Hayao Miyazaki is one of the few Japanese animators to be fully embraced by mainstream Western audiences, perhaps because he is a giant europhile, thoroughly fond of European culture, architecture, art and food.
No surprise then that "Porco Rosso" is heavily influenced by 1930-40s British, American and French adventure comics ("Popular Flying", "Battlefield Action", "Frontline Combat" etc), all of which served up exciting tales set in Europe, often with soldiers as heroes. A large subset of these comics focused solely on fighter pilots (The Red Baron, James Bigglesworth, The White Fokker), romanticised knights of the skies, gallant, brave and chivalrous. As the war drew to a close, and film noirs became popular, the prim and proper aviation hero got a little bit scuffed up. He was now not only a total ace, but a suave ladies man, moody loner and cynic.
And so "Porco Rosso" takes the best from these early wartime adventures and collides them with Humprey Bogart noirs, Michael Curtiz flicks, Pressburger's "A Matter of Life and Death" and Miyazaki's own obsessions, all to create a kind of ultra romantic cocktail. The setting: a fantastical version of 1920's Italy, in which the skies are ruled by heroic seaplane pilots, bounty-hunters and pirates. When they're not dodging tracers and dancing in the skies, these hotshot fly boys hang out at Gina's island café, where they kick back, relax and listen to Gina sing sad tunes of lovers long lost. Here, like Rick's Bar in "Casablanca", there's an unwritten truce between all men. You may be enemies in the clouds, but on Gina's island, everyone's your buddy.
The film revolves around Porco Rosso (Italian for "the crimson pig"), a chubby pig dressed in a detective's trench coat and dark shades. He should be ridiculous, but with his witty one-liners ("I'd rather be a pig than a fascist"), cool detachment, political apathy and romantic distance, comes across instead as Bogart with a snout. The guy's not just the coolest pilot in the Adriatic, but a total ladies man, women fawning over him despite his perpetual disinterest.
Like most of Miyazaki's films, the plot is barely told. What Miyazaki invests in is creating worlds. Moody spaces. And so we savour the film's postcard images of Croatian and Italian villages, its lovingly drawn architecture, Gina's cosy island château (seemingly modelled on Rick's Bar in "Casablanca"), gorgeous Adriatic inlets and coastlines, beautiful landscape shots, interesting machinery and Miyazaki's large cast of good natured friends and foes. Throw in master composer Joe Hisaishi's gorgeous score – romantic, easygoing, suggestive of the French Rivierra - and this film kills you with aesthetics.
All of Miyazaki's other obsessions are here – flying, European/Mediterreanean towns, an aesthetic which suggests a fusion of time periods, little girls, air-planes, airships, Ozu-like still-life tableaux – except environmentalist preaching. The absence of this sermonising makes "Porcco Rosso", like "Kiki's Delivery Service", one of his most laid-back films. It's less about plot than it's about ambiance and environment. What little plot there is, is itself all suggestive; suggested romances, suggested pasts, suggested futures.
The film is packed with great scenes, some of them resembling Carroll Ballard's "Wind", released the same year (one film revolves around building a boat, the other a plane). Beyond the film's dog fights and aerial battles you have Gina's wistful, aching love for Porcco, whom she affectionately calls by his human name, Marco (Gina's love, made wise by age, is mirrored to the young puppy love of a 17 year old girl). It's a weird interspecies love affair, peppered with flashbacks reminiscent of Leone's "A Fistfull of Dynamite".
The film's "beauty and the beast" romance has led to much speculation as to why exactly Porcco is a pig. The film seems to say that Marco put a spell on himself: he views himself as a pig, as being unworthy of living, and it is only gradually, through the validation of others, that he comes to realise that he's not all that bad.
In terms of the flaws, the film's villains are too idiotic. They're bumbling buffoons and their juvenility at times takes you out of the story. Incidentally, many fans of the film wage fierce battles over which of the film's dub tracks is better. Purists prefer the Japanese track, a few like the American track and many prefer the French. The French version, in which Jean Reno plays Porcco, is far better than the Japanese dub, and even Miyazaki thinks so himself. Personally, though, I think "Porcco Rosso" is the only Miyazaki film in which the American (or Disney) dubbing is much better than the original Japanese voice acting. Here, actor Michael Keaton plays Porcco, mixing a little Bat Man, pig and Bogart to great effect. Actress Susan Egan is also suitably classy as Gina.
10/10 – For an alternate take on similar material, see Mamoru Oshii's underrated "The Sky Crawlers".
No surprise then that "Porco Rosso" is heavily influenced by 1930-40s British, American and French adventure comics ("Popular Flying", "Battlefield Action", "Frontline Combat" etc), all of which served up exciting tales set in Europe, often with soldiers as heroes. A large subset of these comics focused solely on fighter pilots (The Red Baron, James Bigglesworth, The White Fokker), romanticised knights of the skies, gallant, brave and chivalrous. As the war drew to a close, and film noirs became popular, the prim and proper aviation hero got a little bit scuffed up. He was now not only a total ace, but a suave ladies man, moody loner and cynic.
And so "Porco Rosso" takes the best from these early wartime adventures and collides them with Humprey Bogart noirs, Michael Curtiz flicks, Pressburger's "A Matter of Life and Death" and Miyazaki's own obsessions, all to create a kind of ultra romantic cocktail. The setting: a fantastical version of 1920's Italy, in which the skies are ruled by heroic seaplane pilots, bounty-hunters and pirates. When they're not dodging tracers and dancing in the skies, these hotshot fly boys hang out at Gina's island café, where they kick back, relax and listen to Gina sing sad tunes of lovers long lost. Here, like Rick's Bar in "Casablanca", there's an unwritten truce between all men. You may be enemies in the clouds, but on Gina's island, everyone's your buddy.
The film revolves around Porco Rosso (Italian for "the crimson pig"), a chubby pig dressed in a detective's trench coat and dark shades. He should be ridiculous, but with his witty one-liners ("I'd rather be a pig than a fascist"), cool detachment, political apathy and romantic distance, comes across instead as Bogart with a snout. The guy's not just the coolest pilot in the Adriatic, but a total ladies man, women fawning over him despite his perpetual disinterest.
Like most of Miyazaki's films, the plot is barely told. What Miyazaki invests in is creating worlds. Moody spaces. And so we savour the film's postcard images of Croatian and Italian villages, its lovingly drawn architecture, Gina's cosy island château (seemingly modelled on Rick's Bar in "Casablanca"), gorgeous Adriatic inlets and coastlines, beautiful landscape shots, interesting machinery and Miyazaki's large cast of good natured friends and foes. Throw in master composer Joe Hisaishi's gorgeous score – romantic, easygoing, suggestive of the French Rivierra - and this film kills you with aesthetics.
All of Miyazaki's other obsessions are here – flying, European/Mediterreanean towns, an aesthetic which suggests a fusion of time periods, little girls, air-planes, airships, Ozu-like still-life tableaux – except environmentalist preaching. The absence of this sermonising makes "Porcco Rosso", like "Kiki's Delivery Service", one of his most laid-back films. It's less about plot than it's about ambiance and environment. What little plot there is, is itself all suggestive; suggested romances, suggested pasts, suggested futures.
The film is packed with great scenes, some of them resembling Carroll Ballard's "Wind", released the same year (one film revolves around building a boat, the other a plane). Beyond the film's dog fights and aerial battles you have Gina's wistful, aching love for Porcco, whom she affectionately calls by his human name, Marco (Gina's love, made wise by age, is mirrored to the young puppy love of a 17 year old girl). It's a weird interspecies love affair, peppered with flashbacks reminiscent of Leone's "A Fistfull of Dynamite".
The film's "beauty and the beast" romance has led to much speculation as to why exactly Porcco is a pig. The film seems to say that Marco put a spell on himself: he views himself as a pig, as being unworthy of living, and it is only gradually, through the validation of others, that he comes to realise that he's not all that bad.
In terms of the flaws, the film's villains are too idiotic. They're bumbling buffoons and their juvenility at times takes you out of the story. Incidentally, many fans of the film wage fierce battles over which of the film's dub tracks is better. Purists prefer the Japanese track, a few like the American track and many prefer the French. The French version, in which Jean Reno plays Porcco, is far better than the Japanese dub, and even Miyazaki thinks so himself. Personally, though, I think "Porcco Rosso" is the only Miyazaki film in which the American (or Disney) dubbing is much better than the original Japanese voice acting. Here, actor Michael Keaton plays Porcco, mixing a little Bat Man, pig and Bogart to great effect. Actress Susan Egan is also suitably classy as Gina.
10/10 – For an alternate take on similar material, see Mamoru Oshii's underrated "The Sky Crawlers".