Documentary offers a look behind the scenes at anime studio Ghibli

In "Yume to Kyoki no Okoku" (Kingdom of dreams and madness), director Mami Sunada traced the process Miyazaki underwent to produce his latest and final animated feature, "Kaze Tachinu" (The Wind Rises).

After Sunada received permission to do the film from studio producer Toshio Suzuki, she visited the studio in Koganei, western Tokyo, almost every day for about a year. While visiting Miyazaki's working room, what she witnessed was not a genius artist, but an anime creator who went to the office every day just like his colleagues and quietly kept his pencil moving.

This reminds one of what Miyazaki said at the press conference where he announced his retirement as a director: "I'd like to stay like an old man in a small factory in town."

"He certainly is someone special. But as I saw him doing his job, driving himself as hard as ever, I began to think that we all have something in common with him," Sunada said.

She also felt something in common between Miyazaki and her own father — a person who loves his job and feels like he would lose his identity without work. She filmed her father in her debut piece, "Ending Note." Her father died of cancer, but if he were still alive, he would be 72, the same age as Miyazaki.

Sunada sees her father in Miyazaki because they were "in the generation that had no choice other than to work to survive."

Looking at the hard-working Miyazaki, Sunada says she was astounded he could continue at such a pace, given the toll it took on his mind and body. It, therefore, came as no surprise to her to hear that "Kaze Tachinu" would be Miyazaki's last work.

Particularly impressive in the documentary is the ephemeral feel suggested by what Miyazaki, Suzuki and Isao Takahata, director of "Kaguyahime no Monogatari" (The Tale of Princess Kaguya), say in it.

"Ghibli has grown so big, so I thought they'd fight to keep it the way it is," Sunada said. "But rather than trying to keep what exists now, the three seemed to naturally accept the fact that what exists now will eventually change and disappear." -- Yomiuri Shimbun