This work was released in Japan in 2006. It was directed by Miyazaki Hayao's son Goro Miyazaki and was his first directorial work. Therefore, the problem of this work is particularly prominent. The theme is a discussion about life and death. However, in order to correspond to the seemingly grand theme, the actual depth of the discussion is not enough. It is more of a warning, using the extreme behavior of the villain "Spider" to set off the escape from death, and to deepen the positive image of the protagonist who has a profound understanding of the truth. I will explain my point of view from several aspects, and this article will try to be as spoiler-free as possible.

There is no answer to the foreshadowing

The excellent world view is not fully utilized

The motivations of the characters are unreasonable and lack of causality

The villain’s The image and story are more facial-like

The time difference between multi-character and multi-threading is obvious in the middle and later stages

Discussion about life and human beings

Personal summary

There is no answer to the foreshadowing

The two most prominent points are the dragon fight at the beginning and Arren's father-killing. The dragon legend and plague from the opening king's meeting echo the settings of the subsequent stories. The world's great cataclysm was not reflected, there were only some ruins, but the cities passing through were the same as usual. The future outcome of Patricide was not mentioned until the end of the later period, and the reason was not convincing and was a bit too far-fetched.

The excellent world view has not been fully utilized

It is also the content explained at the beginning. Dragons are fighting and plagues are rampant. The world is shrouded in disaster and destruction, but there is nothing more than words. I saw something strange about people. People in the city were living their usual lives. At first I thought it was a grand theme describing the relationship between countries or the return of plague and dragons, but I didn’t expect that in the end the story focused on a few small characters. This is tantamount to ruining the majestic atmosphere created at the beginning, and the opening failed to leave enough suspense, making the early stages of the story less eye-catching. There is only a slight sense of a fantasy world when exploring the city, but the city is reduced to a passing scene, and the scene without enough content is just a decoration at best.

Nuo is a big world, but the story is only set in two places: a hut on the plain and an ancient castle on the seaside near the forest. This inevitably makes the fantasy world view of this work completely wasted, and also reduces the size of this work by a large margin. The male protagonist Arren seems to be looking for redemption, but his series of actions are confusing. Let’s talk about the encounter in more detail. In short, the background story is not attractive enough when the perspective is fixed on the small character. The plot itself is poor and this problem is magnified.

The characters’ motivations are unreasonable and lack causality

To give two examples, halfway through the process, the male protagonist Arren wanted the heroine to reveal the fact of patricide. Not only did he not explain why, he was also vague. The expression of the words can actually convince the heroine. Although the past experiences of the heroine here seem understandable, this casual statement is still too perfunctory.

Another example is when Arren leaves the plains hut, abandoning his mount and leaving without weapons. This is inexplicable no matter how you think about it. Although it is not as understandable as injuring others, the motivation for the character's actions is still not obvious, resulting in a very poor viewing experience. This is obviously a script that is forcibly set for the advancement of the subsequent plot. Behavior that cannot create reasonable motivations will create a gap for the audience.

If you don’t even remember the way you came, and you still say you can go either way, doesn’t it seem like you’re treating the audience like a fool? Later, there was the act of drinking the black liquid given by the stranger directly. These are all unexplainable, and the romantic relationship between the character and the audience was forcibly severed. These are all very disappointing to me.

The villain's image and story are relatively realistic

First of all, the villain appears in an ancient castle, and he appears while reading an ancient book. The villain's minion, Cunning Rabbit, is quite realistic. You can See similar characters in many stories. But this wizard named "Spider" has a big problem. It is obvious that "Spider" and the archmage "Sparrowhawk" know each other, but the stories between them are not explained. This villain has been acting towards a single goal from beginning to end, and the disaster of the entire world and the return of the dragon are only caused by this person? And he only has a team of about ten people under his command? Does this villain seem too barren and weak?

This is also completely unworthy of the fantasy world constructed by the original novel. From the character stories to the villain design, nothing demonstrates the sense of imagination and bizarreness that a fantasy world should have. Regarding the use of "real names" in the original work, this work is too mechanical and does not integrate well with the plot. There are also many elements of the original work that are not "tributed", such as Junker Island Mage Academy, Arren's Island, and the wizard's magic setting. , The Return of the Dragon, etc. are not explained clearly in the plot, they are just mentioned casually or completely ignored.

The time difference between multi-character and multi-threading is obvious in the middle and later stages

This is the most prominent part of the five problems, and it only improves from the middle stage until all the characters gather on the roof of the castle. During this period, a series of events occurred, from Arren's drowning to Tenar's capture, Theru's search for the Archmage, and the battle scenes following Shadow's search for the castle.

There is a huge time difference in the way the film is presented. It feels like a turn-based performance. The actions of two people at the same time are out of sync, and the switching between shots is very blunt and direct.

Discussion about life and human beings

Doesn’t this movie have one advantage? Yes, discussions about life and death, the opposition between nature and human beings, and the balance of all things in the world are the core themes of this work. These elements undoubtedly deepen the content of this work, but supervisor Goro Miyazaki is very careful in handling these elements. Far inferior to his father. Regarding the overall rhythm of the story, these "truths" appear in places that should not appear. Everyone can use lip service, but it must be used in the right place. There are several times in the film where I am embarrassed to say A "word of truth" came out, but it played an incredible role. It's as embarrassing as if I had no eloquence skills at all and passed the test directly at a key plot point with all the eloquence skills.

Personal summary

This work can be said to be a typical case of starting high and going low. The entire story and script can even be said to have ruined this excellent scene and music, and separated the plot from the original work. This work is an almost perfect stage for a fantasy story. If there are more intense plot twists in the film, this work will be an excellent fantasy adventure story.

According to the behind-the-scenes production news I saw, Goro Miyazaki often had conflicts with his father Hayao Miyazaki when making animations, and Hayao Miyazaki also strongly opposed this work. After the release of the work, The quality is really unsatisfactory.

The original work is an adaptation of the fantasy novel series of the same name by Ursula Le Guin in 1968, and the author is also known as one of the three masters of European and American fantasy novels. The background of this work was developed by a director who had never directed A new director who has already produced a lot of films is a little too harsh.