Porco Rosso or Kurenai no Buta / 紅の豚, which roughly translates as "The Crimson Pig" or "The Red Pig", its a 1992 film by Hayao Miyazaki, a homanage to the early days of aviation and cinema.The film tells the story of an famous Italian war pilot, who during one of his battles in World War One misteriously turns into a pig. Years after, during The Great Depression, He makes his living in facist Italy by flying a crimson seaplane battling seaplane pirates. Said pirates, hire an American mercenary to take him down and the story takes off from there. Set in the Adriatic sea, Porco Rosso is one of Studio Ghibli's more characteristic work.
Has Examples of
Acoustic License: Played straight and averted. Sometimes, people communicate plane-to-plane via morse code, as they did in real life. Other times, they simply shout, which in real life would have been impossible.
Betty and Veronica: Gina, Porco's old friend who's always been in love with him and was always waiting for him, and Fio, Porco's young and feisty mechanic who also has feelings for him. They never meet until the end of the film and become good friends. The ending narration is deliberately ambiguous as to which one Porco chooses though the circumstances imply it was Gina.
Gina has to choose between Porco and Curtis, an American pilot who proposes to her. She makes it clear her choice is Porco.
Cool Plane: Porco's Savoia S-21 is one of the most beautiful planes on film and Curtis' Curtis R3C-2 is based on the airplane that Jimmy Doolittle flew to win the 1925 Schneider Cup.
Also averted by the Sky Pirates motley collection of flying contraptions, though those are all caricatures of genuine aircraft as well.
Homage: Porco's vision of a great procession of dead war pilots ascending to heaven in their planes was inspired by a Roald Dahl short story, incidentally providing a Genius Bonus for those who know Dahl himself was an Adriatic fighter pilot in WWII.
In Love with Love/Meet Cute: Curtis, who proposes to Gina and Fio upon meeting them at different points of the film. Gina quickly refuses him in favor of Porco, while Fio's hand in marriage is set up as Curtis's prize during a duel between Porco and Curtis.
I Work Alone: Porco's refusal to join the Italian navy air force.
Little Stowaway: Fio on Porco's plane. She claims she needs to go with him to ensure it runs properly after repairs—and pretending to be his hostage may prevent the secret police from arresting her family.
Magical Realism Porco is magically transformed into a pig. Why? Where does the magic come from?
Meaningful Name: Gina is named after the G-91R aircraft's nickname, manufactured by Italian-Brazilian joint venture AMX. The series it belongs to? "Ghibli", which is where Studio Ghibli's name comes from.
Missing Mom: Fio's mother. Her father's absence is justified, as he has left to find work like the rest of Piccolo's sons. Her mother, however, is never shown or mentioned, and it appears that Piccolo himself is responsible for Fio.
Piccolo himself says Fio came from America. Likely her mother stayed there, Her elder sister is introduced as part of the crew that rebuild's Porco's airplane.
My Greatest Failure: A battle in which Porco survived when the rest of his squad didn't.
Not So Crazy Anymore: Gina bursts out laughing when Curtis "modestly" confides that becoming a famous Hollywood star is merely the first step towards his real goal: ''The President!''
Olive Garden: Every stereotype you know about pre-WWII Italy is milked, although it's done so well you can't complain.
The Power of Love: What inspires Porco to get up and win the fight, and may be what turns him back into a man. Though perhaps Porco simply let go of his cynicism. Damn you, ambiguous endings!
Reused Character Design: Fio looks very similar to Nausicaa from Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, another Ghibli movie; Miyazaki has a tendency to recycle character models.
The Roaring Twenties: Everywhere from Gina's flapper outfits to the plane designs.
Ted Baxter: Averted; Curtis initially seems to be this kind of character, but he's almost as good as he thinks he is (not quite that good though) and isn't quite the jerk he initially appears to be.
Truce Zone: Gina's Cafe Adriano. Both pirates and pigs enter, but neither make any trouble inside; when it looks like the pirate gangs are about to start a fight, all it takes is a bit of gentle chiding from Gina and they're falling over themselves like bashful kids.
The origin of Porco's curse, though his guilt stemming from the death of his best friend (and Gina's late husband) in the war may be the cause of it. It serves more as a symbol of his disillusionment and cynicism than anything else.
At the film's end, Porco's curse has broken and Curtis sees his human face, but it is never revealed to the audience. Fio does give us a brief look when she's half-asleep and Porco is seated at a table checking cartridges. At least, that is the implication.
It's seen earlier, in the photo in the bar. The unreveal is whether or not it's turned back.
Wall Crawl: Curtis seems to be surprisingly good at this, scaling the walls of Gina's garden, and descending the cliff into Porco's Island hideout.
"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: For everyone except Porco. This is presumably to keep it ambiguous on whether or not he actually became human again and with which woman girl he ended up.
She is 17, and Curtis can't be much older if he still looks young in the 1940s.
Wimp Fight: Porco's and Curtis' air duel/boxing match quickly devolves into this: by the end of six rounds both men are so tired they don't even try to block each other's punches.
Wrench Wench: Fio and Piccolo Aviation's all-female workforce.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Played with. Fio suggests that if she kisses Porco, his curse might be lifted. She kisses him at the end of the film too, but Porco's curse isn't broken until after he and Curtis agree to distract the Italian Air Force, implying that the curse was truly broken when Porco finally let go of his cynicism and disillusionment.
Porco Rosso or Kurenai no Buta / 紅の豚, which roughly translates as "The Crimson Pig" or "The Red Pig", its a 1992 film by Hayao Miyazaki, a homanage to the early days of aviation and cinema.The film tells the story of an famous Italian war pilot, who during one of his battles in World War One misteriously turns into a pig. Years after, during The Great Depression, He makes his living in facist Italy by flying a crimson seaplane battling seaplane pirates. Said pirates, hire an American mercenary to take him down and the story takes off from there. Set in the Adriatic sea, Porco Rosso is one of Studio Ghibli's more characteristic work.
1 reviews 