Howl's Moving Castle

[vaneramos]

More Japanese anime. Last night Danny and I watched Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), based on a novel by British writer Diana Wynne Jones, directed by Hayao Miyazaki, dubbed into English and distributed in North America by Walt Disney Pictures. It was my first experience of this director and I’m favourably impressed.

First we watched a clip from his 1988 film, My Neighbour Totoro, which captured more purely the essence. Two small girls wait in the rain at a bus stop for their father. He doesn’t arrive, they continue waiting, and darkness falls. The scene carries on with little movement or dialogue; extended views of falling rain and their umbrella. It felt like watching a haiku: simple, distilled, muted, full of meaning without saying anything.

Howl’s Moving Castle is busier and more vivid, and yet also possesses the quality of an extended poem. With diverse mythical characters weaving in and out, it could even be a Saga, but Japanese. The colours are exquisite. A central theme revolves around physical beauty, which is ephemeral, and inner beauty coming with age and wisdom. Also very haiku-like, hardly a children’s story.

Highly recommended. Fortunately Danny purchased these, so I intend to view them again.