Wizard of light and shadow

Because Miyazaki handles very grand matters and very humble ones with the same radiance, his films can be confusing to Western viewers accustomed to our own genres and the notion that keeping an audience amused requires a lot of frenetic activity. Though children tend to find "My Neighbor Totoro" enchanting, some American reviewers, writing when it was released in the U.S. in 1993, thought it would be too slow and boring to hold kids' interest. It's true that, like many of Miyazaki's films, "Totoro" has a distinctive pace; it's largely a summer idyll. But the trick to enjoying it is to understand that it has no lulls. Nothing in it, not a single image, is insignificant.

It's the only animated film I've ever seen that uses still shots of empty rooms, and that's because it's the only animated film that cares about such things as what the old country house the sisters have moved into really feels like. Complaining that not enough happens in Miyazaki films is like saying that there's nothing going on in a Yasujiro Ozu movie -- you either get it or you don't. Pity is the only proper response to those who fall in the latter category.

For many years, Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, the studio he founded with fellow animator Isao Takahata, refused to release their work in the West. An early Miyazaki film, "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds," had suffered terrible mutilation in the making of an English language version (called "Warriors of the Wind") released in 1986. The film, based on an epic manga (comic book series) that is Miyazaki's major non-animated work, was cut by nearly half an hour in a misguided effort to make it a more conventional action-adventure picture. Said Takahata (quoted in Helen McCarthy's invaluable book, "Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation"): "All these movies are grounded strongly in Japanese culture and are not made with an eye to export. Censoring them is worse than betraying them." In a key aspect of its deal with Ghibli, Disney has promised that it will not cut or substantially alter the films it releases.

It's ironic, then, that a filmmaker so committed to his national audience (of "Princess Mononoke," Miyazaki said "I only worried about how my film would be viewed in Japan. Frankly, I don't worry too much about how it plays elsewhere") should find his greatest success and recognition in the West with what may be his most "Japanese" feature, "Spirited Away." Filmgoers inspired by that movie to seek out more of his work may be surprised by some of the other titles. Below is a guide to what's currently available. In addition to "Hayao Miyazaki: Master of Japanese Animation," a great source for regular updates on releases and general Miyazaki and Ghibli lore is the Web site maintained by Nausicaa.net.

The Castle of Cagliostro (1979): This caper picture featuring a popular master-thief character called Lupin III, the hero of a TV series, is a pre-Ghibli production. Set in a tiny, mythical European kingdom, it's a rudimentary version of the kind of eye candy Miyazaki would later create once he'd set up his own studio and hired a full-time staff (previously, animation was badly paid piecework). The hero is one of those snake-hipped cool cats common in anime, and the story is a conventional adventure yarn, but it's entertaining enough.

Castle in the Sky (1986): Jules Verne meets "How Green Was My Valley" when an orphan boy living in a Welsh mining town retrieves a girl who comes drifting down from the sky, suspended by the power of a crystal pendant. She's fallen from a huge, zeppelin-like airship (early 20th century aviation is one of Miyazaki's passions) and is pursued by a dastardly Edwardian gentleman working for the government and a clan of pirates, led by Ma Dola, a very energetic old lady with hot pink pigtails. Everyone is looking for a legendary island that floats high in the clouds. The two young protagonists are pretty generic, but their Indiana-Jones-style exploits are a blast and the island, when they finally reach it, is gorgeous.

My Neighbor Totoro (1988): Two sisters, 10 and 5 (they seem younger), move into a house in the country with their father while their mother is in the hospital. They meet Totoro, a large forest spirit who is sort of like a rabbit, a penguin and an owl combined. The cliché is to say that Miyazaki sees through the eyes of a child, but it would be more true to say that this film is felt through the body of a child. Sometimes it's almost pre-verbal, and all of the time it's pure bliss -- my second favorite Miyazaki film after "Spirited Away." Plus, it has the Catbus, which is, well, a combination of a cat and a bus, and so good I won't even attempt to describe it here -- just see the movie. This was one of a handful of Japanese movies that made it onto master director Akira Kurosawa's list of the 100 best films of all time. Alas, Disney doesn't seem to have plans to release a new DVD of this (perhaps the scene of father and daughters bathing together is an issue), so we're stuck with the cropped Fox Video version.

Kiki's Delivery Service (1989): Kiki, a witch, turns 13, and in accord with tradition, must leave home to live in another community for a year. She picks a seaside city that is the quintessence of what McCarthy calls "the Japanese dream of Europe," an odd and impossible blend of Scandinavian charm and Mediterranean picturesque. Flying (on a broomstick) is her only real magical power, so she starts a delivery service. Except for a big rescue scene at the end, this is really a story about leaving home for the first time, getting and fixing up that first shabby apartment, making new friends, feeling alternately intimidated and exhilarated and finding yourself. The pacing is leisurely, but who can't relate to Kiki's situation? She's the Mary Tyler Moore of 13-year-old witches.

Princess Mononoke (1997): In this ecological epic, a boy from a tribe of the aboriginal Japanese seeks the source of the curse that afflicted him when he killed a maddened boar god. He finds it in the conflict between a town of ironworkers and the spirits of the surrounding forest. He also falls in love with a girl who has been raised by the wolf god and considers human beings her sworn enemies. Miyazaki doesn't like simple moral dilemmas, though; he treats the conflicting desires of both sides in this Tolkienesque saga with sympathy, as does his young hero. The intricate story can be hard to follow the first time around, but visually the film is overwhelmingly strange and powerful. Some consider it Miyazaki's masterpiece, but my money is on ...

Spirited Away (2002): Chihiro, a little girl trying to rescue her parents from a spell that has turned them into pigs, gets a job at a bathhouse catering to gods and spirits, including the Yeti-like Radish Spirit, an odoriferous Stink Spirit in search of some deep cleansing, and a guy with no face but a large appetite. The witch who runs the place has three green, bouncing heads for henchmen (or henchheads, I guess), and has enslaved the lad who tries to help our heroine. The relatively simple story and deeply felt Japanese imagery give "Spirited Away" a unity that "Mononoke" just misses achieving. Little animated specks of soot with eyes, a six-armed boiler room operator, a jumping lamppost and the most beautiful train ride ever committed to celluloid are just a few of the dozens of things that make this film a source of perpetual delight.

As of this writing, there seem to be no firm plans to release decent versions of two other major Miyazaki features -- "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Winds" and "Porco Rosso" (a Humphrey Bogart-ish tale of romance and adventure about a world-weary flying ace living on a island in the Adriatic Sea; also, he is a pig). The Nausicaa.net Web site suggests that Disney will release all Studio Ghibli films in North America at some point, but no dates have been set. A new Miyazaki theatrical release is expected to reach U.S. theaters next summer, however -- an adaptation of Diana Wynne Jones' children's fantasy novel "Howl's Moving Castle." I can hardly wait.

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