Ghibli Park, Aichi: Cinema Orion

The wonderful world of consumerism

Hello again, here’s a short side-trip to add on to my moviegoing adventures in Japan!

Before getting to Kyoto, I spent 2 nights in Nagoya near Aichi prefecture so that I could spend a full day at Ghibli Park. Upfront, I will say that Ghibli Park is probably going to be more fun to go to with other people. While there is wonder to be had alone, I think it would definitely have benefited from having company.

Ghibli Park is separate from Ghibli Museum which is in Mitaka, Tokyo, although it’s easy to get them mixed up (they’re hours away from each other by shinkansen). Ghibli Park is situated in a public park in Aichi, with distinct "zones" scattered around the publicly accessible park. It is crowded everyday, and the day I went was probably no different despite the cold weather.

In the Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse is Cinema Orion in which they play a short film from Ghibli a few times a day. This time they played A Sumo Wrestler's Tail, a cute short about rats in the forest wrestling as an old (human) couple discovers them and aids one team in winning by helping them carbo-load mid-match. There’s nothing to write home about with regard to this cinematic experience. The theatre is nicely designed with a somewhat ornate lobby harkening back to the days of “picture palaces”, but it’s mostly surface level set dressing.

A Sumo Wrestler’s Tail

Unfortunately, I come away from Ghibli Park with a strong feeling that most of the experience is not for me. Every corner of the park is a merchandising or photo opportunity, which I have nothing against, but is personally not how I relate to these films. Visitors would enter long queues to take a photo with figures from the films. The constant merchandising, which clearly there is a demand for, felt a little cheap to me. After hiking through Dondoko Forest, you arrive at a large statue of Totoro and a gift shop. That's it. The hike upwards to that point is merely a nice walk through a park, which by itself is perfectly fine, but when one expects magic and is instead offered yet another chance to take out a credit card, it rubs me a little the wrong way.

What is worthwhile at Ghibli Park are the "premium" interior spaces you can go into on a more expensive ticket which are recreations of famous locations, from the movies, e.g. Howl's Moving Castle, Mei and Satsuki's House from My Neighbor Totoro, and Kiki's House from Kiki’s Delivery Service. I think if you are a fan of these films, the premium price and the time spent in those houses is worth the money and time.

Photography is not allowed inside these houses, but they are a production designer's dream. Every house is chock full of physical detail and minutia. Drawers and closets are stuffed with items like period-accurate clothing, and personal items these characters would have, whether fantastical or mundane. Howl's Castle is especially fully realized, with magical objects, a varied assortment of knick-knacks, and so much detail I can barely remember it with my mind's eye.

Outside Mei and Satsuki’s house

Less immediately impressive is Mei and Satsuki's house, but what it trades in wonder it gives back in period nostalgia. It was fun to listen to Japanese visitors exclaim with nostalgia (“懐かしい/natsukashii!”) for toys and foodstuffs in the house. Ghibli's films and merchandising traffic in multiple kinds of nostalgia: nostalgia for traditionally animated artistry, for the periods they depict, and for Ghibli itself. These are powerful emotional vectors.

I was very charmed by the house from The Cat Returns (spin-off from Whisper of the Heart), but actually have not seen the film! It's a smaller space to explore, but the basement has a violin woodworking space that is very serene and beautiful, with many woodworking tools and the like.

Because of the interactive nature of these exhibits, every room has a staff member constantly arranging and resetting items into their original place. The movement of tidying is constant! The popularity of Ghibli probably makes it immensely difficult to concoct an experience with a Ghibli sensibility. My favourite Ghibli moments tend to be the ones of open serenity or intense focus on specific detail. The visual experience of the exhibits might scream Ghibli, but the busyness of the crowd, the noise, and the congestion, work against the sense of immersion these exhibits seek to achieve. This is not a problem that can be solved of course, and the visitor numbers are already hard capped for every day (and always sold out).

Part of me feels a little crazy looking at the way every facet of every film becomes merchandise of all sorts, but then again I walk out of the gift shop after purchasing a bunch of stuff so what am I really trying to buy with my purchases? Still, it's nice that Ghibli can find a way to create this many revenue streams so that they can continue making films the way they want to make them. Not every studio gets that privilege.