Ursula’s response to Earth Sea Animation
(repost) )’S first-hand feedback from Goro Miyazaki’s "War of God" as a response to the Japanese fans who wrote to me for this animation, and of course also for the rest of the world For those who are interested.
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The words written in the front:
The authors have almost no control over the films adapted from their works. A generally accepted rule is that once a license agreement is signed, the original author can be deemed to have disappeared. Those "creative consultants" titles are meaningless. Except for the scriptwriter, any original author has no control over any content in the film. So don't ask the original author, "Why do they want...?", because she herself is also at a loss.
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brief historical review:
About twenty years ago, Mr. Hayao Miyazaki wrote to me expressing his interest based on what was published at that time Three local sea novels make an animated film. At that time I didn't know his work, only Disney-style animation, and I didn't like it. So I did not agree.
Six or seven years ago, my friend Vonda N. McIntyre (Vonda N. McIntyre, who won the Nebula Hugo Double Prize in 1978 with "Dream Snake"," she also wrote a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars Novel) mentioned to me and watched "My Neighbor Totoro" with me. From then on, I immediately became a fan of Hayao Miyazaki until now. I personally think he is the same genius as Akira Kurosawa or Fellini.
A few years later, when I learned that Masako Shimizu, the excellent Japanese translator of Jihai, knew Mr. Miyazaki Hayao, I told him through Ms. Masako that if he was still interested in Jihai, I will be happy to discuss with him about making a film.
Soon I got a pleasant response from Mr. Toshio Suzuki from Studio Ghibli. In our correspondence, I expressed my strong desire not to fundamentally make unwise changes to the story or the characters, because this set of books is already well known by readers in Japan and around the world. Of course, in order for him to enjoy full freedom and imagination in the production of the film, I have suggested that Mr. Miyazaki might be able to use the ten to fifteen-year gap between the stories of the first two books: because we don’t know the grid. In addition to becoming an archmage, what did De also do in those years, so that Mr. Miyazaki can also make Gerde do whatever he wants him to do. (Other than that, I have not made such a recommendation to any other filmmakers).
In August 2005, Mr. Toshio Suzuki and Mr. Hayao Miyazaki from Studio Ghibli paid a pleasant visit to my home and discussed related matters with my son and I (who is in charge of the copyright related matters of Earth Sea).
At that time, they explained that Mr. Miyazaki wanted to retire from film production, and the family and studio hoped that Mr. Hayao’s son Goro, someone who had never made a film, would make this film. We are very disappointed and worried, but we have got the impression that it is actually a guarantee that this project will always be controlled by Mr. Jun. Based on this understanding, we signed the agreement.
At that time, the work related to the film had actually begun: we got a poster of the boy and the dragon as a gift, as well as a sketch of Hort Town drawn by Mr. Jun, and a sketch by the Ghibli artists Complete version.
Since then, the work related to the film has proceeded very, very quickly. We soon learned that Mr. Jun did not participate in any production of the film at all.
I once received a very touching letter from him, and then I also received a letter from Mr. Wu Lang. I answered them as best I could.
I regret that the anger and disappointment that crossed the Pacific was generated during the production of the film.
I was told that Mr. Jun is not actually retired, but is now working on another film. This increased my disappointment. I hope to forget these unpleasant things.
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About the video:
Since my son and I could not go to Tokyo to attend the premiere of the film, Studio Ghibli generously gave us a copy and organized a private show for us in the city center on Sunday, August 6, 2006. . This is a pleasant experience. Many friends came with their children. It's great to get the children's feedback. Some of the younger children were frightened, some didn't seem to understand what was going on, but the older ones were cooler.
After the screening, we went to eat at my son's house. The little dog Eleanor performed very well, and Toshio Suzuki also performed a headstand on the lawn.
When I left, Mr. Goro Miyazaki asked me "Do you like this movie?" It was not an easy question to answer in that atmosphere, so I replied, "Yes. This is not my novel, this is your movie." . This is a good film.”
At the time I thought I was just saying this to him and the few people standing around. For such a relatively private question, I had hoped that such a relatively private answer would not be made public. I mention these here only because Mr. Goro has already mentioned it in his blog.
So, based on the spirit that everything will be made public soon, I will give a complete first-hand report of this film:
Most of them are beautiful. However, in this fast-finished cartoon, many of the branch lines have also been cut off. The film does not have the exquisite detail of "My Neighbor Totoro" or the magnificence of "Spirited Away". It can leave some impression, but overall it is relatively ordinary and not outstanding.
Most of them are also quite exciting. But this excitement is maintained by violence, and it has reached a level that I think is out of the spirit of the original.
I think most of it is not coherent. This may be because I have been trying to use the story in my book to confirm the completely different story I was watching, and I was being caught by characters with the same name as my book, but with completely different temperament, experience, and destiny. Confused
Of course, a film should not try to copy a novel exactly-these are two completely different arts, two completely different narrative methods. Great changes may have to be made between the two. However, a certain degree of loyalty to the characters of the novel and the main line of the story. For such a film of the same name that is claimed to be based on a novel that has been published for more than 40 years, it should not be an excessive requirement to report such expectations. Bar.
American and Japanese filmmakers both treat these books as deposits of names and concepts. They have taken a few words from here and there, and replaced the original story with completely different plots, but they did nothing. Coherence is also inconsistent. I think this is not only disrespect for the original work, but also disrespect for readers and viewers.
I also feel that the "information" of the film is a bit too artificial, because although the information is usually directly quoted from the original works, the statements about life, death, balance, etc. are not based on the characters and actions in the original works. No matter how correct their meaning is, they are not what the book and the characters express. They are not "earned hard", but rather appear in the film as nagging preaching. In the first three books of Di Hai, these information are occasional flashes of thoughts. I don't think they will appear in such a straightforward form.
The sense of right and wrong in the original work is also ambiguous in the film. For example, in the film, Arren's motive for stabbing his father to death is inexplicable and too random: the explanation in the film that the crime was committed by the dark shadow or the subsequent nonsense is not convincing. Why did this boy split into two? We have no idea about this. This idea actually came from "The Master of Earth Sea", but in that book, we know how Gerd has a shadow that has always followed him, and we also know the reason, and in the end, we also know that shadow. Who the hell is it? These mysteries in our hearts cannot be eliminated simply by wielding a magic sword.
But in the film, the evil comfortably has the specific appearance of a bad guy—Cob the wizard (Kumo in Japanese), and he can be killed all at once to solve all the problems.
In modern fantasy (whether in the literary sense or in the government sense), killing is the usual way to resolve the so-called war between justice and evil. But my book does not consider this kind of warfare, nor does it intend to provide simple answers to over-simplified questions.
Although I think the dragon in my book should be more beautiful, I still appreciate the extraordinary way that Wu Lang shows the dragon to retract its wings. The animals he imagined behaved very softly and kindly—I like the expressive ears of the Llama. I also like the scenes of farming, fetching water, horse riding, etc., all of which give the film a simple and peaceful atmosphere-this kind of change in the constant conflict and the pace of "action" is very wise. At least in these scenes, I recognized my earth and sea.
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The problem of color:
The vast majority of people in the Earth Sea are people of color, and white people are a backward and marginal group of people. The setting I made is of course based on moral considerations, and the target is also for young readers in America and Europe. Traditionally European heroes are white by convention—this was a self-explanatory universal axiom in 1968—that dark skin was often associated with evil. By simply subverting this psychological expectation, this is also a contribution to the destruction of prejudice that I can do as a novelist.
While the producers of the American TV series advertised that they did not discriminate against skin color, they drastically reduced the proportion of people of color in the land and sea. For this, I have already lashed out at this method of bleaching the earth and sea, and I have not forgiven them.
In Japan, the problem is different. I cannot raise the issue of ethnicity in Japan because I know almost nothing about the situation there. But I know that an animated film is almost impossible to break away from the constant customs inherent in an animated film. In animated films, the vast majority of characters-in the eyes of Europeans and Americans-are white. I was told that Japanese audiences had different perceptions when they watched. I was told that they would think Gerd’s skin tone was darker than the skin tone of my own eyes. I hope so. Most of the characters in the film are too white to me, but at least there are some nice tan and beige mixed in. In addition, Tenar's blond hair and blue eyes are also correct, because she is a minority from the Kargish Islands.
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When will we see "War of Geed" or "Legend of the Earth Sea" in the United States?
You have to wait until the episode copyright contract with that group of TV dramatists expires: that is to say, it will be 2009 at the earliest. well! There are dogs in the manger (There are dogs in the manger). Let me
quote a basic introduction:
Esula. Le Guin (UrsulaK. LeGuin),
an important American fantasy science fiction and feminist literature writer, was born in 1929. Her father, Alfred Kroeber, is an anthropologist, and her mother, Theodora Kroeber, a psychologist and writer. She came from a scholarly family and was baptized by multiculturalism since she was a child. He has authored more than 20 novels, 10 collections of short stories, 7 collections of poems, 4 collections of reviews, and more than 10 books for children; he also compiled selected essays and engaged in translation, including the translation of Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching into English. Won the National Book Award, the Horn Book Award, the Newbury Award, the World Fantasy Award, the Track Award, the Nebula Award, the Hugo Award, and the Little James. Tiptree Award, Kafka Award, Pusuka Award... etc., as well as honors such as the SFWA Master and the Los Angeles Times Robert Kirsch Lifetime Achievement Award.
Her fantasy growth novel series "Earth Sea Six Parts", "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Legend of Narnia" are juxtaposed as fantasy classics. The science fiction novels "The Left Hand of Darkness" and "Nothing" are also classics forever in the minds of science fiction fans. The topics discussed in the novel, from self-growth and identity, to the discussion of social systems and gender issues, are all included, giving people a broad and deep space for reflection in the graceful and tranquil narrative style. Western literature critic Harlow. Buren listed her as one of the classic American writers, and the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami is also a fan of her books.
This series is one of the classics of western fantasy literature, and it is as famous as Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and "Chronicles of Narnia" by CS Lewis (CS Lewis). The meaning of the work is different from the Western Christian spirit, and rich in Taoist thoughts of Chinese Laozi; it does not emphasize the dual values of the opposition of good and evil, but conveys the concept of "balance" and the same source of yin and yang. This series explores the psychological process of young people’s growth through the background of fantasy and adventure, and uses rich metaphors to deeply depict the various puzzles and crises that young people face in the process of development.
In addition, the plot
theater version is based on the third part of the Earth Sea series "The Farthest Shore" (The Farthest Shore / 1972), which talks about the journey of the Archmage Sparrowhawk and the young Prince Yinglard to pursue the source of disturbing the balance of the Earth and Sea world.
And the fourth part "Earth Sea Orphans" (Tehanu/1990), tells the story of the heroine Tian Na in the second part "The Tomb" who rescued a girl whose face was burned and then reunited with a sparrowhawk.
But judging from the quotation from the poem and theme song lyrics of the first volume of "A Wizard of Earthsea" (1968):
[quote]Only in silence the word,
only in dark the light,
only in dying life:
bright the hawk's flight on the empty sky.
-The Creation of Ea[/quote]
Another clue in the theater version, that is, the theme of Ya-Ban's "pursuing one's own soul", which is the same as that in the first movie The Great Master Sparrow Eagle Escape and Search The theme of returning to my inner shadow is the same. So the theatrical version actually includes the first, third, and fourth content.
In addition, let me talk about the domestic Chinese translation of Le Guin's novels:
Earth Sea Series 6:
Earth Sea Wizard / Earth Sea Tomb / Earth Sea Beyond the Earth / Earth Sea Orphans / Earth Sea Story Collection / Earth Sea Strange Wind
The Earthsea Cycle:
A Wizard of Earthsea/ The Tombs of Atuan/ The Farthest Shore/ Tehanu/ Tales from Earthsea: Short Stories/ The Other Wind
has been published by People’s Literature Publishing House. "Wind" has not been introduced.
The Hein series
"The Left Hand of Darkness" (1969) was published in the 1999 "Science Fiction World Bonus", and SFW will launch a separate book
"The Telling" (The Telling /2000) in the second half of this year . It has been published by Rising Stars In June this year, the agency launched the single-line book
"The Plane of Change" short story series.
Part of it was published in the August 2005 issue of "Science Fiction World Translation Edition". The complete single-line book was released by Rising Star Publishing in April this year.
There is also "Wild Child". The short and medium articles were published in the "Science Fiction World Translation Edition".
Her other feature-length masterpiece "Nothing" will be released as a separate book by the world of science fiction in the second half of this year.
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