Hauru no Ugoku Shiro
I've been reflecting back on Howl's Moving Castle recently since it's finally come to the States. I remember all the anticipation of the movie in Japan back in 2003 as it's release kept getting delayed while Miyazaki-san continued to add more elements. That's one amazing thing about most Japanese studios ~ the great artists have much more production respect for their work and if it's not ready, they have the luxury to continue polishing it till it is (*cough* Steamboy).
Like all other Miyazaki movies, the animation and fantastical elements in Howl are absolutely stunning. Story-wise though, perhaps my expectations were a bit too high. I really wanted to see a new Miyazaki masterpiece which delivered profundity in the simplest of messages. The first hour-and-half were brilliant, but things were hastily resolved in the last quarter. I remember being disappointed that Howl lacked the clarity and coherence of his other works and was surprised later to find that most Japanese considered the piece to be one of his failures. Like Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl was based off a foreign novel. Yet whereas the tale in Kiki's was beautifully-executed, Howl's screenplay leaves a bit to be desired. My gut Miyazaki-fan reaction was to blame Diane Wynne Jones, the author of the original novel, for bad writing ~ there's only so much a great master can do with crap crayons, I thought. But I couldn't just go ahead and blame her without proper justification, could I? So I picked up a copy of her novel and read it...
...and it was absolutely beautiful....
Right after I got to the end, I flipped back to the cover and started right over. I must have re-read the story every day that week. Anyone who professes to love the movie should definitely read the novel.
On the first read, I immediately saw why Miyazaki-san fell in love with the story and spent years animating it to life. Certainly no one could do a more visually-apt rendering and of course he added many of his own exclusive themes eloquently to the tale. Which is why I'm still confused over my disappointment. Something must have gone wrong for him to adapt the tale with such a hasty ending. I'm still trying to find reasonable justification, hahaa. If anyone has an explanation, I'd love to hear it. It's been over half a year since I saw Howl when it first came out. Hopefully it'll magically come to a theater in the South (ha, I doubt it) so I can catch it again and at least bask in the visual artistry. Man, I wish I were living in a real city.
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Edit 07.05.2005 01.41
Oops, just remembered that Miyazaki wasn't even the original director on Howl. I think the director for Digimon (?!?!) was? So hmmm, that either explains a lot or nothing.
Like all other Miyazaki movies, the animation and fantastical elements in Howl are absolutely stunning. Story-wise though, perhaps my expectations were a bit too high. I really wanted to see a new Miyazaki masterpiece which delivered profundity in the simplest of messages. The first hour-and-half were brilliant, but things were hastily resolved in the last quarter. I remember being disappointed that Howl lacked the clarity and coherence of his other works and was surprised later to find that most Japanese considered the piece to be one of his failures. Like Kiki's Delivery Service, Howl was based off a foreign novel. Yet whereas the tale in Kiki's was beautifully-executed, Howl's screenplay leaves a bit to be desired. My gut Miyazaki-fan reaction was to blame Diane Wynne Jones, the author of the original novel, for bad writing ~ there's only so much a great master can do with crap crayons, I thought. But I couldn't just go ahead and blame her without proper justification, could I? So I picked up a copy of her novel and read it...
...and it was absolutely beautiful....
Right after I got to the end, I flipped back to the cover and started right over. I must have re-read the story every day that week. Anyone who professes to love the movie should definitely read the novel.
On the first read, I immediately saw why Miyazaki-san fell in love with the story and spent years animating it to life. Certainly no one could do a more visually-apt rendering and of course he added many of his own exclusive themes eloquently to the tale. Which is why I'm still confused over my disappointment. Something must have gone wrong for him to adapt the tale with such a hasty ending. I'm still trying to find reasonable justification, hahaa. If anyone has an explanation, I'd love to hear it. It's been over half a year since I saw Howl when it first came out. Hopefully it'll magically come to a theater in the South (ha, I doubt it) so I can catch it again and at least bask in the visual artistry. Man, I wish I were living in a real city.
----------------------------------------
Edit 07.05.2005 01.41
Oops, just remembered that Miyazaki wasn't even the original director on Howl. I think the director for Digimon (?!?!) was? So hmmm, that either explains a lot or nothing.
posted by eneries at
12:07:00 PM
1 Comments:
Hey you lived in Japan? I always want to go there but no, I always had to fly over when visiting my relatives in Seoul.
By
Kimotion, at 7/13/2005 12:42 AM
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