GORO MIYAZAKI IS a serious man who has something to prove. It's hardly surprising, given the enormous shadow from which he's had to emerge to stake his claim as a filmmaker: Miyazaki is the son of Hayao Miyazaki - one of the most highly regarded animators in the world.
Until now, the younger Miyazaki, 39, has successfully pursued a career as a construction consultant and designer, and was responsible for the overall design of the Ghibli Museum in the Tokyo suburb of Mitaka. From 2001 to 2004, he was managing director of the museum, which is dedicated to the works of the studio his father established with Isao Takahata.
But Goro Miyazaki has proved that he is his father's son. Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away remains the country's highest-grossing movie, but Goro Miyazaki's debut, an animated adaptation of Ursula K. Le Guin's Tales from Earthsea, has taken US$62 million at the Japanese box office so far - with only Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest ahead this summer, with takings of US$83 million.
Tales from Earthsea came about as a happy accident, when one of his father's producers, Toshio Suzuki, gathered a group of young colleagues for a brainstorming session.
'I was invited as an observer,' Miyazaki says. 'As the project went along I became like a leader of the project. Then Suzuki said, 'You know, you should direct this'. So I did.'
That Tales from Earthsea lacks the humour of his father's fanciful masterpieces such as Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle simply indicates the different approach he takes to storytelling.
