In the early 1990s, Japan Airlines commissioned Studio Ghibli to make a short film to be viewed by their passengers, mostly middle aged men, in-flight. What started out to be a short anime film, influenced by an ongoing conflict at another corner of the world, blossomed into a well-rounded film about war, humanity, feminism, love and dignity. Porco Rosso, Italian for Red Pork or Red Pig, is a Japanese anime film from Studio Ghibli, directed by Hayao Miyazaki.
The film is available on Netflix India, along with other Studio Ghibli films.
THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS
Porco Rosso is centered around the protagonist - Porco's life. Porco is a human-turned-pig who fought in the first World War for the Italian Air Force. Porco's other name was Marco, before he was cursed under ambiguous circumstances. The now retired pilot spends his time in a secluded island with his seaplane and protects people of the Adriatic Sea from pirates through his bounty hunting services.
More than Audio Visual
The sights of Ghibli's films evoke admiration for their craft, elevating it beyond a mere audio visual experience Watercolour artworks create dreamy and captivating landscapes of Mediterranean Europe. The bright blue hues of the skies, the shimmering, calm sea and lush fauna induce warmth and an awe of nature. Kazu Hisamura, the art director of the film, paints magic with his artwork that adds to the worldbuilding and atmosphere of the film.
Aircrafts are extensively detailed in their animation and add to the realism. The mechanisms, components, parts, structures and construction depicted are a testament to Miyazaki's love for 19th century aircraft and connects to his childhood memories of his dad's workshop, where aircrafts were built for the second World War. It is this love and passion that transforms these aircrafts from mere objects in the film to individual works of art that each deserve their own time and space to be observed and obsessed about. Moreover, these aircrafts are deconstructed and shown from the inside and around the exterior, which add to their realism. The viewer is immersed in the action during dogfights and air travel because the films shows it from the perspective of flying. Shots from the ground are rare, and viewers are caught in the thick of the action as they fly with the aircraft.
The music of the film is mellow and subtle, which suggests the idea that it is not a war film, but something more personal, it is about Porco. The sound is more biased towards the ambient sounds in the film, with the score playing underneath. The score sets the viewer up with the general tone of the film rather than directing what the audience has to feel.
Film Soundtrack
After watching the film for the first time, I read up about it to understand the context and discovered nuances that I missed out. So I watched it for the second time to absorb the film better. The film, set in Mediterranean Europe in the late 1920s to early 1930s, had an interesting socio-economic setup. The Great Depression had ruined the economy and people were slowly climbing out of it. Meanwhile, fascism was rising in Italy after the first World War. Men migrated to far away places in search of jobs while women took care of the family.
Characters? Or Humans?
The film sets their characters on a level of ambiguity that is quite often observed in real life. One cannot be sure what to feel about any character, because their stance changes throughout the film. It mirrors real life, as nobody acts as an absolute in real life either and its best for people to keep their reservations and judgements about people aside.
The beginning of the film created an idea of the Mamma Aiuto pirates as vicious men ready to do anything for money. But the idea crumbles in no time as they are humbled by a bunch of school kids who turn their plane upside down! They cause a ruckus, distract the pirates during the dogfight with Porco and even escape from the pirates from their broken seaplane as they watch on helplessly.
The film treats its judgements humanely and disproves the character's apprehensions in a realistic way. Porco's misogyny and reservations about women building his aircraft slowly crumbled as he witnessed their superior skills, work ethic and devotion to their jobs, while the men of the aircraft building workshop moved out of the city in search of better livelihoods. The feminist undertones of the film is shown through Gina's and Fio's characterization also. Gina and Fio are shown as people with genuine motivations and self respect. I found Fio's character most enticing - as a young aircraft designer who spends sleepless nights to achieve high standards in her craft. The women in the film are responsible for providing the change that Porco needed in his life, across his misogyny, nihilism and the suffering that made him blind to the beautiful things around him.
A Glimpse of Heaven
When Marco ascends to heaven, only to catch a glimpse of it was highly touching because of the purity of the experience. There is no sound in this scene as the music takes over, with haunting synth notes. The otherworldliness is emphasized by the silence, other than Marco's voice and the loud score. It is reinforced visually also with white cloud surface stretching to the horizon and a bright blue endless sky. Flying becomes more than an activity - the aircraft becomes an extension of the pilot's mind and body, and so ascends with him to the afterlife.
Pilots from both sides of the war flying together in the afterlife in a formless skyscape is a tragic reminder of humanity's actions and a comforting closure to those who lose their lives in battle. A film as expressive as this cements Miyazaki's Pacifist ideology.
Marco's guilt that he couldn't save his friend and watched him ascend to heaven pushed him to curse himself to turn into a pig. The guilt forces him to disconnect from humanity and isolate himself from the ones who love him. The near-death experience signaled a major psychological shift in him that quite possibly opened his eyes to the illusions of war, struggle and fascism. Eventually, love is the only force powerful enough to redeem him, as its hinted that he reciprocated Gina's love for him in the end.
Is that enough for him to lift his curse? That is left ambiguous, but the curse itself proves interesting. Why would a man who has witnessed the wrath of his actions curse himself after his awakening? Does the curse reek of irony where the people who willingly accepted fascist leaders stayed humans and a pacifist turned into a pig?
The underlying soul of the film is the discipline, devotion and passion for the craft of animation filmmaking and storytelling. These values only reflect the spiritual culture of Japan and evokes an image of a mind of stillness yet deep. The quality that appealed to me the most about the film is its dignity - for its characters, their struggles, craft of filmmaking and animation, story and its telling, the film's crew and their efforts. To make a film that respects itself and the people involved in the creation of it requires a leader of the finest quality, one that transcends moral capabilities into a certain embodiment of spiritual characteristics.
All rights to these images and content belong to their respective owners. I do not own any of these. Images have been used within the boundaries of common sense (as described on Studio Ghibli's website)
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