Entry #4. Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle

    Today I am going to introduce a very interesting and thoughtful movie I like, it is "Howl's Moving Castle". It is a Japanese animated film based on the same-name novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones, then rewritten and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Hayao Miyazaki had written many famous animations such as "Laputa: Castle in the Sky", "My Neighbor Totoro", and "Spirited Away". This movie has heavy anti-war, feminist, and compassion themes. Also, it has a beautiful scene at every second of the movie. 

Plot:

    The story happens in a little European town. Sophie is an 18 years old milliner; she is the only one in the family that stays in her father's hat store. 

    One day she is on the way of visiting her sister, two soldiers stopped her. Howl appears to save her and send her to her sister with magic. 

    Later Witch of The Waste came to Sophie's home because she knew Sophie had met Howl, she cursed Sophie turns her into an old lady, but Sophie cannot tell anyone about this curse. Thus, Sophie can only leave. 

    Because of some coincidences, she went into the mysterious Moving Castle. Old Sophie made herself the "cleaning lady" of this castle. Then she meets Calcifer which is the fire that gives the castle power and magic to move and work, little boy Markl, a live scarecrow, and the owner of the moving castle---Howl. 

Calcifer

    Sophie gradually finds her true self, the hints of going back to her young face are she has to brave and confident. Living with Howl, Sophies is attracting by Howl unknowingly. 

    Even though Howl has the power to fight in the war, but he isn't under the king's control to fight in the war. Howl told Sophie he doesn't want to fight anymore, otherwise, he will be turning into a monster that only knows to kill. 

    Sophie decided to meet the king's advisor for Howl to tell that Howl can't fight anymore. She met the Witch of The Waste again and the advisor Suliman.

    What she doesn't know is it is a trap, Suliman took the Witch of The Waste's magic power, made her a common old lady because she doesn't want to fight for the King, and Sophie knew it is going to happen to Howl too. Howl followed because she worries about Sophie. Suliman sees Howl and tried to take Howl's power away, Sophie went up in front of Howl and saved him, then they escaped from the king's castle. 

    The war finally breaks out, Howl went out of the moving castle and face the war by himself to protect Sophie and others, but he is turning into a monster with dark feathers on him and his wings because of fights and kills. Sophie decided to not let Howl face the war himself, so she controls the moving castle to find Howl. 

    One day, Suliman uses aircraft attacks on the moving castle, so Sophie has to move everyone out including the fire demon Calcifer. The witch grabbed Calcifer, but Calcifer set her on fire. Sophie has to pour water on the witch, but it also douses Calcifer. Suddenly, the moving castle breaks because no more power from the fire demon can work the moving castle. 

    Sophie uses the magic door in the castle to go back to Howl's past, and found out Calcifer and Howl's heart is connected with a contract; if Calcifer dies, Howl won't be able to live long. 

    Sophie finds Howl, broked the contract between Howl and Calcifer, placed Howl's heart back, and freed Calcifer. Also, her curse terminated because she found her true love. 

    The live scarecrow terminated his curse and turned into a human too after Sophie kissed him. The scarecrow is actually the prince name Justin that was missing from the enemy kingdom. Justin promise he will stop the war from his side of the kingdom. Suliman agreed to stop the war, then everywhere return to peace. 

    Even though Calcifer is free now, but he still wants to live with Sophie and Howl. Then they have a flying castle traveling around and live a peaceful life together ever after. 

 

Themes:

1. This whole movie has anti-war thoughts throughout. The moving castle is moving because Howl wants to hide from the wars. He doesn't want to be controlled by the kingdom to become a fighting tool. The whole castle was dirty symbolizing Howl's mind is depressing, but Sophie is the one that cleans the castle, foreshadowing Sophie will be the one who brings peace and freedom to Howl. 

2. Sophie was cursed and can't turn back to her young face because she wasn't brave and confident enough. She stays in her father's hat shop and making hats every day just like an old lady. However, when she was protecting Howl in front of Suliman, she was brave and turn back to her young face for a little moment. Finally, she found her love Howl, then she totally broke the curse. 

Scenes:

Just like all other pictures created by Hayao Miyazaki, every scene shows up the in movie is pretty. It has a total of 148,786 images used. All the details and facial expressions by the characters are perfectly expressed. When I was watching this movie, I wasn't just following the plot and the viewing beauty of the scenes.   

Interesting parts:

1. Howl and the Witch of The Waste had dated before, but Howl ran away after he knew how horrible the witch (the witch is probably a hundred years old) is. The witch saw Howl and Sophie were together; because of jealousy, she turned Sophie into an old lady. 

2. When Sophie was in the moving castle, she accidentally turned Howl's hair from gold to dark. Howl said: "I see no point in living if I can't be beautiful", I found it really funny to me, Howl is that kind of person who cares about their look a lot.

3. Howl's room is full of magical objects that would protect him not to detect knowing where he is. This means he feels unsafe all the time and he really needs to be protected.

    Overall, I think this is a really good movie to watch. It is all about peace, kindness, and love. The aesthetic of "Howl's Moving Castle'' is great to be seen by us. Recommending this movie is not just because I personally like it, and because it's belief valuable to watch.