動畫大師宮崎駿：人生古稀隨“風(fēng)”起

by Richard Corliss

The news hit the Venice Film Festival like an unexpected death notice： Hayao Miyazaki， the worlds most honored creator of animated features， was ending his movie career.“Miyazaki has decided that The Wind Rises will be his last film， and he will now retire，” Koji Hoshino， who runs the directors Studio Ghibli， announced at a press conference for The Wind Rises.

The movie has already earned more than $80 million since its July 20 release in Japan， where Miyazaki is a box-office phenomenon as well as a national treasure. His last four films—Princess Mononoke， Spirited Away， Howls Moving Castle and Ponyo—have grossed about$700 million in his homeland， and $871 million including foreign markets.

A 1）somber exploration of love， responsibility and death， The Wind Rises is described as Hayao Miyazakis first film for grown-ups. Having spent half a lifetime making 2）exquisite fantasies for children， Mr Miyazaki， now 72， has returned to tackle the true story of an 3）aeroplane-maker who worked through World War II.

The title references a line from a Paul Valéry poem，“Le Cimetière marin” （“The Graveyard by the Sea”）：“The wind is rising！...We must try to live.” The wind is a 4）portent for the disasters that 5）anchor the movie： the 1923 Kanto earthquake， which leveled much of Tokyo and Yokohama and killed more than 100，000 people； and Japans 6）disastrous 7）imperial war， over a decade later.

Despite its real-world setting， the film is 8）saturated with the fantastical flourishes characteristic of Mr Miyazakis earlier work， book-ended with dreams. At the start， a ten-yearold boy named Jiro Horikoshi imagines flying above his provincial home， only to be awakened by bombs that fall from a hulking aerial warship. By the films 9）denouement， he is walking through the ruined landscape of wartime Japan， a nightmare wrought in part by his own boyhood dreams of flight.

The character of Jiro is based on the real Japanese designer of the 10）Mitsubishi A6M Zero. In its time considered to be the worlds best aerial fighter plane， the Zero enjoyed a terrifying reputation across the wars Pacific theatre. The Zero was on hand to open the war against America， by leading the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. By 1945 however， it had lost its technical edge. Then teenage 11）kamikaze pilots were using Zeros as suicide bombs， ramming them into the approaching American fleets.

Born in the year of the Pearl Harbour attack， Mr Miyazaki is imprinted with the pacifism that is typical of Japanese from his generation. His movies are paeans to the natural world and warnings about its perilous state. In many， children are the first to warn of the dangers of greed and militarism， which inevitably fall on adultsdeaf ears.

The movie is actually a double bio-pic： of Horikoshi， whose life it follows from youth through university to his work at Mitsubishi， with a brief coda after World War II， and of author Tatsuo Hori， whose 1937 novel The Wind Rises tells of a 12）tubercular girl at a sanitarium. His life and works inform the character of Naoko Satomi， the young woman who becomes Jiros wife.

Miyazaki has long poured his fascination with all things airborne into his movies. The 1986 Castle in the Sky pits flying pirates against the citizens of a magical floating realm. Kikis Delivery Service （1989） gave its 13-year-old witch the job of delivering parcels by broomstick. Another species of air pirates patrol Porco Rosso （1992）， this time doing battle with an Italian aviation ace whom a magic spell has transformed into a pig. The young heroine of Howls Moving Castle（2004） is the portable flying house of a mysterious birdman. All these films proclaim that man， like a bird， was meant to soar， and that the sky， not the Earth， is our true home.

The director has said that The Wind Rises was inspired by a Horikoshi quote： “All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful.”Miyazaki often achieves just that， in a film that parades its beauty from its amazing first scene. The young Jiro climbs to the roof of his home and finds a plane parked there. Lured by its colorful avian design—white wings， blue feathers， a red tail， pink wheels and a yellow nose—Jiro scoots aboard this metallic bird for a lovely jaunt， until shadowed by a huge 13）dirigible carrying dozens of military aircrafts； the boy falls from the sky and awakens in his bed. The whole film is a series of flights and falls， airy ambitions that crash-dive into compromise and tragedy.

In the age of digital animation （and live action）， Miyazaki has remained faithful to the hand-drawn technique—the Disney style—that 14）predated Pixars CGI. Indeed， his human figures are abstracted into giant-eyed doll faces and stiff legs， as if walking clumsily on stilts. Even the adult Jiro looks like any anime child； and when he stumbles to the ground， his hands and feet make no visible impression on the grass.

Most of the directors grace goes into the landscapes： rural 15）vistas rendered in the most delicate pastels， like the watercolors Naoko paints during Jiros courtship of her. In a hard land heading to war， through the sensitive eyes of Jiro， Miyazaki makes sure the views are ravishing. His perfect metaphor for a Japan 16）straddling the old world and the new： the planes he designed are pulled onto the practice field by teams of oxen.

Fans have asked why the great pacifist film-maker has made a movie about a weapons-maker. Mr Miyazaki says he was drawn to the story of one of Japans great eccentric geniuses. Engineers are neutral， he explained in June 2013. “It was wrong from the beginning to go to war，” he said. “But…its useless to blame Jiro for it.”

Whatever the political implications of a movie that glamorizes and elegizes the makers of war， The Wind Rises shows Miyazaki at his most confident. The film betrays no hint of sapping energy， let alone senility； it is vigorous， subtle， daring and gorgeous. May his announced retirement be a brief， dark 17）whim. And may he go on enchanting and challenging moviegoers for years to come.

世界動畫電影界泰斗宮崎駿要引退的消息，仿若一則始料不及的訃告，震驚了威尼斯電影節(jié)?！皩m崎已經(jīng)決定以《起風(fēng)了》作為自己的封筆之作，然后引退?！奔妨ぷ魇业目偛眯且翱刀陔娪啊镀痫L(fēng)了》的一個(gè)發(fā)布會上宣布此消息。

自7月20日在日本上映以來，《起風(fēng)了》的票房收入已超過八千萬美元——在日本，宮崎駿既是票房保證又是國寶級藝術(shù)家。他最近的四部作品——《幽靈公主》、《千與千尋》、《哈爾的移動城堡》以及《懸崖上的金魚公主》在本土總票房達(dá)到7億美元，全球票房收入達(dá)到8.71億美元。

沉痛地探索愛、責(zé)任與死亡，《起風(fēng)了》被視作是宮崎駿首部面向成人的電影。花了半輩子時(shí)間為孩子們打造精致奇幻作品，現(xiàn)年72歲的宮崎先生回歸到真實(shí)的故事：講述二戰(zhàn)期間一位飛機(jī)制造者的故事。

電影名字參考保羅·瓦萊里的詩歌《海濱墓園》中的那句：“起風(fēng)了！……我們必須努力求生?！憋L(fēng)是災(zāi)難的前兆——整部電影的主旋律：1923年的關(guān)東大地震將東京與橫濱的大部分建筑夷為平地，超過十萬人喪生；還有十年后日本參與的那場災(zāi)難性的帝國主義戰(zhàn)爭。

盡管電影設(shè)置真實(shí)的戰(zhàn)爭為背景，但是電影里充滿了宮崎先生早期電影里奇想百出的特質(zhì)，以夢想為故事首尾呼應(yīng)。影片開頭，一個(gè)名叫堀越二郎的十歲小男孩夢想自己能夠在家鄉(xiāng)的高空上飛翔，卻被從天而降的重磅炸彈驚醒。電影的結(jié)局，他在戰(zhàn)時(shí)日本的殘?jiān)珨啾陂g徘徊，年少的自己關(guān)于飛翔的夢想某種程度上造就了這一噩夢。

二郎的角色原型是日本三菱A6M零式戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)的真實(shí)設(shè)計(jì)師。在那個(gè)時(shí)代，零式戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)被視作最好的戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)，曾在太平洋戰(zhàn)場上聲名顯赫。該戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)在美日戰(zhàn)爭的開局中擔(dān)當(dāng)重任，主導(dǎo)了1941年突襲珍珠港一役。但是到了1945年，它就失去了技術(shù)上的優(yōu)勢。而年輕的神風(fēng)敢死隊(duì)就是用零式戰(zhàn)斗機(jī)充當(dāng)自殺式炸彈，撞向進(jìn)逼的美國戰(zhàn)艦。

出生于突襲珍珠港那一年，宮崎駿身上帶有他們那一代日本人典型的反戰(zhàn)情愫。他的電影都是對大自然的贊歌以及對危險(xiǎn)現(xiàn)狀的警示。在多部影片中，孩子們往往最先警醒人們貪婪和軍國主義的危害，然而都不可避免地為成年人所忽視。

這部電影其實(shí)是一部雙人生活寫照：一個(gè)是堀越，從其年少到大學(xué)再到他在三菱的工作，以及在二戰(zhàn)后一個(gè)簡短的結(jié)局；另一個(gè)是作家齊藤雄，他1937年發(fā)表的小說《起風(fēng)了》講述了療養(yǎng)院里一個(gè)患有肺結(jié)核的女病童的故事。他的人生和作品反映在里見菜穂子這個(gè)人物角色上，這個(gè)女孩后來成為了堀越的妻子。

宮崎駿在其電影中一直對天空的一切傾注了無限想象。1986年的《天空之城》突出的是飛天海盜如何對抗神奇漂浮國度的居民。1989年的《魔女宅急便》讓一個(gè)十三歲的小魔女騎著掃帚送包裹。另一部有關(guān)空中劫機(jī)同伙的是1992年的《飛天紅豬俠》，在一次與意大利頂尖飛行員的比賽中，主角中了魔法而變成了一頭豬。在2004年的《哈爾的移動城堡》中，年輕的女主人公住在一位神秘鳥人的口袋飛行屋里。所有的這些電影都在描述人類，像鳥一樣，準(zhǔn)備一飛沖天，而天空——并非大地，才是我們真正的家園。

宮崎導(dǎo)演曾說，《起風(fēng)了》的靈感源自于堀越的一句話：“我想做的事情就是要造出美麗的事物來?！睂m崎駿總是能做到這點(diǎn)，在電影中，從第一幕起就把美展現(xiàn)出來。年輕的二郎爬到自家房頂，然后發(fā)現(xiàn)一架飛機(jī)停在那里。二郎為它像鳥一樣的多彩設(shè)計(jì)而吸引——白色的翅膀，藍(lán)色的羽毛，紅色的尾巴，粉色的輪子以及黃色的鼻子，他跳上了這只金屬大鳥，來了一次難忘的短途旅行，直到被一只運(yùn)輸眾多軍事飛機(jī)的飛船擋住了視線；男孩從空中墜落然后在自己的床上醒來。整部電影演繹著一連串的飛升和墜落，飛天的夢想急墜成妥協(xié)和悲劇。

在這個(gè)數(shù)碼動畫（及真人實(shí)拍）的時(shí)代，宮崎駿堅(jiān)持手繪技術(shù)——迪士尼風(fēng)格——那是未采用皮克斯CGI之前的技術(shù)。事實(shí)上，他筆下的人物被抽象簡化成各種大眼細(xì)腿的娃娃臉形象，像踩著高蹺般笨拙行走。即便是成年的二郎看上去也像日本動漫里的孩子一樣；而當(dāng)他落在地面上，他的手腳在草地上也不落絲毫形跡。

宮崎導(dǎo)演大部分的功力都反映在景物上：用最細(xì)致的粉彩勾勒出鄉(xiāng)村遠(yuǎn)景，就像二郎追求菜穂子時(shí)，菜穂子繪出的水彩畫那樣。在那片準(zhǔn)備迎來戰(zhàn)爭的土地上，通過二郎敏感的觀察，宮崎駿設(shè)法做到讓一切景色都使人陶醉。他采用完美的暗喻手法展現(xiàn)了處在新老時(shí)代交替中的日本：他設(shè)計(jì)的飛機(jī)被排設(shè)在操場上，在一群牛的旁邊。

影迷提出疑問：為什么這位偉大的和平主義電影人要制作一部關(guān)于武器制作人的電影。宮崎先生說自己被日本其中一位最偉大的古怪天才的生平所吸引。他在2013年6月的時(shí)候就解釋道，設(shè)計(jì)師的角色是中立的?！皯?zhàn)爭一開始就是錯誤的，”他說，“但是責(zé)備二郎是沒用的?！?/p>

無論這部電影的政治意蘊(yùn)是否在美化哀挽戰(zhàn)爭的操手們，《起風(fēng)了》都展現(xiàn)了宮崎駿最大的自信。這部電影并沒有顯露出宮崎一丁點(diǎn)的力不從心，更別提什么老態(tài)龍鐘了；這是一部有力的、精妙的、大膽并且壯麗的電影。希望他的退休宣言只是一時(shí)意氣用事罷了，還希望他能繼續(xù)帶給我們既精彩又有趣的電影。