The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is a must see documentary for people who are fans of Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki or who know nothing about Miyazaki or Studio Ghibli, but are fascinated by a behind the scenes documentary about a master as he reflects on his life, his career and pivotal world events. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is a reflective movie that embraces the contradictions of life. Everyday can be the last day (a muted apocalypse). Everyday can seem like yet another routine notch on eternity’s belt, and the process will go on indefinitely. Each day is the same yet can be suddenly different.
I have only seen one Miyazaki film, Spirited Away, a uniquely surreal and different film experience even for someone who watches too many films. I have not seen his other films because seeing them at home seems too prosaic for his work, but I have not seen them in the theater because I felt that I would have to be completely prepared and open to the experience, and I cannot treat a Miyazaki film like any trip to the theater. For me, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness was a nice way to revisit Miyazaki without feeling inadequately prepared to enter another world-a gateway film to his animated masterpieces, which are the farthest things from Pixar, Dreamworks or Disney.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness resonated with me because of Miyazaki’s joyful yet foreboding tone, “All of humanity’s dreams are cursed.” He dismisses his work as a hobby, and yet it is obviously so much more. As a person obsessed with apocalypses, I could appreciate the duality of this statement, a sense that even when we do something remarkable, there is a hidden price, another inevitable step towards destruction. Miyazaki experienced two apocalyptic events: WWII in Japan and the Fukushima nuclear plant disaster. He casually suggests an ephemeral feeling that he is documenting daily life because he feels like we are on the threshold of a cataclysmic event. At one moment, nothing seems to be happening, and then the whole world erupts into chaos. I always thought that I felt this way because I was brought up Christian fundamentalist, but after 11/9/16, I feel as prophetic as Miyazaki, and we have no shared life experiences except cats.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness often inserts archival footage of Miyazaki as a young man (he seems like a completely different person unlike George Lucas who never seems to really change) and now. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness seems to suggest that it is natural as an old man to see the end of the world because your world is coming to an end whereas Miyazaki even admits that he sees hope for the future when he sees the kids at the nearby day care center.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is an accidental masterpiece. Everything is timing. If Mami Sunada was filming a year earlier or a day later, an election van with a bullhorn discussing Fukushima would not be nearby, and Miyazaki may not have discussed it. Miyazaki initially sounds dismissive of the importance of his opinion when the office is full, but after everyone has left, he reveals the depths of his consideration on many portentous matters.
The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness also profiles Toshio Suzuki, the producer, and other producers and directors who are an essential part of Studio Ghibli. The directors may be the visionaries, but Suzuki reveals that the directors did not even want to make the films that are being developed during the documentary, Suzuki did. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness depicts the nitty gritty reality of daily life under a master by revisiting an unnamed woman in a cubicle who reflects on all the talented people who had to leave and evaluates the work produced by Studio Ghibli’s famous directors, which include Isao Takahata, who is also the incidental focus of the documentary as a mostly unseen foil to Miyazaki.
In the interest of full disclosure, The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness was so soothing and understated that I fell asleep a couple of times, but it was not from a lack of interest. It is one of the dangers of watching a film at home. It felt like The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness needed to have a shorter running time, but I’m not sure what I would cut out since everything was so fascinating. There are subtitles, but that should not discourage viewers from watching The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness. The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness is required viewing for anyone interested in the creative process and sitting at the feet of a master nearing the end of his illustrious career.