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Hayao Miyazaki to retire following latest film.
Other | Monday 2nd September 2013 | Ayse
The Oscar winning filmmaker, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, and the genius behind legendary animated films ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ and ‘Spirited Away’, has announced that he will be retiring from the industry following the cinema release of his latest film entitled ‘The Wind Rises’.
Miyazaki’s latest film, which premiered at the Venice film festival this weekend, was followed by an intentionally brief announcement by Studio Ghibli president Koju Hoshino that revealed Miyazaki’s desires to “say goodbye to all of you” ahead of a full press conference next week in Tokyo.
72-year-old Miyazaki’s long career has garnered him loyal fans, great acclaim, and a well-deserved title as one of the most celebrated figures in animated filmmaking. Isao Takahata and he co-founded Studio Ghibli in 1985. The company has produced 18 feature films, with several taking the top spot at the Japanese box office during their respective years of release.
Miyazaki won a lifetime achievement award from the Venice film festival in 2005, and has in fact previously retired following the international success of Princess Mononoke. However, he returned four years later to direct Spirited Away in 2001 and later Howl’s Moving Castle but only after the original director unexpectedly quit production.
The Wind Rises, his 11th and last feature-length film, is a fictionalised biography of Jiro Horikoshi, who designed Japanese fighter planes during the Second World War. Miyazaki’s contributions to film will never be forgotten and as his beautiful and heart warming stories live on, many aspiring film makers in Japan and beyond will undoubtedly be aware of the monumental degree of innovation, and skill it will take to even match the legacy that Studio Ghibli has forged on the landscape of film because I daresay, it would be almost impossible to surpass it.
BY AYSE HUSEYIN
