Hayao Miyazaki's "Howl's Moving Castle"

[osaraba]

I guess I'll preface by saying that I've only seen a few of Miyazaki's movies: Mononoke Hime, Kiki's Delivery Service, and now Howl's Moving Castle. (Also, I know that Miyazaki didn't direct Grave of the Fireflies, but did he have some part in it?) GotF was just disturbingly amazing; saw it subbed at an anime club meeting. MH sucked; saw it in the theater, dubbed. KDS was really good; saw it subbed, also at a club meeting.

Howl's Moving Castle. I saw it tonight (its premiere date), dubbed, at the Loews theater at Lincoln Square. It was... amazing. Really, truly. I liked it from the beginning. It has a lot of elements that are characteristic of Miyazaki's direction, easy for one who has not seen all that many of his films to spot. I really enjoyed the complexity and depth of the story. I even thought that Howl was bishounen and too kirei and awesome for words. I want him. He's mine. =D I don't really want to give away the story, and seeing as how it's already 4:30am, I'm too tired to really go into detail, so no story description. If you want one, you can go here.

HOWEVER. . . [if you don't want to read possible SPOILERS, please make sure your background is #6d6d6d or read this post in my journal instead.]

I HATED the ending! It was such a cop-out! There was amazing build up throughout the movie -- really beautiful, complex thoughts -- like, how love makes you young and can set you free; like, how misconceptions of beauty affect us, and more. But the last 10 minutes was a cheat! All of a sudden, the thing that Sofi had to do was too easy, too simple, and they lived happily ever after. There was no depth to it, and everything was all neatly wrapped up for your viewing pleasure.

How disgusting! How disappointing! I had resigned myself to watching the dub (I went because a whole bunch of friends I haven't seen in a long time were going), but the voice acting wasn't as bad or disappointing as the horrible horrible ending. I'm really unable to get past my disappointment over this.

I have to give one thing to Miyazaki, he really creates amazingly well-developed characters. I really love that since I'm generally more appreciative of a good character than a good plot. However, he has to learn how to end his movies in a better way! (Chris says that he just can't end his movies; I guess I have to agree.)

In the end, I would really like to see the subbed version when it comes out (on the 17th?). I'd like to see what things are different/off/etc., even though I know I'll be disappointed at the end again. =(

Howl is awesome. I want him for my very own. (Or at least, an icon of him.)

Comments

[sharona1x2.livejournal.com]

Jay and I are hoping to see it next weekend. We think we'll end up seeing somewhere in NJ, since I doubt it'll play anywhere closer to us.

[osaraba]

Well, I look forward to hearing your opinion of it once you've seen it. Despite the little problem I had with it (which I won't mention since I suspect you didn't read my spoiler), I still really enjoyed it!

Besides, I'm rather critical of fiction stories. >_<;

[windbourne.livejournal.com]

Sadly, the ending isn't entirely his fault. The book ended rather abruptly, too (though certainly not as...simply). I got to watch both versions over the last few days and, mysteriously, actually liked the dub better. The best theory I've heard is that, because the original story was in English, it made more sense to my ears to hear it that way. O_o; There are other things, but definitely go see it both ways--there are excellent points in both. And read the book for much more development and weirdness, especially for the scarecrow and Witch of the Wastes. :D

[osaraba]

I wanted to read the book, but then was worried by the abrupt/simple ending. But if you say there's much more development, I shall be glad to read it! Did you read the book before seeing the movie(s)? I'll be sure to post a comment about what I think of the sub (vs. dub), as well as the book (vs. movie) once I've seen/read them. ^^

Thanks for the info!