Film: Howl's Moving Castle

Hayao Miyazaki’s groundbreaking animated films, like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, can be described as sweeping, fantastical, and heart-wrenchingly joyful. Equally epic, Miyazaki’s 2004 film Howl’s Moving Castle, adapted from Diana Wynne Jones’ book of the same name, renders the viewer immobilized through the experience of a young girl on a journey of discovery. The film reaffirmed Miyazaki's role as the global ambassador of Japanese animation. He is a visionary man who understands that discovering an alternative side of life can be a revitalizing experience, and in that sense sends his audience right along with his characters.

The film begins in a world at war, with soldiers marching the streets of a vaguely European-feeling town and strange planes flying overhead. Young Sophie works in a hat shop and bumps into Howl, a known wizard and local heartthrob  She quickly falls into a world of magic and finds trouble when the Witch of the Waste binds her with a spell of old age. In her newly geriatric state she goes in search of Howl. His house, a walking, magic fortress serves as his headquarters and main point of departure for his war-related missions. Now known as Grandma Sophie, she enlists herself as his maid and finds a place among the other housemates: a young apprentice, a cute but paranormally complex and load-bearing fire demon, a silent scarecrow, and later, a humbled Witch of the Waste. While adjusting to her newly-aged body, Sophie's youthful heart deals with identity and love. Howl, a tenacious wizard full of defiance and destructive power, is caught in his own difficulties. Dealing with pacifism in wartime, he has become a political casualty of the raging conflict. The struggles crescendo and combine - as they are often wont to do - and the characters face difficult, life-changing choices. The whole things comes together in classic Miyazaki style.

Just your average mobile home

Is this starting to sound a little too "magical" for you? Maybe you think its just for kids? Well grow up and accept that some children's movies are even better for adults. This film was released on the tailwind of Miyazaki’s most globally recognized film, Spirited Away, which had just become the first anime film to win the Academy Award for Best Animation. The two films, along with most of his movies, communicate many of the same themes. Howl, which set box office records in its own right, was highly influenced both by the previous success of Spirited Away - still the highest grossing Japanese film of all time - and by Miyazaki’s own reactions to the beginning of the Iraq War. He has been classified as a pacifist, feminist, and traditionalist - all perspectives that inform his characters and their struggles. But the moralistic view of his stories is more universal than partisan. In this film Howl's struggles are treated more as personal than political.

While there are lessons to be learned from Howl’s demons, Sophie’s character growth is equally poignant as she decides to optimistically accept the challenge of old age. Her quick transformation from young adult to elderly is one most youth would not accept lightly, and Miyazaki helps the viewer to reflect on age and identity as he explores how Sophie deals with instant maturity and physical limitation. She finds she's able to gradually shed the years by embracing life and its challenges rather than complaining about them. Love, energy, and wisdom come as she is forced to accept things she cannot change and address those she can. Life in Howl's mystical mobile home is lived a few steps away from normality. Time and space have no constancy. The resulting mobility, while exciting, has kept Howl and his housemates from facing reality. Sophie breathes some fresh air into the place as she takes responsibility and learns to value the moment and the relationships that surround her. 

If you've never seen a Miyazaki film before you might initially be resistant to the style of animation, the story, or the fantasy elements. If so, I urge you to let go and soak it all in. I prefer watching in Japanese with English subtitles. When coupled with the beautiful, melancholy score it completes the cultural journey and give you a truly foreign experience. If you just can't handle reading while watching, or you are enjoying it with kids, turn on the translation. John Lasseter - Miyazaki's championing superfan in the US - and his team at Disney went to significant lengths to make a quality English translation including revisiting the dialogue and recording voiceover work by critically acclaimed actors. Most notable is Christian Bale, who gives Howl's voice that dark, raspy Batman quality which we American's just seem to love.

This film is a gem during which I always sit in constant amazement. The beguiling blend of music, love, magic, and visuals creates an orchestral experience. Sometimes a film's ability to take you somewhere completely different is more valuable than the message it communicates. Howl's Moving Castle does both with ease. Walking away from the film you'll have a heightened sense of wonder at the richness of the world around you. Just as Miyazaki's characters rarely finish a film in the same form they began it, you'll be closer to internalizing the fact that life is always changing. And maybe you'll see the young person inside the next old face you see.