Howl's Moving Castle

[furtech]

Cut to prevent spoilerage!


I enjoyed the film, as I expected, but it's not one of my favorite Miyazaki films. The characters didn't seem as smoothly developed as in his previous films and the pacing was stiffer, like it felt constrained to follow the pace of the novel it was based on. I didn't see any reasons to like the main character: no endearing quirks, no insightful actions. And her love for Howl (and vice versa) seemed to be assumed or even come out of nowhere (I was a bit surprised at this at the end of the film). The "true love" bit with the scarecrow was even more out of left field! Still, I didn't feel like I'd wasted my time and was happy to have seen it on the big screen. I really wish I'd been able to see "Spirited Away" on the big screen!

Comments

[dustmeat.livejournal.com]

It reminded me heavily of Laputa.

[cooner.livejournal.com]

I wish I enjoyed Miyazaki films more than I do; after having high hopes and being very disappointed by both Mononoke and Spirited Away, I really can't drag myself to see Howl's Moving Caste.

I found myself struck by the attitude of Salon's review (subscription or daypass required): "In some ways, Miyazaki should be my ideal filmmaker: I believe that dream logic is a perfectly valid form of plot construction, I love offbeat visual details and curlicues, and I appreciate the meticulousness with which Miyazaki maps out each frame, paying careful attention to composition and perspective. But [...] I must come clean: Miyazaki bores me to tears."

Maybe it's a cultural wall I'm running into or something, but that pretty much sums it up: I've appreciated Miyazaki's last few films, but I just didn't enjoy them. Oddly enough, I loved some of his earlier films, particularly Kiki and Totoro ... go figure.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

Part of the problem may be that he's trying to do an animated film that's paced like a live-action film. "Wings of Honneamise" had that same problem: if that had been done -exactly- the same way, but live-action, it would have been a spectacular film...but was very slow as an animated film. Miyazaki's more adult-oriented films have more complex plots and characterizations and are paced accordingly. The reason he gets away with that kind of pacing more than most is exactly because of the curly-cues and detail he ads...also why the subtitled versions play better (to me) than the dubbed versions: half the time your eyes are distracted by reading, so the film doesn't seem as long/slow.

Kiki and Totoro were child-oriented films and paced like a cartoon. If you have a chance to see his other kid-animations, take the opportunity-- they're wonderful!

[crocuta.livejournal.com]

After seeing Spirited Away on the big screen I kinda made a vow to see every Miyazaki movie I can like that.
Lucky for me that it seems a few local theaters play older movies at random. I caught the Holy Grail, Alien and Baraka that way. The last older movie I -want- to see on the big screen that I haven't yet is Harold and Maude.
I really enjoyed Howl's Moving Castle but it really felt like an adaptation from the book rather than a stand alone piece because there were a lot of things that didn't make sense to me or just appeared for apparantly no reason that I'm sure made sense in the book. Perhaps tho it is just the Japanese thing where they don't have to explain everything, you're supposed to be smart enough to figure it out. Eh, either way I really liked it! I am curious about what other people thought about the randomness of some events in it.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

More films to see on the big screen: "The Great Race"; "The Haunting" (Original B&W version by Robert Wise); "The Wild Bunch"; "The Last Wave" (do -not- watch this on video...you have to be immersed to enjoy it!!).

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I really didn't like Howl's Moving Castle. I did read the book beforehand, and I think it was much better. As much as I love Miyazaki, he has this tendency to make no absolutely evil villains, and in the case of Howl's Moving Castle, he really ruined it by turning the Witch of the Waste into a kindly old woman. 9_9 Also, the scarecrow in the book was a menacing, frightening figure, not the Totoro cute thing Miyazaki turned it into. Ah well.

[furtech.livejournal.com]

I actually kind of like the "no absolute evil" quirk of his, but in this case I do agree: the witch of the waste should have stayed nasty. I would not have minded if her motives were sympathetic, but bad would have been better bad.

[okojosan.livejournal.com]

I also like the "no absolute evil" and that his villains are three dimensional, but it works better when it's his own original property, I think.

[redstorm.livejournal.com]

Where are they playing it? :)
I've been looking out for it.