Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso (1992) is certainly one of his most unique and densely themed movies. The movie has that great animation and wonderful characters you’re used to seeing with Studio Ghibli, but it sets itself apart in the way that it gets more seriously into things such as war, survivor’s guilt, and disillusionment with political structures.
The story shows Marco Pagot, an Italian fighter pilot during World War I, who somehow spontaneously transforms into an anthropomorphic pig and becomes known as the bounty hunter Porco Rosso (Red Pig). What’s so neat is that the film never really explains exactly how or why Marco transformed into a pig, however, multiple interpretations emerge upon closer examination. Let’s discuss some of them below.
So, why exactly is Porco a pig in Porco Rosso?
While this might initially seem like an oversight, it’s actually one of the smartest moves in the film by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki. Instead of just giving us a simple answer, Miyazaki uses the transformation as a metaphor, which really gives Porco’s character so much depth and makes his inner conflict so much easier to see.
His transformation can be seen as a result of survivor’s guilt, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and even as an act of defiance against a changing world. Let’s now explore these ideas in depth one by one. So, one fairly standard interpretation of Porco’s change is that it’s survivor’s guilt.
As a former ace pilot, he survived World War I while many of his comrades didn’t. There’s this one moment in the movie where Porco’s recalling this near-death experience, and it’s like he’s seeing his dead friends going up into the sky, which kinda suggests that he feels like he doesn’t deserve to be alive.
His choice of exiling himself, existing in isolation on an island, and living a life of bounty hunting, is an indicator of his immense guilt. In this, Porco’s pig appearance is representative of how he perceives himself: unworthy, undeserving, and haunted by the responsibility of the individuals that he failed to save.
Porco’s transformation can also be understood through the lens of PTSD. War destroys individuals, and it gives you scars that you can’t always imagine. For a lot of veterans, that psychological damage comes out in self-sabotaging behaviors. Porco’s pessimistic attitude toward life, the tendency to isolate himself, and he doesn’t really trust people (except for Gina and then Fio), are all hallmarks of a man who has been deeply affected by war.
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Perhaps the most quotable line in the movie is when Porco rebuffs the fascist regime as such, asserting, “I’d rather be a pig than a fascist.” The line perfectly captures his personality and is one of Miyazaki’s largest political statements in all of his films. As Italy became more militarized under Mussolini, Porco would prefer to be in exile than be an accomplice.
His transformation into a pig, therefore, can symbolize his conscious decision not to be part of an immoral system. If to be human once more is to be submissive to fascism, he would not be human again. In this, his transformation is a statement of defiance to a society that expects only compliance.
Hayao Miyazaki’s clever narrative choice: The beauty of an unexplained transformation
One of the most fascinating aspects of Porco Rosso is that while Porco being a pig is clearly metaphorical, it is also accepted as reality within the film’s world. The other characters do recognize the change, but nobody makes a big deal about it.
This is a narrative choice that permits the film to occupy a place between fantasy and reality, where the viewer is free to interpret the transformation in their own way. If Miyazaki had really spelled out the whole transformation, maybe with some magical curse or supernatural twist, then maybe it would’ve taken away from the power of the story.
By leaving it ambiguous, the movie makes us connect with its themes on a deeper level, and that makes Porco’s journey all the more interesting. Porco may be a pig, but through his actions, he proves he’s far more human than a whole lot of people out there. And in a world on the brink of war, sometimes it’s actually better to be a ‘pig than a fascist.’
Porco Rosso is currently available to watch on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
