There is a not-so-subtle reference to the ultimate symbol of man’s unhealthy obsession with technology, the nuclear bomb. Would Miyazaki agree with Bill when he drops “God is a word, and the argument ends there”? I’m reminded of the sentiment in songs such as Bill Callahan’s “Oh do I feel like the mother of the world, with two children fighting”. Miyazaki seems to be mourning not just for his own mother’s loss, but for the loss of the innocence of the world.
The environmental themes that feature strongly in this film and other Miyazaki themes also delve into the concept of Mother-Earth. Through this prism, we can perhaps start to see Castle In The Sky as being something of an elegy to his long suffering and recently departed mother. Hayao has first-hand experience of the fear of being a motherless child from a young age. Perhaps it is not surprising that orphan characters feature prominently in this and other of his films. This means Hayao’s mother was gravely ill for much of his formative childhood years. Miyazaki’s mother is said to have been of weak constitution, and had spinal tuberculosis in the post-war years 1947-55. How much of Miyazaki’s own mother’s character can be found here? Captain Dola, is strong and commanding, but also compassionate and warm. Take a look at the character of the boss-mother of the pirate gange in Castle in the Sky. It is hard to imagine that Miyazaki wasn’t using his art to work through his own personal loss at this time. Maternal themes and mother figures permeate the film. Motherly figure of Nausicaa, inspiration for Miyazaki’s first filmīy Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton – Art Renewal Center – description, Public Domain, Ĭastle in the Sky Laputa was released around two years after the death of Miyazaki’s mother. Ancestors, families, look after their own. The ticket only works if you have the right blood though. How does it get you there? Through the medium of flight of course, this time pure and unadulterated by the need for mechanical devices, technology or gadgetry. The ancestors even have a magical stone that they pass down through the generations that functions as a special ticket to their exclusive world. The idea of a mythic people who are guardians of a magical other world is connected to the Confusian ideals of respect, even deification, of ancestors. Sheeta’s memories revolve strongly around the teachings of her mother and the desire to do right in her eyes.
Pazu is out to redeem his father’s honour in the eyes of the world. Indeed, Pazu is driven by the desire to vindicate his father’s life mission, to prove the existence of the mythical land of Laputa. The idea of filial piety, which wikipedia defines as a virtue of respect for one’s parents, elders, and ancestors is seen in the loving affection that main characters Pazu and Sheeta hold for their deceased parents. This family connection leads into another major theme in Castle In The Sky, the relationship between child and parent.
This yin-yang style dark and light human coexistence is perhaps even parralled by the darker, Nazi sympathising tendencies of global aviation hero Lindbergh himself. Evil, like the aeroplanes that his dad worked on were used for.įor the Miyazaki, the struggle between innate human ingenuity and human depravity is personal. In the Fandor video, Miyazaki also talks about how the technology of flight, developed by those with noble intent, inevitably gets swept up in the prevailing winds of the time and ends up being used for evil. It was as if an alien hand touched down from Mars. Bill Bryson vividly describes in his fantastic book One Sumer: America 1927 how, when Charles Lindbergh completed the first transatlantic flight from New York to Paris, he was greeted by no less than 100,000 parisians. Flying machines were, and are, a symbol of humanity’s ability to transcend its surroundings. In the Fandor video above, there is an excerpt of Miyazaki talking about his own, his family’s, and indeed humanity at large’s, relationship with the aeroplane.
You can see how the aeroplane, and flight more generally, has influenced his work and become such a major motif. Hayao Miyazaki’s father was an engineer who worked on the Zero fighters.
#CASTLE IN THE SKY THEME HOW TO#
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