Research Project
"Animating 'Ma'
Miyazaki and His Train Scene from Spirited Away”
Abstract
“We have a word for that in Japanese," he said. "It's called Ma. Emptiness. It's there intentionally." (Miyazaki in an Interview with film critic Roger Ebert from 2002) (001)
The Train Scene in Spirited Away, is an almost 2 minutes of moving Painting, it is part of a film, but even without the whole film this can be a stand alone 2 mins short film or in the other hand you can just remove it and the film will still loose no vital plot information.
So here I will discuss how it can be a stand alone film, on the other hand how this scene that has nothing to do with the plot is also the most significant part in the entire film. And most importantly, how does Miyazaki do it.
Introduction
As a Film Animator and Story Teller myself I will put my focus around how Miyazaki connects his audience to his films, while his stories are inherently unbelievable, we still believe they exists, Spirited Away and it’s Train scene is his magic at its finest, we will try to break it down I’m gonna look at, How is this scene that impactful, as a part of the film and or as a stand alone scene,
How both of these aspect add into each other to fullest, the tiny details and narrative build up in the film and in Miyazaki’s work and how he uses “Ma” to maximize this phenomena.
To Understand this I have looked at numerous interviews, Reviews, many books and watch Spirited Away Multiple times, can’t remember the times I have watched and paused the train scene again and again, watched other Miyazaki’s films to further connect the dots, films like Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke to all the way back to the first Studio Ghibli Film, Castle in the Sky and having multiple discussions with other Ghibli Admirers.
I am going to take you all with me to this journey, lets get on this train and find out what Miyazaki has created.