Howl’s Moving Castle: How Love Transcends War

Howl’s Moving Castle 

Studio: Ghibli  

Director: Hayao Miyazaki’s 

Starring (English Voice Cast): Emily Mortimer, Christian Bale, and Lauren Bacall.  

Runtime: 1h 59min. 

Rating: 5 Stars 

Along the line of Miyazaki’s trend to turn classic children’s literature into works of art, Howl’s Moving Castle is no different. Loosely based off of the book of the British author Diana Wynn Jones, only this unfaithful interpretation of Jones’ book feels a lot different than all of Miyazaki’s previous works. Howl’s Moving Castle is what I like to call Miyazaki’s most optimistically bleak works of art.  

Howl’s Moving Castle, following the long line of well-deserved success films like My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke and Kiki’s Delivery Service, is Miyazaki’s ninth directed feature, and the 14th animation to be released by Studio Ghibli. Howl’s Moving Castle is an Anime Childrens film that manages to compact an abundance of adventure, romance, action, drama and fantasy while still maintaining an excellent plot with vibrant characters that move the story along in a whimsical way.  

Howl’s Moving Castle is one of those films that I find a different appreciation for at every age I watch it. At the ripe age of five, I was mesmerized by the use of color and music, but unable to wrap my head around the plot. Now, at 20, I watched this movie with a new perspective and was finally able to grasp onto the bleakness of what the movie is actually trying to say. I believe this movie to be not only Miyazaki’s best work, but the most optimistic despite the bleakness of the storyline. It’s therefore undoubtedly become one of my favorite movies of all time.  

One of the best things about Howl’s Moving Castle is that it doesn’t only fit into one genre, it was created prolifically. It is telling from his other movies; Miyazaki has never been an “in the box” kind of director. Miyazaki only takes only the base elements from Jones’ book and discards the rest. Rather than a recreation of Jones book, it is a reconstruction of the central idea with friendly characters and well-disposed environments however placed into a story that holds a lot more weight.  

Warning, there will be spoilers going forward.  

Howl’s Moving Castle, at its core, is about the Iraq War, but not a war film, which was something I couldn’t really grasp as a young child enjoying this movie. To me, at its core, Howl’s Moving Castle is an anti-war film. It is prevalent throughout the movie that there is a war going on, and that it’s never really explained and is always detested by the main characters. The reason for the war not being explained is because it’s pointless and needs no explanation because war is pointless. Miyazaki contrasts scenes with the beauty of simply existing and continually compares it with destruction and darkness. It inexplicitly shows a society being manipulated into believing war is justifiable, just like the US government did during the Iraq war.   

It’s impactful, more so than Miyazaki’s other films, where he would subtly mention his stance on war and other issues. An example of this would be Ponyo, where a character subtly makes comments about how are destroying the environment or Princess Mononoke, where there’s a war between villages and the main character continually brings up how he doesn’t believe in the pointless fighting. Howls Moving Castle’s anti-war message is blunter in the way it displays the horrible atrocities of war, and yet I still believe it to be Miyazaki’s most optimistic work.  

The plot of Howl’s Moving Castle takes place in the Kingdom of Ingary and follows the love story of Sophie, an overly humble hat maker with a lack of self-confidence but an extreme amount of idealism who lives an uneventful life until she meets a young Wizard named Howl. Howl is a childish wizard, whose talents demand responsibilities he refuses to accept, and so he spends his whole life fleeing from them. Jealous of Sophie and Howl, another Witch, the Witch of the Waste, bestows a curse upon Sophie that ages her prematurely. The story follows Sophie, now an old lady, as she tries to figure out a way to break this curse, all while a war is breaking out in the Kingdom of Ingary.  

The plot works fundamentally with the settings, themes, and characters. Miyazaki does an extraordinary job of developing characters by showing precisely the way in which Howl, and Sophie accidentally fall in love. He uses their love to contrast the war that’s going on in the background of the story.  

The most memorable part of this movie for me was the artistry. Howl’s Moving Castle’s Animation fantasy is something I don’t believe could be captured in a live action. The cinematography in this movie, just like all of Miyazaki’s movies, absolutely makes the film. I also believe Howl’s Moving Castle’s artistry is a culmination of all of Miyazaki’s films leading up to it. The movie was produced digitally, according to Awn.com, however, everything was first drawn and painted by hand, then scanned, then manually retouched after everything was assembled. Not a single frame in this movie feels artificial. The use of color is astounding and evokes whatever emotion is intended for the viewer. It is because of this, that no two shots in the film feel similar.  

The script, translated from Japanese to English, displays the interactions between complex characters. It does a really good job of writing a love letter for Sophie, who doesn’t believe her life to be destined for excitement or love but shows an overwhelming amount of compassion to everyone who crosses her path, and Howl, who grows from a boyish radical that runs away from his obligations into someone who faces them head on. The script effortlessly builds a family.  

The soundtrack which is mainly made up of piano compositions by Joe Hisaishi, brilliantly adds and helps move the story along. Hisaishi’s compositions not only perfectly capture the romance of Howl’s Moving Castle, but also capture the contrasting straightforwardness of how terrible war is.  

Howl’s Moving Castle is Miyazaki’s most optimistic not only because of how overwhelmingly comforting the film is, but because of the way it gets across its message: love transcends war. It is an escape filled with clichés in a way that moved me, and it is well worth watching.