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Interview with Takahata Isao  March 23, 2006

Actually subj. Interview here. Very interesting, here is a quote on Pom Poko (you know, that film about tanuki) and eco terrorism:

I did not know about this point of view. They consider the tanuki to be terrorists? But they are the victims. The film depicts a drama; it is the end of a world, the end of the tanuki world. I wanted the viewer to look from the point of view of the animals and try to make us perceive how our world appears to us seen from the outside. However, the terrorist label does not disturb me. Today, terrorists are public enemy number 1. But historically, terrorism was sometimes a mean of asking attention of the established society. This state of mind existed until in the seventies. Terrorism sometimes had the capacity to make the world or people reflect on their condition.

And about fantasy domination:

I cannot speak for other countries, but in Japan there is indeed a domination of what I consider as “fantasy”, in cinema or in manga. For these types of art, there are of course often interesting works. However, it’s because of its monopoly that the young people tend to consume only these types of works and only live in these chimerical universes. All of the video games or the films water the young spectators of these universes. Another element which strikes me is that aesthetically speaking, these works tend towards ultra-realism, either using real photos which are manipulated using a computer or using 3D often blurring the border between the real world and the “fantasy” world. The problem with this is that when the young people find themselves in reality, they find it dull and depressing and only dream of living in a factitious universe. I think this is a shame and consider it as dangerous. This is why I do not appreciate “fantasy” in general.

Takahata rules! Although I think that world of fantasy is not really that different from world of reality — it’s only a question of fantasy’s quality ;-) Our “reality” is nothing else as collective fantasy. Anime and movie are the same thing. So what if in movies things look more realistic? — Movies are still fantasy (although they are “realistic”, they are not “real”). Why can’t we make a small step further and understand that reality is fantasy in the same way? But it’s a difficult step even for so respected director as Takahata, even so he live in Japan, the country with maybe the most elaborated tradition of fantasy.

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