Porco Rosso

Before watching Porco Rosso for the first time, I was apprehensive about the plotline of a fighter -pilot turned pig with romance mixed in up somewhere. But apparently, I made the mistake of forgetting that this is not just a potentially cliched film made by any director- but by the ever-ingenious and ever-innovative Hayao Miyazaki. If I remembered that, I wouldn’t have gone in expecting the traditional and clichéd story of another Casablanca, and I wouldn’t be pleasantly surprised. In yet another demonstration of the power of Anime, Porco Rosso combines the expected progression of a romance story with the completely unpredictable nature (physics) of animation- and in turn creates a cross-genre film that Miyazaki was able to manipulate according to his imagination. Throughout the film, our expectations of a classical love story or a thrilling action movie are erased bit by bit as comedy and outrageous acts juxtapose with the otherwise seriousness and beauty of the plot. In the end, we find ourselves on an exciting rollercoaster ride through historic scenes, yet at the same time brought to a different reality where pigs can fly and pirates are unusually friendly towards children. Not everything is happy-go-lucky though, and the main conflict between Marcus and Curtiss is as well done as those in any other Miyazaki film. At heart, the battle between the two main men is a serious, life-threatening duel over a woman. This easily gives rise to a poignant and solemn atmosphere, as the loser can potentially lose everything. In addition, Miyazaki injects a truly sentimental background story regarding Marcus and Gina such that the audience is genuinely touched. On the other hand, throughout the film, not one moment is the viewer bogged down by the pressure of Marcus’s task at hand. Instead, we are taken through the movie at a pleasurable pace and almost never worried or held in suspense. At the very start, we know that Marco will emerge victorious in the conclusion since this is a Miyazaki film. Nevertheless, we still cheer for him through all the trials and obstacles that beset the poor pilot even if we know the ending. This characteristic, I think, defines the films of Hayao Miyazaki- for as long as a person is true and honest, at the end of the day good things will come.