Hey everyone ! Here's a studio Ghibli group that is going to hold ALL of Goro and Hayao Miyazaki's work and Isao Takahata .... the magnificent movies and intriguing stories of the three master storytellers. Please join if you are a true fan of the Miyazaki family works of art :)
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NAUSICAA: VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984)
Nausicaä, the princess of a small nation, lives in a world devastated by a holocaust called the "Seven Days of Fire". She tries to stop other warring nations from destroying themselves and from destroying the only means by which their world can be saved from the spread of polluted wastelands.
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CASTLE IN THE SKY (1986)
Pazu rescues an unconscious girl descending from the night sky with a glowing pendant around her neck. He helps the girl, Sheeta, to escape from the air pirates and the military who are obsessed with Laputa, a legendary kingdom on a floating island in the sky with which Sheeta is suspected of being connected.
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MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO (1988)
Totoro is a forest spirit that little Mei, and later her older sister Satsuki, encounter in a giant camphor tree near their new home in the countryside. Although their father, a university professor, is with them when they move, their mother is in the hospital, recovering from some unnamed illness. When Mei hears that her mother's condition may be worsening, she resolves to visit her all by herself. When everyone realizes she's missing, only Totoro knows how to find her!
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GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES (1988)
Alternately known as Tombstone for Fireflies, Grave is a very somber film about the struggle of two children to survive during World War II. Seita and his younger sister Setsuko are left to fend for themselves when their mother passes away from severe burns inflicted by the American fire-bombing of their town. Their father is serving in the Japanese navy, but the children have not heard from him in a long time, so Seita and Setsuko try staying with a distant relative. However, Seita doesn't get along well with this relative and decides to leave, taking Setsuko with him, to live on their own.
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KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE (1989)
Under the shining full moon, people gather to send Kiki off. Kiki, a witch-in-training, is now 13 years old and according to a tradition, she has to leave her home to spend a year alone in a new town to establish herself as a full witch. Kissing her mom and dad good-bye, Kiki sets herself on her mother's broom with her father's transistor radio and her closest companion, Jiji the black cat, at her side. And she flies off - to a new town, to a new adventure, and to a new life.
Finding herself a beautiful seaside city of Korico, Kiki sets up a flying delivery service, to take advantage of the only magic she knows - flying a broom.
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LIKE THE CLOUDS, LIKE THE WIND (1990)
The story is set in ancient China, and follows the adventures of Ginga as she goes from being a simple country girl to being a concubine of the Emperor. The movie is based on the novel Koukyuu Shousetsu by Ken'ichi SAKEMI.
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PORCO ROSSO (1992)
Porco Rosso (the Japanese title Kurenai no Buta literally means "The Crimson Pig") was first planned as a 30-45 minutes in-flight movie on Japan Airlines. It's been described as "a movie which tired businessmen on international flights can enjoy even with their minds dulled due to lack of oxygen." As Miyazaki's imagination took off, it became a feature-length movie about an Italian Air Force pilot who left the service due to the rise of fascism. He became a bounty hunter, assuming the name "Porco Rosso."
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OCEAN WAVES (1993)
Ocean Waves is the official English title (from Japan) for a film more commonly known as I Can Hear the Sea (the literal meaning of the Japanese title). Set in Kochi (on the island of Shikoku), Umi tells the story of a love triangle that develops between two good friends and the new girl in school who transferred from Tokyo. The new girl, Rikako, is at first arrogant and distant, but eventually makes friends.
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POM POKO (1994)
In Pom Poko (the Japanese title literally means "Heisei-era Raccoon War Pom Poko"), Tanuki (animals native to Asia which look like raccoons) living in the forest near a government construction project, are being threatened by the destruction of their habitat. Banding together and seeking help from other tribes of Tanuki, they live up to their traditionally mischievous reputation by changing their shape and trying to sabotage the construction effort.
When this fails, they stage one last great illusion, hoping to alert the city folk to the natural wonders being bulldozed to make room for yet another Tokyo suburb, before it's too late...
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WHISPER OF THE HEART (1995)
Mimi wo Sumaseba, which literally means If You Listen Closely, tells the story of Shizuku, a junior-high school student who is struggling to find out who she is. The movie takes you on a journey through her imagination and daily life as she makes decisions that will ultimately decide her future.
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PRINCESS MONONOKE (1997)
Set during the Muromachi Period (1333-1568) of Japan, Mononoke Hime is a story about a mystic fight between the Animal Gods of the forest and humans.
On the side of the Animal Gods is San (Mononoke Hime), a human girl raised by the wolf god Moro. On the side of the humans is Lady Eboshi, building a kingdom for oppressed people by cutting down the forest for her iron-making operation.
In the middle of this fierce fighting for survival, Ashitaka, an Emishi boy, struggles to find a way for both sides to co-exist. But the fighting just becomes more and more bloody and all hope seems to be lost...
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SPIRITED AWAY (2001)
Through the tunnel,
There was a town of wonder.
It was an inconceivable place,
Where inconceivable things happened.
A world existed right next to the humans' world,
A world humans could never see.
Local gods and various lesser deities,
Goblins and monsters.
It was a hot springs town,
Where old gods came to heal their illness and wounds.
10 year-old Chihiro wanders into this world,
Where humans shouldn't enter.
Chihiro can only survive in this world if she accepts two conditions:
To work for Yu-baaba, an avaricious witch
Who rules the huge bath house at the center of the town.
And to be deprived of her name and become a non-human.
Chihiro lost her name, and began working under her new name, Sen.
In the town of surprise and wonder, Chihiro comes to know
A huge sense of helplessness... and a small amount of hope.
However, in this difficult world, she discovers many things,
And Chihiro becomes more lively than she ever was.
Kamajii, the boiler keeper with his rich life experience.
Rin, who teaches Chihiro the work at the bath house.
Susuwatari, who carry coal.
Bou, the son of Yu-baaba.
The god of the river, a refugee from the human's world, who is covered with trash and sludge.
Kaonashi, the masked man.
Zeniiba, the twin sister of Yu-baaba.
Unimaginable things keep happening.
Chihiro's sleeping "power to live"
Has gradually begun to awaken.
And Chihiro meets Haku, a handsome but mysterious boy.
The encounter of a boy and a girl, tied together by a promise.
With awakening memories,
They understand and help each other.
Can Chihiro take her name back,
And return to the humans' world....?
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THE CAT RETURNS (2002)
Based on Neko no Danshaku, Baron (literally "Baron, the Cat Baron") by Aoi HIIRAGI, the movie follows Muta (the fat cat in Whisper of the Heart) and Baron (also from Whisper) as they set out to rescue a young girl named Haru who has wandered into the world of cats.
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HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE (2004)
Based on Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. Howl's Moving Castle follows the story of young Sophie Hatter, a bookworm, the eldest of three daughters, a girl doomed to an uninteresting life as a hat maker. Sophie resigns herself to her boring fate, but fate has other plans for her. Cursed by the Witch of the Waste with the body of a 90-year-old woman, she finds her way to the moving castle inhabited by the wizard Howl, said by all to eat the souls of young girls.
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GEDO SENKI (2006)
Based on the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin.
The literal translation of the Japanese is "GED military history" or "A military history of GED". A more sensible translation is "Ged's war chronicle" or "Ged's history of the war". The official English title is "Tales from Earthsea".
Directed by Goro MIYAZAKI, script by Goro MIYAZAKI and Keiko NIWA, music by Tamiya TERASHIMA.
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PONYO ON A CLIFF (2008)
Only the barest of details are known. Ponyo is a goldfish princess who wishes to become human. Sosuke is a five year old boy who somehow becomes involved with Ponyo. A sense of closeness between a parent and child is a theme of the film.
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