Porco Rosso: Miyazaki May

Better a pig than a fascist.

Some Miyazaki movies are more romantic than others. I wouldn't call Porco Rosso a romance. Looking at the roster of Miyazaki's Ghibli contributions, I'd say this realistically ranks bottom three so far as romance goes. But for me, it's tied for top two, alongside next week's The Wind Rises.

Listen, I lead this newsletter by telling you all if I had a gun to my head, I'd probably choose Only Yesterday as my all time favorite Ghibli film so you had to expect some… unique takes from Bug Catcher Amber Audra.

Miyazaki usually sticks to young love or first love and if you're here, you've either been reading for a while or you know me so you know that topic doesn't particularly interest me. I spent my teens having no interest in dating and my college years thinking love was for pussies. I did eventually come around but it took a lot of unpacking the baggage my parents saddled me with before I was comfortable living life unzipped. 

So. Porco Rosso, huh? He's a man cursed to live life as a pig. He's also a great pilot. It's not important why he's a pig or how he became a pig, use your imagination to fill in the blanks. The story here is that he's a pig now.

To save the honor and, well, y'know, virginity, of his young mechanic Flo, he has to engage in a flight battle with a fuck boy American straight out of Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula (a coincidence, it's just the archetype, the movies came out the same year). The same fuck boy spends half the movie tossing cheesy lines at Porco's long time friend, possible one time love, bar owner and big time beaut, Gina, who clearly only has eyes for Porco and is the only one who calls him by his human name, Marco. 

The movie ends with the fuck boy defeated and back in America, Gina sitting alone in her garden as another Joe Hisaishi banger of a theme plays and she looks up. Cut to black.

Ghibli films usually have fairly concrete endings. The family is reunited. The kingdom is saved. The couple is happy. But Porco Rosso isn't your typical Ghibli movie. I'd say this and The Wind Rises, both centering on the art of flight coincidentally, are Miyazaki's most adult fare. I think the theme is why. Miyazaki loves planes. He loves flight. The name Ghibli comes from a plane. If you haven't seen the Miyazaki doc on HBO, I highly recommend it. It's very good.

Porco as a character is stubborn. He's a pig for a reason. He's a bit sexist, set in his ways, he likes to be alone. He knows Gina loves him and he seems to love her back but because he doesn't seem to love himself or forgive himself his actions in the war, he won't allow himself a happy life. The end shot of Gina looking up, knowing that she waits in the garden for Porco to meet her there and knowing that he knows she is waiting for her there, is so hopeful. But can Porco change? Was the love and acceptance he got throughout the movie enough for him to forgive and love himself? We will never know. But we can guess.

Of course I want Porco to meet Gina in the garden. But do I want to have seen it? No. I think what we got was a perfect ending. And I'd love to know if you thought Porco met Gina in the garden or if what she heard was just the passing plane of another.

Next week? A perhaps tougher watch and the only Ghibli movie I saw in theaters at the time of its original release - The Wind Rises! That's right, we're still in the sky! Aviation forever, baby! Or at least for one more week!