My thoughts on Ghibli's "The Boy and the Heron" and Toho's "Godzilla Minus One" for CNN and The Straits Times

Two Japanese-made films premiered within a week of each other in US cinemas last December, "Godzilla Minus One" and "The Boy and the Heron," with very little publicity. Both are now huge commercial successes: "Heron" is the highest grossing non-franchise anime feature ever in the US; "G-1" the highest grossing Japanese live action film. Both are also critically acclaimed and Oscar-nominated. 

For Miyazaki, a win would be his second after 2003's "Spirited Away." For the "G-1" VFX team, led by writer-director Takashi Yamazaki, a win would be a first for any film in the 70 year-old Godzilla series and would make Yamazaki the first director to win for VFX since Stanley Kubrick, who was so awarded in 1968 for "2001: A Space Odyssey."

• I spoke to CNN about Miyazaki's first Golden Globe earlier this year and the chances that he will receive his second Academy Award (not that he cares all that much) at next month's Oscar ceremony--an occurrence that, I'm told by some Academy voters, looks even likelier by the day. Here's an excerpt:

<<Roland Kelts, author of “JapanAmerica: How Japanese Pop Culture Has Invaded the US,” told CNN that Studio Ghibli’s Golden Globes win “bodes very well” for a second Miyazaki Oscar win in March. “(Firstly), there’s Miyazaki’s age and the possibility that this is his final film,” Kelts said.

He adds: “Artistically, its closest competition (‘Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse’) is a sequel while ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is so radically original and inventive that it’s mind-bendingly hard to follow.”>>

• I spoke to The Straits Times about the lack of marketing behind the two films and the extent to which digital media (streaming, file-sharing, social media) have helped Japanese IP reach new audiences without the cash and localized campaigns that native US producers can afford. 

*Crucial note: Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki managed to convince Miyazaki to sell their catalogue to Netflix (globally) and Max (US only) in 2020. The titles became available in the spring of that year--right when the Covid pandemic trapped everyone at home. Suzuki says he was persuaded to stream Ghibli films after reading an interview with Woody Allen, who created two films, "Cafe Society" and "Wonder Wheel," with Amazon Studios/Prime Video. Suzuki in turn persuaded Miyazaki to say yes by telling the director that they needed the money to finish "The Boy and the Heron." Excerpt:

<<Japan is also getting a powerful, if unexpected, assist from how shifts in digital technology revolutionized consumer behavior, says Roland Kelts, author of pop culture book “Japanamerica.”

“Japan isn’t really promoting its soft power wares any more or better than it used to,” Kelts argues. “What happened instead is that the demand kept building over the past 10 years and the technology rose to serve it – especially, in this case, streaming media.”

Also, J-content, especially manga and anime, “saw huge surges during the pandemic”, Kelts observes. “The availability of content only one-click away made it seem both less mysterious and foreign, and more immediately satisfying.”

That said, the venerable Toho, creator of the Godzilla franchise, was indeed taking new risks with its latest monster outing. “Case in point,” Kelts tells me, “Toho saw fit to release Godzilla Minus One in North America less than a month after its domestic release – and in Japanese. With subtitles! Astonishingly, it hasn’t hurt the film at the box office.”

Japan sometimes succeeds despite its idiosyncrasies. Kelts notes that The Boy And The Heron was promoted with just a single poster in Japan last summer and not much else abroad. Godzilla Minus One dropped with so little fanfare that long-time fans in the US didn’t know it was coming until it was out in theaters, he adds.>>

I'm working on a story about the other reasons "G-1" and "Heron" resonate with global audiences. Will drop soon, I hope.