Thoughts on Porco Rosso

Porco Rosso (the boss)

Long time no see, readers! Soooo, today, I watched two fantastic movies. Them being Hayao Miyazaki's Porco Rosso and Jake Schreier's Paper Town a film adaptation of John Green's novel of the same title. Porco Rosso was a movie that was on my "must watch" list for the longest time; I finally got to see it when I lucked out and found it available at my local library! It's one of Miyazaki's older works and was released in 1992! Honestly, I find his old movies to be the real treasures from his long and illustrious career. My brother suggested that it might be because as time passed, people tend to get less creative no matter how brilliant you are. Makes sense, I suppose. Anyways, as expected, the movie was a gem. Packed with action, GORGEOUS art, strong female characters, amazing music, and a story that is innocent and fantastic, Porco Rosso quickly moved into one of my top five from Miyazaki's films.
For those who are new to Miyazaki films, I think Spirited Away is the best film to enter his world with. It was critically highly acclaimed and shows off his interests (strong female protagonists, magic, complex antagonists, protest for the environment) and thus giving a little taste of what most of his movies are like. For something more light hearted, I would recommend The Cat Returns (one of my favorites!), Kiki's Delivery Service, and Ponyo. For something a little more intense, I would recommend Princess Mononoke (my favorite!!), Nausicaa: The Valley of the Wind, and Castle in the Sky. His movies are such a surreal and gorgeous experience, and even though I was having the worst day, Porco Rosso had me giggling and entering a gorgeous world set in the Adriatic Sea. As usual, Miyazaki's works are often strange, childlike tales interwoven with some serious deeper meanings. The movie explores concepts like identity, politics, anti-war, independence, and feminism in an utterly delightful way. The story follows Marco (known as Porco Rosso throughout the movie), the protagonist, a sea plane pilot/bounty hunter who was cursed into looking like a pig (the specifics are never given). He spends his time stopping sea pirates or chilling in his hide out (a gorgeous hidden beach), until all the pirates that he stopped decides to pay him back for all the times he stopped them. They enlist the help of Donald Curtis, an arrogant and silly American Ace who agrees via contract. Porco Rosso's plane is heavily damaged after another scuffle the sea pirates, and when Curtis chases him down, the plane completely breaks down. Rosso goes to Milan to have his plane fixed where he meets Fio, the 17 year old grand daughter of Piccolo, his mechanic who engineers his plane. They quickly development a strong friendship (and dare I say romance?), and uses their strengths to right wrongs and gain back Porco's honor.
Now from here on is going to be some spoilers! Okay, can we just appreciate how bloody beautiful Miyazaki's art is?

Stunning. Just pure gorgeousness. I can't deal. When we were shown Gina's home/future hotel, I was blown away. It's pure paradise. A gorgeous home for a gorgeous gal. Okay, so Gina is such a babe.

Gina (the babe)

She is Porco's friend, three time widow, and the crush of every sea pilot back in the day. She is respected by both pirates and pilots alike just oozes glam, charm, sophistication, and beauty. We're introduced to her singing some stunning French song and how can someone not fall in love with her? She's one of the few characters that Miyazaki designed with obvious amount of make up with her signature sea foam colored eye shadow and plump pink lips. The only character with that much noticeable make up from the films I've seen of his is probably Lottie from Howl's Moving Castle. And Gina's voice. Oh Lord. Pure sex. So distinct. It was no other than Susan Egan the voice actress for the sultry Megara in Hercules and the amazing best friend Lin from Spirited Away. She is such a talented actress. I found Gina's role in the film to be very interesting. She is so respectable and loved by all but so alone! And we soon find out that it's because she's waiting for Porco Rosso's signs of affection. Porco Rosso clearly respects her. Admires her even. But I'm honestly not certain how he feels about her. Sure, there was that scene when he turned beet red when Curtis was trying to knock him out and explaining that Gina liked him... but his chemistry with Fio is so strong!! Before I get into his chemistry with Fio, lemme just tell you all what a bomb character she is. She's an extremely talented and hard working engineer. She won't bow down to sexist bullshit. She commands the respect of an entire fleet of seaplane pirates by discussing honor. She becomes friends with a woman who could've easily been pegged as her rival. She shows courage even when's nervous. She's bright eyed and bushy tailed and just an overall cheerful cutie.

Fio (the cutie)

 I mean, there's the whole attraction from the beginning kind of thing. And everyone constantly calls her cute and pretty. Porco also admires the guts she displays in front of the pirates and her skills as an engineer. Furthermore, when he sees her changing in the beach, he blushes. He also fights to keep her away from Curtis! (Of course, it may simply because he doesn't think Curtis deserves her) And he clearly becomes human because he is kissed by her. There's just so many signs!! However, just based on the age gap between Porco Rosso and Fio (Which is constantly brought up throughout the movie), I doubt that would be the case simply because I feel like Miyazaki wouldn't support that. Also, it's SO rare to see obvious romantic attraction in Miyazaki's film. Love is a major theme in his movies, but there's nothing romantic about the love he portrays in film--it's all very companionate. There's something delightfully childlike and innocent about the love he portrays on screen. The only objections (as in really apparent chemistry) I can find are probably Sophie and Howl's case and Sosuke and Ponyo's case (which was also pretty innocent--kinda like puppy love?). So, it was really difficult for me to arbitrarily establish Porco's relationship with Fio as something romantic just based on Miyazaki's other works and because there was also Gina in the picture. I'm also very reluctant to describe their relationship as a love triangle (between Porco, Gina, and Fio). The movie made it clear that Gina and Fio become very good friends, and I don't think Porco would be torn to choose between the two. Even as a known womanizer, I doubt he would want to wreck his relationship with either of the women by hurting the other or by choosing one over the other. Yet, the movie closes by suggesting that whether Gina's bet (someone will find her in the garden and fall in love with her) came true or not is their secret. Which means... if it is true, Porco fell in love with Gina. If not, who knows what his relationship is with either women post-canon. Honestly, it's hard not to linger upon the romantic relationships Porco Rosso may develop because the film did happen to end with an open ending specifically suggesting that Porco may or may not have fallen for Gina. It would be the safer choice to have Marco end up with Gina rather than Fio, but who knows? Apparently, Miyazaki was planning on making Porco Rosso 2 if his next few movies after Ponyo were a suggest. Unfortunately, it never happened... and it probably never will because Miyazaki retired. <cries> What is certain by the end of the film though is that Fio maintained her badass attitude, skill, and ambition because she becomes Piccolo's president, Gina is still the amazing, business savvy babe that brings all the pirates together, and Porco Rosso is back to becoming a human! At first, I thought him becoming human again is simply because of the kiss but after researching a bit, I am most happy with this idea! It was Gina's love and Fio's innocence that turned him back into a human. Her kiss carried the innocence that Porco Rosso thought humanity had lost. According to a press conference, Porco Rosso became a pig because he lost his faith in humanity after the war. Miyazaki stated that "When a man becomes middle-aged, he becomes a pig". Basically, because of all the emotional baggage he carried, he decided to stop becoming a human and transform into a pic. How bizarre. How very Miyazaki. Ooh, I love this bit, (I just copied and pasted it from this link), "The official story goes as follows: Captain Marco Pagot (named after an Italian animator, who is a friend of Miyazaki) was an ace pilot of the Italian Air Force during World War I. He quit the IFA since he saw fascism on the rise, and he wanted to fly following his own will. He became a bounty hunter, assuming the name "Porco Rosso". He crossed out his own face as a young man in the picture that Gina had hung on the wall of her restaurant, so that no one would know what he looked like as a human.
Miyazaki said that Porco once intended to marry Gina, but then World War I broke out, and Gina was living on an island which was Austrian territory. As a military officer, he could not bring himself to marry an enemy national. Torn between his loyalty to his home country and his love for Gina, he chose his country. But when he witnessed the deaths of his fellow pilots, including that of his best friend (Gina's husband), he started wondering about the meaning of his actions, and the meaning of flying and dying for his country. Unable to resolve the conflicts in his mind, he became a pig."
Man, leave it to Miyazaki to turn a children's movie into some deep movie about serious conflict and depth. Well, reading that snippets from that link really did explain a lot of the questions I had. With this explanation, I believe the reason why he didn't turn back into a human the first time Fio kissed him on the cheek. Thinking about it, Gina says don't break another girl's heart, and he doesn't by letting Fio go. Instead of pursuing his own interests in a pig-headed way (heh, a pun--by the way, tons of pig puns in the English dubbed version), he considers what is best for Fio. Perhaps the pureness of her intentions and the purity of his acceptance of that kiss is what made him turn back into human. Once again, Miyazaki suggests that love is the answer to the most difficult issues we can possibly encounter. Overall, I just felt like this movie was a very refreshing change. It has been a while since I saw traditional 2D animation, and I missed the sense of wonder I felt from Miyazaki's previous works. Honestly, I was pretty disappointed with movies starting from Ponyo. Although Ponyo and The Borrower Arrietty still had that magical element that makes his films unique, there was something missing that captured me like his previous works did. Porco Rosso contained a certain energy that kept me hooked on the screen, and had me rooting for the characters. As usual, the antagonists Miyazaki portrays are incredibly vibrant characters with more than just the typical antagonist traits of EVIL. They are daring, funny, charming, and thoroughly entertaining. I love the strength and the guts that the characters show. The humor. The personality. It really takes a genius to incorporate something as dark and intense as fascism into a children's movie without freaking out kids. Even when discussing such themes, the film maintained a good vibe and I really love how blatant Miyazaki's support for feminism is in this movie. I mean, a team of women working on a plane. A female engineer. A female hotel owner. I love it.
As per usual, in my film reviews I include a brief paragraph about my favorite scenes. Sooo, to cut to the chase, as mentioned earlier, I LOVED just looking at Gina's home. The setting shots were just gorgeous cutting from the lush garden to the patio. I also thoroughly appreciated the scene when Porco Rosso flashbacks to the time when he rose up to meet his dead comrades and there's that milky way and you're just left wondering, what is that? Are those birds? Is this like Spirited Away? Is it paper? Is it stars? No! It's planes! It's a milky way or a stream of clouds made of fighter planes. So gorgeous. The scene where Porco Rosso is eating spaghetti with all the female relatives was a gem as well! That prayer inclusion, that spaghetti (it looked so bomb), and of course, the entire scene where all those women were working! So great. Another favorite would have to be the scene where Fio is swimming in the bay after she confesses that she was so nervous. She's just so innocent and adorable and strong and brilliant and swimming after stripping down to her undies like it's no big deal just won me over. Oh and I can't forget those cute little girls when the pirate first attacks. They were so frigging cute!!!!! I died when they were like we are all part of the swim club and just dives out casually into the ocean. 
All in all, I give the movie an 8.5/10. It was fast. It was entertaining. It carried a significant meaning. It had gorgeous art. The music was fantastic (God bless Joe Hisaishi). It made me want to fly to Italy, dress like I'm in the 30s, and fly around islands. It was made by Miyazaki. Need I say more?

This was really fun to write and I will definitely post more thoughts on movies. With all the time I have this summer, movies were one of my favorite ways to spend time. I actually have a couple of movie reviews from tumblr I will paste over here for your enjoyment! Hope this review inspires you to watch Porco Rosso! I will post my thoughts on Paper Towns tomorrow!