Porco Rosso
January 24th 2008 22:38
Category: Videos, Television
Director: Hayao Miyazaki.
Screenplay by: Hayao Miyazaki.
Producer: Toshio Suzuki.
English Voice Cast: Michael Keaton (Porco Rosso), Gary Elwes (Curtis), David Ogden Stiers (Piccolo), Susan Egan (Gina) and Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Fio Piccolo).
Produced by: 1992 Studio Ghibli.
Released by: Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
Running Time: 94 minutes. Rating: PG.
This aired on SBS on a fortnight ago at around 10:15 pm, it seems that having shown Howls Moving Castle and various other works of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki the network elected to continue on with this theme and round things out with Porco Rosso. Kudos to them I say, it’s nice to have something original on the idiot box that both captivates and entertains with little trouble. Despite the setting, the Adriatic Sea region in what seems to be the nineteen thirties, this film comes across as a traditional fairy tale with a degree of mystery thrown in for good measure. The story could be seen as fairly archetypal, the protagonist who has been transformed into either something hideous or an animal and who can only be transformed back by the kiss of someone or a virtuous act. It is the characters who populate this particular story that turn things on its head along with the setting.
Usually such tales are either set in a sort of medieval style world or a purely fantasy realm peopled by Faerie and other fantastic creatures, they’re not often set in the Adriatic Sea area circa 1930s. Nor are their casts usually made up of French singing restaurant owners, sea plane pilots, aging Italian aircraft engineers and American aces. These are definitely not your usual fairy tale kind of fare but this is one facet of what makes Porco Rosso such an entertaining and interesting film, it subverts the genre whilst remaining true to its actual essence. It’s also interesting to note that Porco Rosso continues on with a lot of familiar elements that seem to be a feature of Mr Miyazaki’s films namely flying, aircraft and aerial high jinks. Even Howl’s Moving Castle which was based on another individual’s work has these elements woven into its story.
So what exactly is Porco Rosso about? Essentially it is the story of a solitary flying pig who works as a bounty hunter amidst the various islands of the Adriatic Sea. Porco Rosso, the title character, is a former Italian air force pilot who flew during the Great War who now lives on an island hideaway and makes his living foiling the activities of the various pirate gangs who operate in the Adriatic, sea plane pirates not your usual ship borne variety. Fond of good wine, a good cigarette and lovely ladies Porco has a reputation both as an ace and a womaniser, in spite of the fact that he is a pig. Yes that’s right, he is a pig, somewhere along the line he got stuck with a curse that transformed him into this particular state and he has remained that way since. Interestingly the rationale for why this happened is not revealed, nor is there any mention about whether or not it can be reversed and thus see Porco return to his original self.
Here again there is another subversion of the genre, usually the afflicted protagonist knows the means by which his curse can be removed but has for one reason or another been unable to achieve this means be it a magic word, a kiss or various other preconditions. In Porco Rosso the means to unravel this unfortunate spell are never truly revealed although there are hints at certain key moments in the story that serve as indicators as to what might actually work and perhaps hint at the nature of the actual curse itself. These tantalising hints also point towards the actual nature of the curse as well, hinting that it has as much to do with the individual himself as well as any actual magical spell cast on him by an external source.
Our first sight of Porco is him sitting in a deck chair on the beach of a lonely island somewhere in the midst of the Adriatic, beside him on a table sits a radio, a bottle of wine and a glass along with a phone resting on the ground next to his chair. The radio is playing opera and our hero sits there a newspaper covering his face from the sun and engaged in a nap. It’s in this moment of tranquil solitude that the phone next to him rings, after a moment or two he picks it up. It’s a bounty job; someone wants the Mamma Aiuto pirate gang stopped from raiding a particular liner carrying fifteen schoolgirls and a large cargo of gold. Porco springs into action and before you know it his distinctive red sea plane is skyward bound and heading towards the scene of the crime. Naturally his skills as a pilot mean the Mamma Aiuto gang are no match for him and he eventually rescues both gold and girls.
For anyone in the pirate trade in the Adriatic Porco has become something of a major pain in the proverbial, none of the gangs are good enough to tackle him and it seems that they’re going to have to go with an outsider to do something about him. Enter Curtis, the American air ace who recently one a major air race and is a noted combat flyer, if anyone can beat Porco it’s him. Unfortunately for the pirates Curtis may be a highly skilled ace but his mind is more on his own glory and fortune than on actually making sure of the job. He manages to shoot down Porco on a solo run but it’s more due to luck than any bona fide application of skill, easily convinced that he has won the day he flies off to tell his confederates the good news. Meanwhile our erstwhile porcine protagonist makes his way to the fabled city of Milan to get his plane repaired.
Italy though is not a place for Porco to be in, the Fascist government have a warrant for his arrest and they also want his plane which is something of a rarity in aircraft. Only Porco seems to be able to fly this rarest of sea planes others have tried and failed. It’s as he’s getting his plane repaired by Piccolo the engineer that he comes into contact with Piccolo’s American granddaughter, Fio. Fio looks and acts a lot like Nausicaa from the Valley of the Winds and as soon as her character appears I wondered if she was a distant ancestor of the future princess, just like I have previously pondered whether all of Mr Miyazaki’s movies share the same fictional universe.
The country side in this movie is decidedly interesting; it has a very similar appearance to the countryside out of Kiki’s Delivery Service which to me looked a lot like the French Riviera rather than the Adriatic coast and Italian peninsular. One wonders if the city of Koriko is somewhere nearby, perhaps on the coast opposite that of Italy. It does seem as if the islands are actually a single nation which is never quite named but is undergoing a period of turmoil between various factions. Everything is very verdant and lush, even Porco’s island retreat which seems to be a fair way from any local sea or air routes to give it that added bit of secrecy and security. Of course once Porco returns he soon discovers that his secret hideaway isn’t so secret anymore.
Even though Porco is an enemy of virtually every pirate gang in the region and their ace hired gun Curtis they are not the actual antagonists of the drama, that role seems to be reserved for the fascist regime in Italy, and as far as antagonists go they actually have a minimal part in the drama that unfolds but considerable influence The really strange facet of the film though is the actual ending, its not so much the result and the way in which the story concludes but the fact that the whole perspective of the drama has suddenly switched from a third person style narrative to that of a first person narrative based on the viewpoint of a character who enters the story halfway through. The audience is left with a monologue by Fio which considering all that has gone before hand seems rather unusual, after all she isn’t the protagonist of the story yet she is the one who ends up giving the denouement.
Still despite this twist in storytelling Porco Rosso is a truly well made film and it definitely proves that beyond any doubt that pigs can and indeed do fly…
Screenplay by: Hayao Miyazaki.
Producer: Toshio Suzuki.
English Voice Cast: Michael Keaton (Porco Rosso), Gary Elwes (Curtis), David Ogden Stiers (Piccolo), Susan Egan (Gina) and Kimberly Williams-Paisley (Fio Piccolo).
Produced by: 1992 Studio Ghibli.
Released by: Buena Vista Home Entertainment.
Running Time: 94 minutes. Rating: PG.
This aired on SBS on a fortnight ago at around 10:15 pm, it seems that having shown Howls Moving Castle and various other works of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki the network elected to continue on with this theme and round things out with Porco Rosso. Kudos to them I say, it’s nice to have something original on the idiot box that both captivates and entertains with little trouble. Despite the setting, the Adriatic Sea region in what seems to be the nineteen thirties, this film comes across as a traditional fairy tale with a degree of mystery thrown in for good measure. The story could be seen as fairly archetypal, the protagonist who has been transformed into either something hideous or an animal and who can only be transformed back by the kiss of someone or a virtuous act. It is the characters who populate this particular story that turn things on its head along with the setting.
Here again there is another subversion of the genre, usually the afflicted protagonist knows the means by which his curse can be removed but has for one reason or another been unable to achieve this means be it a magic word, a kiss or various other preconditions. In Porco Rosso the means to unravel this unfortunate spell are never truly revealed although there are hints at certain key moments in the story that serve as indicators as to what might actually work and perhaps hint at the nature of the actual curse itself. These tantalising hints also point towards the actual nature of the curse as well, hinting that it has as much to do with the individual himself as well as any actual magical spell cast on him by an external source.
Our first sight of Porco is him sitting in a deck chair on the beach of a lonely island somewhere in the midst of the Adriatic, beside him on a table sits a radio, a bottle of wine and a glass along with a phone resting on the ground next to his chair. The radio is playing opera and our hero sits there a newspaper covering his face from the sun and engaged in a nap. It’s in this moment of tranquil solitude that the phone next to him rings, after a moment or two he picks it up. It’s a bounty job; someone wants the Mamma Aiuto pirate gang stopped from raiding a particular liner carrying fifteen schoolgirls and a large cargo of gold. Porco springs into action and before you know it his distinctive red sea plane is skyward bound and heading towards the scene of the crime. Naturally his skills as a pilot mean the Mamma Aiuto gang are no match for him and he eventually rescues both gold and girls.
For anyone in the pirate trade in the Adriatic Porco has become something of a major pain in the proverbial, none of the gangs are good enough to tackle him and it seems that they’re going to have to go with an outsider to do something about him. Enter Curtis, the American air ace who recently one a major air race and is a noted combat flyer, if anyone can beat Porco it’s him. Unfortunately for the pirates Curtis may be a highly skilled ace but his mind is more on his own glory and fortune than on actually making sure of the job. He manages to shoot down Porco on a solo run but it’s more due to luck than any bona fide application of skill, easily convinced that he has won the day he flies off to tell his confederates the good news. Meanwhile our erstwhile porcine protagonist makes his way to the fabled city of Milan to get his plane repaired.
Italy though is not a place for Porco to be in, the Fascist government have a warrant for his arrest and they also want his plane which is something of a rarity in aircraft. Only Porco seems to be able to fly this rarest of sea planes others have tried and failed. It’s as he’s getting his plane repaired by Piccolo the engineer that he comes into contact with Piccolo’s American granddaughter, Fio. Fio looks and acts a lot like Nausicaa from the Valley of the Winds and as soon as her character appears I wondered if she was a distant ancestor of the future princess, just like I have previously pondered whether all of Mr Miyazaki’s movies share the same fictional universe.
The country side in this movie is decidedly interesting; it has a very similar appearance to the countryside out of Kiki’s Delivery Service which to me looked a lot like the French Riviera rather than the Adriatic coast and Italian peninsular. One wonders if the city of Koriko is somewhere nearby, perhaps on the coast opposite that of Italy. It does seem as if the islands are actually a single nation which is never quite named but is undergoing a period of turmoil between various factions. Everything is very verdant and lush, even Porco’s island retreat which seems to be a fair way from any local sea or air routes to give it that added bit of secrecy and security. Of course once Porco returns he soon discovers that his secret hideaway isn’t so secret anymore.
Even though Porco is an enemy of virtually every pirate gang in the region and their ace hired gun Curtis they are not the actual antagonists of the drama, that role seems to be reserved for the fascist regime in Italy, and as far as antagonists go they actually have a minimal part in the drama that unfolds but considerable influence The really strange facet of the film though is the actual ending, its not so much the result and the way in which the story concludes but the fact that the whole perspective of the drama has suddenly switched from a third person style narrative to that of a first person narrative based on the viewpoint of a character who enters the story halfway through. The audience is left with a monologue by Fio which considering all that has gone before hand seems rather unusual, after all she isn’t the protagonist of the story yet she is the one who ends up giving the denouement.
Still despite this twist in storytelling Porco Rosso is a truly well made film and it definitely proves that beyond any doubt that pigs can and indeed do fly…
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