Porco Rosso

I saw Porco Rosso and fell in love with it for the first time in eighth grade, when my obsession with Hayao Miyazaki’s films had just started. Now older and somewhat wiser, I rewatched it with a close friend in a quiet book cafe on Nguyen Bieu Street. Once again, I fell violently in love with Porco Rosso, but this time, it’s probably ten times more passionate than four years ago.

Porco Rosso is an odd one among Miyazaki’s creations at Ghibli. Instead of having a young and spirited protagonist trying to navigate the vast world that he or she is entering, the film is about a WW I veteran struggling to deal with pain, regret and loss. Instead of telling the story of growing up and finding who we are, the film is about returning to who we once were. With an older cast than a usual Ghibli film, Porco Rosso has more adult jokes and nuances. Characters’ thoughts, emotions and relationships are mostly inexplicit and implied not told while their backgrounds and endings are left hanging ambiguously. We never know for certain the result of Gina’s wishes or Porco’s escape, let alone his life after the arrival of the Italian air force. Like Fio said as the credit begins to roll: it is her and Gina’s secret.

Porco Rosso and The Wind Rises are two most obvious examples of Miyazaki’s obsession with airplanes. During Porco Rosso’s two-hour run-time, there is hardly a frame that doesn’t include an aircraft of some sort, even in minor scenes like Porco going to the cinema. The audience is treated with beautifully drawn long sequences of skilled pilots racing in the sky, making impossible moves with their planes. All the steps of creating or fixing a plane appear in the movie, from designing and sketching to producing small components and assembling. Every notable person in Porco Rosso has something to do with aviation. The entire plot centers around an Italian air ace and his isolation from the world after a dogfight during WWI in which only he survived. Fio, one of the few people whom Porco let into his life, is an engineer at her grandfather’s workshop in Milan, where Porco visits to have his plane fixed. Gina, Porco’s long-time friend and possible love interest, has three deceased husbands, all of whom were pilots. Her third husband, Bellini, was Porco close friend and died in the dogfight just two days after the wedding. Porco Rosso could be seen as Miyazaki’s love letter to everyone in the aviation industry, especially the underrepresented and underappreciated women.

Porco Rosso makes me nostalgic about a time that I never lived in. The film was serene, soothing, and melancholic while also passionate and mysterious. When coupled with Joe Hisaishi’s spot on soundtrack, everything is perfect. If you haven’t seen Porco Rosso before, give it a try as soon as possible. The film probably fits for just about any occasion and any group of people. Watch it once and you’ll definitely want to repeat that experience many times over.