Don't watch it!

Rating: 1/10 (15 June 2005)

Short answer: It was so far the worst Miyazaki film.
Long Answer: This movie had the most underdeveloped plot and seemed like a quick financial solution to the Studio Ghibli's film, Neko no Ongaeshi, a film about a girl that visited Cat's kingdom and almost turned into a cat herself. This film became a block buster hit in Japan when it came out during Winter break just because of the director's fame. I was greatly disappointed by its corny love story and obvious ending. There were beautiful natural sceneries, as Miyazaki film does, but he stressed too much on romance ever since the ending of Spirited Away. There were repeated scenes from his previous movies, like Flying Castle and especially on Princess Mononoke and seemed a bit repetitious. His theme of flying wizard was probably from his first work of Naussica. What I liked about Miyazaki was not only his art skill, but his way of leaving out the ending for audience to speculate. Well, this movie smacked me right in the face with its obvious ending, and left me greatly disappointed. If he spent on working out a plot a little longer, it could have been better. Since he didn't, not worth watching but just to comment on how bad it was.