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[sexy_romulan]

I had been under the impression from somewhere that Ursula LeGuin was averse to the idea of a Miyazaki Earthsea movie because of his female characters.

Turns out I had that exactly backwards: she wanted him to do the movie because of his female characters; she's a great admirer of his. Not sure how I got that so turned around - possibly because I'm not a huge Miyazaki fan; I've been kind of turned off by the way the story unfolds (or doesn't) in the last couple of his films I've seen, as much as I loved Mononoke Hime. Also possibly I was confusing it with her disappointment in the movie that was actually made, not by Miyazaki but by his son - her response to that film is here.

Comments

[renegadelufin.livejournal.com]

As much of a weirdly non-climactic story as he may have told, Hayao Miyazaki's female characters are universally very strong. In fact, most (if not all) of his movies are either centered around or prominently feature women or girls who are believable, deep, and dynamic.

That's one of the things that failed to impress me about the new Earthsea movie; Goro Miyazaki seems far less concerned with the importance of the female characters, instead falling into the "screamy-whiny-I-can't-do-it" stereotype that is all too common. It may be that, as this was his first film, he simply did not fully develop his characters. Perhaps -- I desperately hope -- he will improve and, in doing so, evolve strong female figures like his father did. I'm not holding my breath though... from what I've seen, typical Japanese films don't seem terribly concerned with developing strong characters who also seem to be women.