"Howl's Moving Castle" by Hayao Miyazaki (2004)

(Before reading I would like to forewarn that most of the plot will be discussed here.)

It has been an extraordinary lesson that time has improved my understanding of this film, which a highly undervalued upon first viewing. Howl's Moving Castle first struck me quite simply with the emotive appeal of a woman running outside into a burning street, embers cascading from the burning buildings and rooftops and the world as though it were set alight. This picture of a young woman in a blue dress, tidied and humble in appearance, looking so despondent with what was happening; that was my initial impression. It was beautiful painted empathy, and once I saw the film in motion the score unraveled in myself a sublime sense of something, but in a moment it was forgotten and replaced with that sense of overwhelming wonder, as though I was a child who had seen something meaningful but not grasped it. It was starlight that I had almost grasped the meaning of.

The sense of things is often lost on people. It is a sheer sadness that is woven into life, that is always brimming over with wonder and extravagant surprise even in the most minute details; I say sheer sadness because it is there but unseen too often. Like a fox in wintertime is admired but soon forgotten because of habit. But this film is of a magical nature, and though left aside for sometime one might return to it and see something new, some subtlety with speaks more truth that is even within comprehension. It is the nature of art not to mimic life as we see it, but to give it the quality it really contains, the mysterious yet efficacious quality which we all acknowledge to be there but cannot seem to touch. I wish to return to this film with new found understanding.

The film begins with an introduction to Sophie, who works in a hat-seller's house, and is sad and despondent at the way she perceives herself and surroundings. Her face, she feels, is listless and uninteresting and she cannot grasp any inherent beauty in herself for her mundane environment. Like most of Miyazaki's characters at the beginning of the tale, they lack apparent depth and Sophie is as ordinary as anybody else she knows. What is wonderful about this is Miyazaki's suggestion that beauty is something we realize in the people we become and the people we learn to love. But I have rushed ahead of what I had at first meant to talk about; there is a tendency when it is realised that there is something deeper afoot to get to it without thinking.

Whilst wandering in her town she meets a stranger (who is actually the renowned Howl) and is pursued my phantom-like men until Howl reveals himself and leads her over rooftops and far from the danger. Later in in night Sophie is encountered with a grotesque and allegoric figure, the witch of the waste, who is desperately desolate and rueful (and desperate to consume Howl's heart) and she transforms Sophie into an old woman who cannot tell anyone about the curse that is put upon her. Sophie, realizing the extent of the curse, leaves and wanders alone only to find a living scarecrow who, when she finds herself drenched in rain in the night, guides her to Howl's moving castle and assists her in getting in. This is very meaningful storytelling though at a glance it seems to be a simple magical tale, without connection to allegory or symbolism.

The witch of the waste, a character who is apparently rueful and selfish, is exactly that. Her appearance is expansive and she disguises her ugliness unsuccessfully with a veneer of opulence and self-satisfaction. This is the wonderful detail that I failed to recognize spectacularly in the beginning; this woman, so expansive and controlling, represents a part of life that is unthinking and self-contained and, as opposed so Sophie, someone who is fully confident in herself and her position as somebody who deserves opulence and self-satisfaction. Sophie, a woman found in the mundane world of hat-making, and profoundly melancholic, is the opposite, but does not have enough self-belief or insight to see the world as it is, to see herself as someone who can be contented. It is this lack of vision which Miyazaki presents as Sophie's worst flaw and her most harming quality, and one almost feels that Miyazaki has willfully exiled her without a great deal of sympathy, because the self-realization that is to come is more significant than anything that has gone before.

The story is thus more layered than one would imagine. 

The stories takes a remarkable turn after the moment Sophie steps inside Howl's moving castle, a vast and heaving construction made out of machines and parts of buildings. Sophie meets Calcifer, the fire that Howl has instructed to keep his castle moving, and instantly a relationship unfolds. It is a leap of faith to assume that there is something quite deep and sublime in this relationship immediately, that the connection runs further that one would suppose, but I assure the reader that there is. Sophie's immediate grace and respect towards the fire moves him and the fire allows her to use him which is something most unlikely with his rebellious and untenable temperament. Sophie swiftly becomes the lady of the house and, though old and grey, transforms it from its rustic, ill-kept manner into something quite habitable and comfortable.

This is the role of Sophie in the story; her warmth and willingness to understand even the feelings of an enchanted fire transform Howl's moving castle from a dark and ill-kept place, into something loved and brimming with activity and life. She becomes part of Howl's home and she becomes involved in a whole new life that she had never considered possible before. The story unfolds and Sophie begins to realize that Howl is actually a man with many separate identities, and in the night-time wages battle in a war that she new was being fought before she came to stay with him.

She becomes emotionally attached, but still feels that her apparent old age had made her monstrous; this makes it simpler for her to love him for all he is, without regard for herself. It makes it simpler for that transition from conceitedness and self-pity to love and selflessness. There is a spiritual element that is the bloodline and the message of this wonderful story; only without thinking of our own curse and our own apparently crippling issues can we really be free to appreciate the value of others. Only then can we break from inflated self-purpose to the love of another. 

Howl sympathizes with Sophie's curse, but is also conceited himself. Though selflessly fighting in a war and using his powers which he derived from Calcifer, he still at heart perceived himself to be at the center, until finally the war becomes too destructive and he recognizes that Sophie's love of him is another thing that he must consider. His realization is slower and his own issue of being unable to see outside of himself greater; since a young child he has been possessed with great power and influence, and his distance from the reality that exists outside him becomes greater as the film unfolds. Gradually his involvement with Sophie becomes more meaningful and he takes her to a place that he has especially found for her; a place that is quiet and verdant, and resplendent with greenery and flowers. His transformation into a sympathetic and more caring character leads Sophie to overwhelming compassion for him and she becomes devoted to him after that point.

The story is often sublime, Joe Hisaishi's score always captivates, whilst the vivid animation draws out such inexplicable emotion and familiarity that is sometimes disarming. It becomes not just a story of a pair who fall in love but a universal symbol of what it really means to find meaning and power with oneself and the people who surround you. Calcifer is a star fallen from the sky and caught, resembling that power that we have over nature but which does not belong to us. The inevitable moral is that that power must be relinquished or at the very least kept and regarded with an utmost of respect and care.

The story is of a woman who is lost in introspection, and how she is cruelly transformed by a witch who is desperately trying to find Howl and consume his heart- Calcifer- with those ephemeral qualities which she would like to live longer. Howl is a character who cannot save himself from his own creation; having brought a star from the sky he has let its influence guide him and it will eventually consume him and take him from his body and love. His reckless belief in himself leads him to the brink of his destruction but for Sophie's love, which is simple though enough to save him from himself.  

(I shall finish this later...)