Hayao Miyazaki is a singular director, and perhaps the greatest anime director of all time. However, back in 1995, he was struggling to create what would become one of his masterpieces, Princess Mononoke. So, as a side-project, he directed the seven-minute long music video for Japanese rock band Chage and Aska's single "On Your Mark." However, the short film has all the earmarks of his signature style, and it's breathtaking as a result.
"On Your Mark," told in a non-linear format and completely without dialog, follows two police officers and the angelic girl they try to save. In the background, Miyazaki leaves hints that the world is enduring what looks like a long period of strife, but the film keeps things fairly intimate throughout. Even without spoken words, the action is every bit as lush, expressive, and affecting as so much of the director's work — you really start to root for the main characters, a true sign of Miyazaki's skill. We almost wish it were stretched out into a feature film.
Comments
This is great. Thanks for sharing!
By CH23 on 06.07.14 5:03am
Yeah, that was gorgeous. The song was surprisingly quite good. I’d love to see a film based on this as well.
By Nocturnal Rendition on 06.07.14 5:30am
I’d love to see a Miyazaki remake of every movie ever filmed :)
By Markiz_von_schnitzel on 06.07.14 5:37am
The song was terrible. Anime was good.
By NoClipMode on 06.07.14 10:46am
The plot in this clip is better than in most hollywood flicks.
By Forbius on 06.07.14 12:04pm
Chage & Aska takes me way back. The video is fantastic as well! I got a little choked up at the end. So amazingly done!
By Chieze O on 06.08.14 2:39am
I wish he had made a sport film, promoting the World Cup or something.
By nol2013 on 06.07.14 5:42am
Why would he make a film about the World Cup. Rather tan supporting it, he could make a film against it by portraying the Brazilian population and their current situation.
By Harry* on 06.07.14 11:47am
That would be quite interesting! Especially the portrayal of the favelas and the residents there.
By StigtriX on 06.07.14 11:55am
Neat idea! We could also stop all good things we are doing because bad things exist. The world isn’t perfect yet so why celebrate?
By Virge on 06.09.14 3:13pm
After a long ass day and night of coding and trying to learn Swift on my Apple. This was an awesome break. Now I sleep dreaming about little sweet seraphins.. I am Black but I still wish Hayao Miyazaki was my uncle. :-)
By kingcomtech on 06.07.14 6:17am
Big fan of Miyazaki after seeing Princess Mononoke, which is my favourite. This looks great, and makes me wish he did a whole movie in a futuristic sci-fi dystopian akira-like setting
By mojohojo on 06.07.14 6:35am
2 out of 3 ain’t bad. If you haven’t seen it you should check out Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087544/
By infest on 06.09.14 2:01pm
I remember the first few times I saw this many years ago how I teared up at the end and thought how amazing is Miyazaki for making me feel so attached to these characters in only 6 minutes. Truly a masterpiece.
By AlpTkz on 06.07.14 6:38am
And damn, I teared up again.
By AlpTkz on 06.07.14 6:45am
Having seen this for the first time today, I did tear up a little at the end. Great stuff.
By sky04 on 06.07.14 8:26pm
Man, this got me too.. It was amazing.
By mofongo on 06.08.14 9:29am
This video has been around for a long time. I’m surprised so many western people (some even Miyazaki’s fans) haven’t seen it yet. Btw, is it coincidence that the try-and-repeat plot has similarity with ‘Edge of Tomorrow’?
By prdn23 on 06.07.14 6:45am
well it an only be a coincidence, i don’t see hollywood stupid actors like tom watching a short film from what is considered the best animated films filmmaker. He probably never heard of him.
By etienne.vandamme.9 on 06.07.14 7:07am
You mean Groundhog Day which came out 2 years earlier?
By Evanz on 06.07.14 8:16am
You mean all the time loops that came before that? Starting a least with Malcolm Jameson “Doubled and Redoubled” story in the 1941? ;-)
By kuznetsov on 06.07.14 10:16am
Why didn’t u guys recall the classic “Back to the future”?
I’ve never seen that 1941 movie or the supposedly lame “Edge of tomorrow” but almost all new movies borrow some original ideas from the pass. Not that Hollywood has ran out of creativity, it’s just easier that way, plus they do make better movies sometimes, especially in terms of modern special effects.
As for this motif, I’ve seen Groundhog Day (which is also lame because of Bill Murray in it) and i don’t think this clip should be categorized in that type. In this short anime, Miyazaki didn’t need any logic for how the ending alternated, unlike BTTF and such whose story was built upon that kind of logic. He just used the second less-likely ending for the artistic purpose, which is, in my understanding, to show that the world could be more peaceful, and platonic regardless of the brutal reality. This reminds me about the same technique was used in Martin Scorsese’s “King of comedy”, the different is, this time the real ending was implied.
By nsonha on 06.07.14 3:46pm
It might.. Edge of Tomorrow was originally a light novel by a Japanese author, Hiroshi Sakurazaka.
By dystopiate on 06.07.14 11:12am
For me these are more alternate endings. The first is pretty quick as they discover the angel and release her right away, In the 2nd, the scientists take her, they try to rescue her but crash the truck, etc.
By AlpTkz on 06.10.14 4:31am
The animation is great…the song a bit too Jefferson-Starshippy for me.
By gp4design on 06.07.14 7:46am