| 1. | (15 posts) | BBC Interview/Talk about Studio Ghibli |
| 2. | (8 posts) | Scars of Time |
| 3. | (8 posts) | The What/Why/Where of Eboshi |
We looked at 140 posts by 54 different contributors.
A large-ish week, but with a great majority of the threads (well over 1/3) circling around the big thread (with some offshoots) from the previous week.
Marc Hairston annouced, "This coming Friday evening there will be a short (about 7 minute) report on BBC Radio Scotland about the Ghibli film festival in Edinburgh and about Miyazaki. Barring last minute programming changes (these things happen) our own Andrew Osmond will be interviewed live about the films. (They're also trying to get Helen McCarthy on, but as she's in the process of moving to a new house, that may not be possible.). . . Break a leg, Andrew!"
Andrew sounded confident, "(Gulp) Thanks."
After the interview concluded, Marc wrote, "I got to hear it over the web and, aside from those really thick accents ( ^_^ ), it was very intelligible. As always, it was too short, as the host admitted he had never heard of these films and you folks barely had time to begin an introduction of what they were and why folks should see them when it was time to quit."
For the benifit of those who missed the program, Ian created two MP3s (small and big) for your listening pleasure.
Ians's first attempt at sharing was thwarted by placing the files on geocities.com. The demand for the files kept breaking his bandwidth limit.
Larry Virden (and his kid) had some questions after watching "Princess Mononoke", "why were there so many people whose faces were covered? We understand about the lepers. But the prince, when he left home, had his face covered, as did a number of others he met along the way. . . Also, at the end of the movie, it appeared that the prince's arm, while not nearly as marked by the curse as during the rest of the movie, still had some remenants of the curse remaining. So he is still going to die - just take longer to do so? "
The scar issue proved to be the most popular, Hanno Mueller wrote, "I thought it just showed that the curse is gone and the wound is now healing - why would he want to talk about the future, otherwise?"
Another theory from Andrew Kratzat, "I thought it showed that he has now learned to live with this evil inside of him, just like we she should all learn to live with our own evils."
Steve Underwood didn't think so, "Either that, or it is just a scar. . . It is reasonable that such a horrible thing should disappear without leaving a scar? I think the character of the mark looks different at the end, and I assumed that indicated it was merely a scar left behind."
Chris Kuan replied, "an interview done with Miyazaki in which he noted that the scar of the curse could be likened to the scars of leprosy, in that they were visible markers which could be used to discriminate against people.
He says (something like) that the visible remnant of the scar remained to intentionally symbolise. . . the possiblity of recurring problems in life.
Larry did score one response on his "covering" question from Yoshie Shinoyama, "It was safer to hide his identity as he was going on the journey of unknown and he expected some battles and dangers he might have come across. When the people (not the commoners but the higher level such as lords and knights) travelled in the old age they often covered their faces with hats and masks. . . Ashitaka did not wish to reveal his presence until he needed to introduce himself and the reason of his journey."
The winner of the "thread who's subject line is totally incorrect". Eboshi's background is the main topic, but no one changed the subject (my post was a one-off). Kyle Pope started it off with, "I expect that Eboshi Gozen probably had a very hard life of her own. It has been suggested that her mode of dress suggests the life of a prostitute. This would certainly explain her desire to buy out every contracted prostitute within reach of Tatara-Ba. Eboshi seems determined to create a community built not on class and birth but on merit and labor"
Yoshie Shinoyama disagreed, "I would like to note that Eboshi was very unlikely to come out of the poverty background.
Regarding her mode of dress, it was a sort of activity dress of the daughters in Samurai family. They wore a kimono and the samurai trousers to make themselves more mobile. Such kind was worn when they were practicing horse riding, archery and ken-jitsu (sword training but with short knives for the ladies). . .
Her being literate and able to do math in the managing level at the gunsmith and working for a local lord suggests her family was at service of the same lord as Samurai. . . As she observed it, she grew to distrust men generally and managed to place herself not in the typical female role in that prospect. Knowing her women were fiercely loyal to her because she was the only one who gave them dignity and the protection, she relied on them to protect the community she gradually structured.
But at the same time I think she was a character who was ambitious and intelligent enough to understand her way works and she has the advantage. Takara-ba itself may have been her admission and she would pay a high price for keeping it (for example, she didn't care much about her male workers being blown to bits by the bombs).
Andrew Osmond wrote, "I forget where, but Miyazaki once said his own imagined background for Eboshi was that she was sold overseas, forced to 'marry' a Japanese pirate (prostitution by any other name), before managing to kill her husband and escape back to Japan with the Chinese guns. Of course, none of this is more than a suggestion. However, there are many stories - and sometimes real-life cases - of men and women transcending apalling backgrounds and non-existent status to become great leaders, educating themselves as they go. . .
I don't see her as a man-hater. She seems to respect Ashitaka, for example; she also seems very friendly toward the (mostly male) leper workers. Most importantly, while she was ruthless in the way she abandons her men after Moro's attack, she later goes out of her way to apologise - publicly - to Koroku for leaving him.
True, she shows no emotion when the men are being bombed, but that doesn't mean she feels no guilt.
I posted a clip from the upcoming second part to the "Making of MH" translation that covers Eboshi's background:
According to Miyazaki's own description of Eboshi's personal history and personality: Eboshi, a mysterious lady, conveys an image of strong red color. When she was little, a child slave trader took her outside of Japan. She was married to the leader of a group of pirates (Wakou -- Japanese outlaws), who dominated the South China Sea between Japan and China, and attacked trade ships. After killing her husband and obtaining her freedom from the pirates, Eboshi returned to Japan with her husband's money and wealth (including primitive Chinese firearms), in order to to build her own country and to rescue her poor friends from childhood.
Michael Wojcik posted some historical pirate information, "Ching I Sao (her name has been transliterated other ways), who was probably the most successful pirate ever. Her pirate band - with more ships than the Imperial Chinese Navy - plied the China Sea during the late nineteenth century. . . I think Ching took control of the pirate fleet from her husband. . . She died old, rich, and by all reports happy, demonstrating that crime does in fact pay, if you're good at it.
There are some interesting parallels with Eboshi - not a lot, but some. I wonder if Miyazaki is familiar with Ching's career? She's relatively famous.
Frederic Goetzinger translated the announcement of the French "Mononoke" DVD. Leander Hasty notes a "Totoro" influence in an Xbox game, sort of.
I think the gender theory wars calm down next week. See you then!