I read a most depressing article at a news site I frequent. It's not like anything is particularly new (although one comment by Miyazaki is especially sad), but just thought I'd share it because it comments on American taste (or lack of?):
Animator Miyazaki finds U.S. tough market to crack
Kazunori Takada
TOKYO — Domestic success for his latest box office hit, the animated movie "Spirited Away," probably won't be duplicated in America, Japan's Hayao Miyazaki says.
The popular director's "Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi" — whose English title is "Spirited Away" — marked a new Japanese record of 26.1 billion yen ($216.7 million) in total ticket sales last week, outstripping Hollywood's "Titanic" after a mere three months.
The movie, the story of a little girl named Chihiro who gets trapped in a fantasy world and struggles to find her way back to her parents, scuppered "Titanic's" Japanese record audience of 16.8 million viewers in late September.
Miyazaki's latest film is due to make its overseas debut in theaters in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan next month and is expected to be shown in France in January.
But the 50-year-old director said no schedule had yet been set for a debut in the United States, a market in which he had only modest hopes for success.
"I think a small number of the people will understand the film and that is more than enough," he said. "Some think being popular in the United States is the best thing, but I think it is wrong to think that way. Movies are said to be international, but I don't think so."
Miyazaki's last movie, "Princess Mononoke" in 1997 was wildly popular in Japan but did not fare well in the United States. It is a complex tale set in ancient Japan and was seen as an allegory for man's destruction of his environment.
"It was awful," Miyazaki said of the movie's reception in America. "Though some U.S. newspapers said the reason for its failure was its brutality, people in the U.S. cinema industry understood that there was a reason behind the violent scenes."
"Spirited Away" was initially aimed at children but has become popular among all age groups in Japan after opening in theaters on July 20.
Miyazaki said he wanted to explain the meaning of life through the adventures of Chihiro, who encounters a slew of weird characters — such as an old man with six arms — on her trip from the world of fantasy back to reality.
Another character, a "faceless" phantom, was intended as metaphor for modern Japan's search for identity and angst.
Miyazaki said he didn't really know why the movie became such a huge hit, but hoped that it would have staying power.
"I wanted a make a movie which the children who watch it will want to show to their children when they grow up."
