Hayao Miyazaki Not Retiring, Claims

In March of this year, the "Ghibli Park," planned and overseen by Studio Ghibli, finally opened its doors to the public in Japan. Director Goro Miyazaki, the 57-year-old son of founder Hayao Miyazaki, gave an interview in which he explained some details about the resort, but also talked about his father, Hayao Miyazaki's previous statement that he was retiring with his latest film.

"We built it in a big park, so even if you don't pay the entrance fee, you can have fun just walking around or taking a look around as you walk. We have prepared a variety of dynamics for this. Even if you can't get into the amusement park, there's always the opportunity to enjoy the surroundings that we've also worked on," he said.

Goro Miyazaki's previous job was as a construction consultant and environmental designer, which was a perfect fit for the construction of the park.

"Based on the idea that the amusement park starts from the entrance to the grounds, we pay particular attention to finishes and textures. Softwoods and hardwoods are completely different, even though they are of the same type. The buildings themselves are also different in scale and shape, so it was completely different to build the same floor. Fortunately, we avoided the effects of recent material price hikes."

Interestingly, just days before the amusement park opened, his father's latest film, "Kimitachi wa Dou Ikiru ka (The Boy and the Heron)," won the Best Animated Film Award at the Academy Awards.

"It's definitely unbelievable that they've won two Academy Awards, but certainly after this you get to think about what these two old men are going to do from now on," Goro said. It should be noted that both director Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki had hinted that this would be their last film, but Goro denied this entirely.

"Those two have no intention of retiring. They always say something along the lines of "leave things to the new generations," but they have no intention of doing so. My father is still making movies even though he's in his 80s now, and Suzuki-san simply says "it can't be helped." I've said it before and I'll say it again, I'm sure I'll retire before those two."

Source: Yahoo! News Japan