The Cinematic Taste of Hayao Miyazaki: A Window into a Mastermind
Hayao Miyazaki stands as one of animation’s true visionaries, reshaping global expectations with works that balance the magical and the mundane. His influences, eclectic and striking, reveal a deep love for cinema that extends far beyond animation or even Japanese borders. Miyazaki’s fondness for certain films gives us rare insight into the seeds that grew into modern animated wonders like My Neighbor Totoro and Spirited Away.
How Green Was My Valley
Known in today’s pop culture mostly as the movie that controversially bested Citizen Kane at the Oscars, How Green Was My Valley is much more than just a footnote in Hollywood award history. This film’s sensitive and authentic exploration of everyday life in a Welsh mining town mirrors the emotional honesty Miyazaki treasures in his own work. Its lasting value lies in the authentic blend of the sorrowful and the sweet, a quality present throughout Studio Ghibli’s portfolio.
The Old Mill
Disney’s The Old Mill is a landmark in animation, offering a wordless, atmospheric showcase of life and tension inside an abandoned structure sheltering woodland creatures. Even though Miyazaki’s approach differs drastically from Disney’s, he acknowledges this short as a pure demonstration of what animated storytelling could achieve. The elaborate effects, invented for this short, laid much of the groundwork for the industry. For anyone studying animation, The Old Mill is essential viewing.
Ran
Akira Kurosawa’s Ran stands as a towering cinematic epic, boldly adapting Shakespeare’s King Lear for the Japanese historical landscape. Miyazaki frequently cites Kurosawa as a defining influence, particularly admiring his ability to capture both sweeping grandeur and subtle, human drama. Ran showcases an almost painterly use of color and composition—traits that echo in Ghibli’s animated worlds.
Peter Pan
Disney’s adaptation of Peter Pan contributed to popularizing the idea of childhood escapism on screen, a theme Miyazaki reworks in films like Spirited Away and Kiki’s Delivery Service. Both Barrie’s story and Miyazaki’s filmography rely on viewing the extraordinary through the eyes of children, fueling flights of imagination without losing touch with emotional depth. The sense of wonder and the bittersweet edge of growing up remain central across both their works.
My Darling Clementine
Miyazaki holds several John Ford films in high regard, none more so than My Darling Clementine. While this Western revolves around the legendary Wyatt Earp, it slows the pace to give space to quiet, human moments amid the action. Ford’s knack for highlighting the magical in everyday routines foreshadows Ghibli’s emphasis on the beauty within ordinary life. This approach to pacing and tone is a subtle but vital influence on Miyazaki’s animation style.
Modern Times
Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times remains timeless in its clever, comic critique of industrial society. Chaplin’s enduring legacy as a visual storyteller has clear echoes in Miyazaki’s use of expressive, physical animation and keen social commentary hidden below the surface of family-friendly films. Like Chaplin, Miyazaki infuses whimsical scenes with layered, sometimes challenging ideas.
Bicycle Thieves
One of European cinema’s essential triumphs, Bicycle Thieves captures the emotional realities of postwar Italy through a simple yet heartbreaking story. Miyazaki draws inspiration from its honest, unvarnished depiction of ordinary people’s struggles. The film’s documentary-like realism subtly influences the earthy, grounded feeling that counterbalances the flights of fantasy in Ghibli’s own repertoire.
Jaws
At first glance, Jaws may seem distant from Miyazaki’s gentle worlds, but Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster storytelling left its mark. The film’s mix of everyday banality with sudden terror, and Spielberg’s ability to meld suspense with a streak of playfulness, informs Miyazaki’s practice of giving even his scariest scenes a note of magic. Both directors, fundamentally, trust their audience’s imagination.
Ashes and Diamonds
Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds is a striking example of postwar European cinema grappling with trauma and change. Its nuanced take on heroism and futility is part of a tradition of war films that seek to ask hard questions rather than glorify violence. Miyazaki, whose own films address war and peace with a nuanced voice, finds in this movie a kindred spirit of storytelling that values complexity over simple heroics.
Miyazaki’s Cinematic DNA: More Than Just Animation
What sets Miyazaki apart is not just the breadth of his taste, but how he translates influences from live-action, documentary, animation, and genre films into his richly detailed universes. Each of these works—whether as experimental shorts or Hollywood icons—has left fingerprints on the Studio Ghibli style. For film and animation fans hunting for deeper context or looking to expand their watchlist, these movies, through Miyazaki’s eyes, offer endless lessons in cinematic storytelling.
