Porco Rosso

Porco Rosso (紅の豚) is my favorite movie by Director Hayao Miyazaki. It was a movie from 1992, and I might have watched it more than 20 times. I even translated the script of the movie into Korean and ran it at a small cinematheque in 1994 (when I was a college student), but I had never seen it at the movie theater. Eventually, I had a chance to see it at the big screen, but I never imagined it would be in the US.

Studio Ghibli Fest screens one Miyazaki movie a day every month. Porco Rosso was the movie of August. I believe his movies can be categorized chronologically into two groups: pre- and post-. In my opinion, Porco Rosso marks the conclusion of the pre-Miyazaki era. I like this movie because I believe it is his last movie that reflects his pure desire and dream - a self-portrait. His later creations exhibit a somber tone, suggesting a waning faith in humanity. And "How do you live?" would be the end of his journey. Porco Rosso would be his last movie when he could/wanted to say the famous line: 飛ばねえ豚はただの豚だ。(A pig that cannot fly is just an ordinary pig.)