SF Signal: Howl's Moving Castle

Howl's Moving Castle

Hey! My first "real" post. :-) I just saw Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle last night at the Toho Cinema in Osaka-Umeda. Once again - as was the case with Steamboy - I attemped this adventure without the aid of subtitles, so my understanding of plot details is a little limited. This film is still going like crazy in Japan more than one month after its release. All shows for the day were sold out, and this was a weekday. First, I was pleasantly suprised that the Toho cinema is using an all digital DLP projection system. Sweet!!! So the video and audio quality were superb. The opening scene looks like it had to be some kind of CGI.

Now for some plot details, though I won't spoil it too much. As with most of Miyazaki's films, this one takes place in some undefined European looking town, which appears to be in the Alps. The story is about Sophie, who is a young woman who works in a hat shop. One day, she is on a walk and meets Howl who is an eccentric wizard that the townpeople make fun of, and who seems to be trying to pick her up. Then, suddenly, some ugly black things start chasing them, and Howl rescue's Sophie and takes her to a safe place where he tells her to wait. But she thinks she is dreaming, so she starts to walk home, and when she gets back to the shop an evil witch appears and turns her into an old woman. This witch does not like Howl for some reason, which we will find out later.

Sopie decides to leave town on her own to find Howl, in hope of finding a way back into her young self. In the countryside, she meets a scarecrow who helps her find the moving castle. There is a door on the back and she gets on. Inside, she meets Calcifer, who is Howl's fire demon, and after sleeping through the night she also meets Markl, who seems to be Howl's apprentice. We also discover that Calcifer is under some kind of contract with Howl, and if Sophie can break the contract, then Calcifer will return her to her young body (which she reverts to periodically in the film, especially when asleep). However, Calcifer can't tell her what the contract is. We also discover that the castle has the ability to be in four places at once and the door to the outside can lead to each of these places. One of the places is where Howl goes off every day, only to return exhausted. He is engaged in some kind of terrible war against evil.

Anyway, I'll leave it at that. There is a lot more interesting stuff after that, but I don't want to spoil it (and I also have to run to a meeting). As for the film, I really enjoyed it. It has a lot of the same flavor and look as other Miyazaki films. It's not an action/adventure like Laputa. It's definitely more a love story, and it's probably more like Spirited Away in the overall tone, though different in many respects. It's hard for me to say now how it compares to his other films. I definitely liked it, though I can't say right now if I like it as much as Spirited Away, Laputa or Kiki. I'll need to see the English subs before I make that judgement.

Ah, I see there is no release date for the US yet. Too bad..... :-(