To what end are silent or silenced characters used in Hayao Miyazaki’s films?
What role do these characters take in these films? How can they communicate, if not verbally? How does their silence interact with the themes of these films? I will argue that silent characters are used to express both divinity and disempowerment in characters, to express unexplainable forces, and to contain mysteries. I will argue that Miyazaki’s use of silent characters can be understood from a Shinto perspective - that the folk spirituality of Japan enables a sort of anthropomorphism of objects and animals that Miyazaki uses to evoke astonisment at the strangeness of nature. In general, I will argue that Miyazaki makes use of silent characters to evoke a richness in his worlds, where life, identity, humanity and morality are made fluid.
The ohmus (the giant beetles of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, 1984) are used as a metaphor for nature. The insects of the toxic jungle represent a singular threat to the human communities of the film - their size, numbers and ferocity make them legendary monsters, difficult to deal with, and fearsome. The insects are powerful symbols of impending doom and the impenetrable and alien judgement of nature - they are a pure visual metaphor and a mystery, a challenge, and through silence they maintain these qualities - they seem ineffable. But repeatedly Nausicaa, the protagonist, demonstrates that these creatures can be dealt with peacefully, asserting the ecological message of the film.
the Laputan robots (Laputa: Castle in the Sky, 1986) are similar. They are remnants of a mysterious floating city, an ancient civilization that few people believe ever existed. The first robot we are shown was broken into multiple pieces when it fell to earth; it is kept in a military facility, and is inanimate - until awoken by a spell from its native Laputa. At first, it is seen only as proof that Laputa exists, and is kept deep underground. Colonel Muska, the film’s villain, warns of its vast destructive power. Once it wakes, it tries to escape the facility. The soldiers fear the robot and try to destroy it. It is shown that the robots are capable of massive destruction, as Muska claims. The robot approaches the girl Sheeta, last heir of Laputa, whose spell woke it. However, it seems to gently protect the girl, even as it destroys the fortress and its surrounding countryside.
Later, when they arrive on Laputa, Sheeta and Pazu, the film’s protagonists, encounter another robot, of the same sort, but which is only ever gentle. Though they fear it at first, it acts as a caretaker for Laputa’s gardens, gingerly lifting aside their flying vessel to protect a bird’s nest beneath. The other robots of Laputa are inanimate, seen overgrown with roots and mosses, still protecting the gardens, though they no longer function. like the ohmus and insects of Nausicaa, the robots form a powerful visual symbol for an unknown force - the mysterious temperament of a lost civilization - and their silence maintains this mystery so that it can be revealed as the story progresses.
Nago (a boar god, Princess Mononoke, 1997) is seen corrupted by some poisonous hatred, appearing as a strange insectile demon, covered with wormy growths. He leaves a trail of destruction in his wake, and seems determined to destroy a human village. The protagonist, warrior prince Ashitaka, tries to calm the creature or turn it back, but finds it relentless - he has to kill the creature, and thus he reveals the boar god within. Ashitaka takes an evil wound in the combat, which corrupts him as it did the boar. Ashitaka is expelled from his village - he, too, will be taken for a demon.
Princess Mononoke’s world is one of stark moral relativism: “Idyllic countryside locations become polarised with urban, or industrial, environments, and yet in a film such as Princess Mononoke where discord between the two spaces provides narrative drive there is no simple identification of either as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ (good or evil).” ... “The key point is that such representations appear nostalgic for a time long past, and perhaps lost, yet in many anime examples both images of the past and present are linked with menace and horror as suggested in relation to examples from Studio Ghibli.” (Ruddel, 2007)
Nago’s curse is symptomatic of the themes that plague the changing world of the film - Nago is a creature of an old world of kami (gods and spirits), and is driven mad by a gunshot - a new technology, from a new world of men which seeks to corrupt and destroy those ancient and sacred forces. Later, Ashitaka encounters a tribe of boars, Nago’s people. These refuse to believe that Nago could ever have turned into a demon - they insist that he was beautiful, and call Ashitaka a murderer.
Nago’s silence makes him anonymous - and the mystery of his identity allows him to become a purely demonic presence, an omen - but the later relevation of his true identity creates a clear demonstration of the film’s moral relativism.
Kodama (tree spirits, Princess Mononoke) inhabit the realm of the Forest Spirit. They are pale and transparent creatures, infantile, making rattling noises with their stony heads. Ashitaka first encounters one when he hears the cries of an injured ox-driver, lost in the woods. The ox-driver fears the kodama - but in truth, the kodama are harmless. They seem to lead Ashitaka as he travels through the forest, but he is unsure whether they will lead him to safety or lead him astray. As spirits of the trees, they denote a place that is filled with watching and mysterious creatures, and they indicate the character of a landscape which may or may not be malicious.
The ox-driver also warns Ashitaka about the deer god (the Forest Spirit) - the lord of this magical forest, who resembles a deer with a human face. Ashitaka stumbles upon a sacred pool, and briefly glimpses the deer god through the trees. Later, having suffered a gunshot wound, the wolf princess San returns him to this same pool to be healed by the deer god while he sleeps. The deer god will heal Ashitaka’s gunshot wound, but not his curse. By night, the deer god takes a second form, the nightwalker, a bipedal creature, taller than trees, seemingly made of starlight. Though the deer god never speaks in the film, all revere him, and he is central to many local legends. A local hunter says it is sinful to look upon him. The wolf goddess Moro claims that life and death are his alone. In the film, the the monk Jigo, an agent of the emperor, travels to the forest to assassinate the forest spirit and make war against the forces of nature.
Many characters remain silent in order to disguise a nature that the filmmaker does not wish to express, or wishes for the viewer to reflect upon. Silence is used for characters that exhibit some magical nature - a divinity, or a curse. In divinity, or reverence, it makes the character unknowable, expressing a disconnect between the mortal and the divine, or between humanity and nature.
In curses, the silence is often a part of a larger punishment - these characters have been silenced to demonstrate a difficulty, a loss or failing they may overcome.
Much of Spirited Away (2001) takes place in a bathhouse for spirits, an arcane and unfamiliar place, where humans are unwelcome. Haku, a young boy, acts a sort of guide for the protagonist Chihiro as she navigates this space. Haku is hostile at first, commanding Chihiro to flee. When it becomes clear that she will not be able to leave, he becomes more accomodating with Chihiro, even taking risks for her. He acts as her guide and guardian, helping her to enter the bathouse and to avoid enchantment, and shielding her from the detection of Yubaba, the witch who runs the bathhouse. When Chihiro encounters Haku again, he is hostile once more. In private, he looks out for her - Yubaba controls those in her employ by taking away their names, but Haku helps Chihiro to remember hers, to maintain her identity. In public, he is cold, and he acts as Yubaba's henchman. In his true form - as a white dragon - she sends him away on missions. Chihiro wonders if there are two Hakus.
When Haku returns from his mission, he is injured, cursed, and voiceless: Chihiro finds him animalistic, unable to return to his human form. In this form, he is vulnerable, a vessel for Chihiro's love and charity. Spirited Away shows Chihiro's journey to maturity, and it is in her relationship with characters that are silent or silenced that we can see this development: she speaks for characters that cannot speak. When Chihiro reveals to Haku his true name, he returns to his human form in order to speak with her - his speechlessness in the dragon form mirrors his dispowerment at the hands of Yubaba and the humans who destroyed the river he once represented.
In his first appearance, No-Face, a masked and shadowy spirit, stands silently on the bridge that leads into the bathhouse. Despite his ominous appearance, he is ignored by all those around him, and only Chihiro seems to see him. Later, she encounters him briefly, standing in the gardens, silent and alone in the rain, and she leaves a door open so that he might enter. This single act of kindness seems to resonate with him. No-Face has magical powers that seem to befit a mysterious intruder - he can become visible or invisible at will. Later, Chihiro and Lynn are forced to clean the most filthy tub in the bathhouse, and Chihiro is sent to get a Herbal Soak token with which to clean the bath, but the foreman refuses her, saying that these tokens are too valuable. Later, No-Face presents her with a handful of such tokens, though she only needed the one: we see that No-Face cannot understand what is appropriate, and what is excessive. No-Face is a lonely spirit, he does not seem to belong anywhere. His silence seems to express his isolation, his otherness. Through her interactions with No-Face and Haku and other silent or silenced characters, we can see Chihiro express a charitability, humility, and develop a maturity.
Through an understanding of traditional Japanese religious beliefs and folk wisdom we can gain insight into the nature and motivations of these characters. Boyd and Nikimura (2001) describe Shinto beliefs and motifs as presented in Spirited Away: “Chihiro also encounters kami of animals and vegetation, such as small baby chicks and a white sumo-like radish kami, reflections of the Shinto notion that all phenomena have kami potential. Miyazaki himself refers to this idea: "In my grandparents' time," he says, "it was believed that spirits [kami] existed everywhere -- in trees, rivers, insects, wells, anything. My generation does not believe this, but I like the idea that we should all treasure everything because spirits might exist there, and we should treasure everything because there is a kind of life to everything."
Their silence allows them to be presented ambiguously, and thus revered or distrusted as strangers are revered and distrusted in Japanese folklore: “Inhabitants of traditional villages used to recognize many kinds of strangers. Visitors from the outside world included smiths, carpenters, masons, roofers, and other craftsmen, peddlers of medicines, fancy goods peddlers, traders, horse
dealers, shamans, priests and other religious practitioners, traveling drama players, story tellers, and so on. Smiths and other craftsmen, as well as the religious practitioners, were attributed with mystical powers (Takeuchi Igdob). The fact that newcomers and outsiders who become holders are typically prosperous, powerful, highly skilled, or possess valued and rare objects is matched by the fact that they are regarded as dangerous for some reason. In this we see the underlying pattern of ambiguity”. (Yoshida, 1981)
In general, Miyazaki uses silence in characters to create or disguise a dual nature: many of these characters have an apparent nature that disguises a hidden nature, which can be revealed later in a way which explores the themes of these films.
(I wrote this for an Animation History class in 2013, it even has a bibliography. lux)
Bibliography
Caroline Ruddell. 2007. “Breaking Boundaries: The Representation of Split Identity in Anime.” http://journal.animationstudies.org/caroline-ruddell-breaking-boundaries-the-representation-of-split-identity-in-anime/
James W. Boyd and Tetsuya Nishimura. 2004. “Shinto Perspectives in Miyazaki's Anime Film Spirited Away.” http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/Vol8No2/boydShinto.htm
Teigo Yoshida. 1981. “The Stranger as God: The Place of the Outsider in Japanese Folk Religion” Ethnology, Vol. 20, No. 2 (Apr., 1981), pp. 87-99 (accessed through JSTOR)
Debra J. Occhi. 2012. “Wobbly Aesthetics, Performance, and Message: Comparing Japanese Kyara with their Anthropomorphic Forebears”
Asian Ethnology, Vol. 71, No. 1 (2012), pp. 109-132 (accessed through JSTOR)
gyi outta hea