Dispatches from the sunburned wastelands

Just watched the exceedingly excellent DVD Howl's Moving Castle, directed by the venerable grandmaster of Japanese animation, Hayao Miyazaki. If you're not familiar with Miyazaki's work, he won an Oscar for "Spirited Away", in 2002, I think it was. "Howl's.." was also nominated this year (but didn't win). There's some more info on the movie, including a trailer, here.

The movie begins as a fairy tale, when a girl (Sophie) falls in love with a vain young wizard, only to be turned into an old crone by the wicked witch of the wastes (who's also in love with Howl). To get back her youth, Sophie must find Howl's castle, (which is made more difficult by the fact that it's walking around all the time), and try and convince him to lift the curse. She eventually finds the castle, and starts working there as a cleaning lady, while Howl ignores her completely, of course. In a simpler fairy tale, the cursed girl would do something heroic at this point, and the young hero would see through the curse, kiss her, and the curse would be lifted on the spot...Except, in this movie things turn dark, when Howl is called in by the country's leader to help the government fight a brutal war against their neighbours. Howl refuses, and the president sends his minions, and his own witch, against Howl and his friends. (yes, yes, Sophie does do some saving at this point. Several times.). Miyazaki has some very clear messages about the madness of war, and the depiction of war in this movie is disturbing and brutal.

The movie is based on the book of the same name, by Diana Wynn Jones, and for all you Harry Potter fans out there, if you haven't heard of her yet, well...what can I say. She's been writing books about young wizards and magical worlds for ages, and most of her books are vastly superior to the Rowling books (in my opinion. please stop hitting me with that broomstick, Charlotte!).

To get back to Miyazaki: through his company , called Studio Ghibli, he has been doing magical animation for, I don't know exactly, thirty years(?), but all in Japanese. Fortunately for the rest of the world, this changed after Disney released Spirited Away in English. Now, most of his films have been translated (with good actors, nio less), and is available at your local Video store. Another (old) movie of his was released on DVD to coincide with the release of Howl's - it's called My Neighbour Totoro, and tells the story of two young girls who went to live in the countryside outside Tokyo, to be near their mom who is sick in a nearby hospital. The children's soon discover that they're living next to a huge Camphor tree that's inhabited by some friendly forest spirits... And very soon they have some great adventures together. (This one is suitable for small children too, Shelly).

If you're used to watching the same sad old Disneyesque animated movies, you're in for a pleasant surprise. These movies are works of art, and the scripts are moving and usually thought provoking (Miyazaki is just a big old soft Greenie!).

Posted by HannesB at 12:44 PM Comments