful people will notice. You just need to combine 2 things.

1) When Curtis visited Gina in her secret garden, she told Curtis "I'm now making a bet. If he (Marco) ever visits me while I'm in this garden during the daytime, I've decided I will truly love him. But that idiot, he only comes to the bar in the night time, never showing himself during the daytime."

2) In the last part, from the sky looking down to Hotel Adriana (from Fio's airplane), you will find Marco's red aircraft docked next to Gina's secret garden, during the DAYTIME. Gina won the bet. Also, in the end, the secret garden was shown again, but without Gina being there. Gina no longer needs to be there waiting for Marco.

Miyazaki set the conclusion in a very subtle way, make it kind of rewarding for those people who noticed it, and for those people who didn't, he gave the space for imagination. Some people might not be happy that Fio wasn't the one chosen after spending so much time building the relationship with Marco, but as I wrote earlier, even though she helped Marco recovering from self-deprecation, she was never an object of romance for Marco. Marco was always out there for Gina, as Gina thanking Marco in the beginning. As Gina told Curtis, "Love here is a bit more complicated than back in your country".