Studio Ghibli Thoughts: Porco Rosso

Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso feels like a call back to the adventure days of his earlier works such as Lupin III, The Castle of Cagliostro, and Future Boy Conan. It is one of the most straightforward films by him, and that's both a reason it retains a cult favorite status among Studi Ghibli fans and why it is less well-known compared to his more seminal movies (My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle).

Porco Rosso is the story of an ex-Italian WWI air pilot, cursed to look like a pig, who works as a bounty hunter in a fictional version of the Adriatic Sea; a place where pirates run amok and sporadic islands run themselves with little to no government. What is curious about Porco's, the story's hero, curse is how uninterested the movie is in dealing with it. There is no explanation about what cursed him and why, and as far as we know, we don't see if the curse was ever resolved by the end. What it does is provide a clear visual cue to the watcher that Porco is out of place in this world, which carries with it a deeper meaning in the movie, but more on that later.

Originally pitched as a short-ish film to be shown on international Japan Air flights, I do not doubt that the adventure and action angle of the movie was first and center in its development. Here, we see Miyazaki at his best in crafting action scenes and beautiful vistas; showcasing his love of aircraft and flying in some visually stunning scenes. Yet, he also takes the time to pay respect to the idea of craft in an excellent section that showcases another Miyazaki heroine taking control of her destiny and leading the repair of Porco's airplane.

For most viewers, and indeed myself at first, I think Porco Rosso will always be a straightforward adventure story. For some, they like to analyze the between-war period the film is set in and its very brief depiction of the rise of fascism as further proof of Miyazaki's pacifism. That may be true, but that's not the deeper meaning I alluded to earlier.

For me, the real curse on Porco is not that he was turned into a pig, but that he was somehow unstuck in time. As things and people changed around him, he sat there secluded on his island, and his talent, while the world was moving forward. The Adriatic Sea was always going to change, and yet it wasn't always clear that Porco would change with it.

By the end of the movie, it is not clear if the curse was ever lifted from him, but it becomes clear that the place he lived in and the people he knew all irreversibly changed. What we do know is that we watched another brilliant Studi Ghibli film, filled with excellent animation and memorable characters, cementing its place as another Top-Tier film.