I think for fans outside Japan, especially those in Asia, the real understanding of Miyazaki Hayao mostly begins with the popularity of Princess Ghost in Asia. "Ghost Princess" sang all the way to the box office, with a total box office of 65.438+0.93 billion yen and a movie audience of 65.438+0.42 million. In the end, he won the box office champion in Japan that year, setting a new box office record in the history of Japanese movies. At the same time, it has won many important awards in Japan, such as the Japan Film Academy Award for Best Film, the second place in the Tenth Daily and so on. In fact, since this animation (1999, the Ghost Princess landed in the North American cinema on a small scale, although the response was average), Miyazaki Hayao has been paid attention to by the western world, regarded as a master of animation in the East, and won the American Anne Award and the Winsor McCay Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. Gong Lao's next work, Spirited Away, has even reached the peak of the world animation, reaching the Berlin Golden Bear Award (with paul greengrass's Bloody Sunday, the jury is chaired by Indian female directors mira nair), and it is the only animated feature film that has won the highest awards in the three major European film festivals so far.

The key point is that the Japanese box office broke out, with a total box office of 30.4 billion yen, which once again set a new box office record in Japanese film history, surpassing Titanic to become the highest-grossing box office in Japanese history. The following year, it was released in a small scale in North America, but it was well received by film critics (roger ebert, the chief film critic in the United States, got full marks), won the best animated feature film of the two major film critics associations in new york and Los Angeles, not to mention the Anne Award in the industry, won the best feature film, best director, best script and best music award, and finally won the Oscar for the best animated feature film. The birth of Spirited Away shows that Miyazaki Hayao has been fully recognized by the world, not only as the God of Asia, but also as Akira Kurosawa of Japanese animation in North America (Oscar is the most mainstream award in the United States).

In contrast, Mr. Gao Shi, another big coffee maker in Studio Ghibli, is actually quite small outside Japan. Several feature films have not aroused strong repercussions, especially My Neighbor Jun Yamada, sandwiched between Miyazaki Hayao's two important works Princess Ghost and Spirited Away, failed to win the Japanese box office championship because of the failure of marketing strategy, which is unimaginable for Studio Ghibli's works. Since then, Gao has been in a state of retirement and has not published any new works.

Therefore, in reputation, Miyazaki Hayao far surpassed the director Gao Tuan, and thus became the real representative of Studio Ghibli in the outside world. That's why all the works of Studio Ghibli after Spirited Away have been labeled as Miyazaki Hayao in the domestic pirated market (in order to promote sales), so that for a long time, many domestic audiences thought Thanksgiving for Cats was a sequel to Spirited Away, because domestic pirates usually gave Thanksgiving for Cats under the banner of Spirited Away 2. In fact, the quality of Cat's Gratitude is far less than that of Spirited Away, and it is a work that Studio Ghibli plans to foster new people.

Back to the source, talk about Studio Ghibli. In fact, Studio Ghibli was founded because of Miyazaki Hayao. In fact, before The Valley of the Wind, Miyazaki Hayao directed a theatrical version of Lubang III, but it didn't achieve great success. Before Miyazaki Hayao became a supervisor, he mainly worked as a painting supervisor or supervision assistant. After leaving Dongying with director Gao Qi, I hope to do theater animation instead of TV animation. After being appreciated by Dong Jian Kang Kuai, the president of Dejian Bookstore (that is, the name that will appear in front of Studio Ghibli's previous works), Miyazaki Hayao started the creation of the comic "Valley of the Wind" (because of the comic foundation, the probability of adapting it into a theatrical animation is relatively increased). Unexpectedly, Valley of the Wind was strongly welcomed by fans as soon as it was released, and the heroine Nausicaa was also rated as the most popular heroine by readers for several years in a row. So the film version of "Valley of the Wind" was put on the agenda. After the film was released, the market and word-of-mouth feedback were good. Under this premise, Studio Ghibli came into being. The main purpose of the establishment is to make drama animation for Miyazaki Hayao and Gao Che. Studio Ghibli's groundbreaking work "City in the Sky" was also produced by Miyazaki Hayao, and now it has become a classic, but at that time, the box office and word of mouth were just average. The box office performance in My Neighbor Totoro, which followed closely, can actually be described as bleak, because Goodbye Firefly directed by Gao Che was also produced at that time. In order to promote the box office, the strategy of bundling sales was adopted. However, Goodbye Firefly was too sad, which affected the box office in My Neighbor Totoro and caused Studio Ghibli to fall into financial crisis. Fortunately, after that, toshio suzuki's "peripheral" strategy (launching peripheral products such as Totoro dolls) suddenly rescued Studio Ghibli from the predicament, because my Totoro is like this! But! Honey. Yes! )

Then Miyazaki Hayao made Ghibli recognized by Japanese domestic fans. 1989' s "witch's home delivery" finally won the domestic box office champion after the market performance declined. This success is undoubtedly a shot in the arm. With the help of The Witch's House, Studio Ghibli's works began to really go to the public. Together with Fairy Tales of Years, Civet Cat Breed and Miyazaki Hayao's own Red Pig, they were the box office champions of that year. It can be said that with these mass bases and Studio Ghibli's own high-quality guarantee, 1997 Princess Ghost has achieved great success. It is still director Miyazaki Hayao who really puts Ghibli on the right track. In the past, Ghibli has always adopted the production mode of "taking a film for someone", which means that without a fixed staff, the salary is actually not enough. However, after "Witch Home Delivery", Miyazaki Hayao adopted the work mode of recruiting regular employees, which also made employees more motivated. In addition, the library in Miyazaki Hayao is also one of the important factors to actively promote the establishment of the Sanyingsen Ghibli Art Museum, and designed the venue personally.

Studio Ghibli's other works, except two directors, failed to form a greater climate. Hiroyuki Morita's "Cat's Gratitude" is of average quality. Although it was also the Japanese box office champion of that year, its box office of only 6.46 billion yen was weak in Studio Ghibli's works. Moreover, this box office data is actually obtained under the residual temperature in Spirited Away. Listen to the Ear by Yoshifumi Kondo is loved by many audiences, but it is the only work directed by Kondo after he changed from a painting supervisor to a producer. Unfortunately, he died young. Goro Miyazaki's "Earthsea War" is a curse (but it still has more than 7 billion box office under the signboard of Studio Ghibli! ) The Hills in Full Bloom of Young Bai Weiling has made progress, but its performance is still unsatisfactory, with a box office of only 4.46 billion yen (but it still maintains the domestic box office champion, mainly because the whole Japanese film market is weak because of the earthquake. )。 Hiromasa Yonebayashi's Borrowing Little Man seems to get a good response, but there is still a long way to go before the real master.

Visible Miyazaki Hayao's reputation is too loud and low-key, leading to the highest representative of Studio Ghibli must be Miyazaki Hayao. In addition, Miyazaki Hayao himself is now a non-executive director of Ghibli, and his own contribution to Ghibli is much greater than others.