howl's moving castle

Rating: 7/10 (15 July 2005)

Having seen Spirited Away I came to this movie with high expectations. However those were slightly dampened by again seeing the Disney brand attached to this man's wonderful work. I have browsed a lot of sites, reviews, etc to see if anybody else came away from this movie with the same impression as me and so far I have not seen any similar views. Maybe some of this site's users can give me some feedback. The references to The Wizard of Oz are numerous and obvious and yet there seems to be a subtext here that is not so much explained by The Wizard of Oz but is more in keeping with a Japanese man who knows his work will be distributed by a major American company. The images of war and aerial bombings are not in keeping with a treatment of Oz and it is only when you view the "Wicked Witch of the Waste" in her powerless state with her bulbous, purple nose puffing on a cigar that only one character comes to mind. Winston Churchill! This movie to me is a Japanese viewpoint on World War II. When viewed in this light even the blob-men who come out at night during bombings take on a cancerous appearance that echoes the mutations suffered by generations of Japanese civilians post Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Even the main character, Howl, suffers a struggle of duality where he was once blonde, beautiful and pure but is increasingly in danger of turning into a large black bird due to his increasing involvement in war. The more this movie continues the more his bird-form resembles the black eagle of Nazi Germany. To me this movie is an attempt to explain the duality of Japan's involvement in the war. Continue to fight and end up as the fascist state of the southern hemisphere or withdraw and yield to the inevitable revenge bombings of the US as retaliation for Pearl Harbour. You may call me mad but there are many more instances to support this theory scattered throughout the movie and that is why I don't think this is a great movie. It is too concerned with making a heartfelt point while dressing it up in a more superficial wrapping as a Wizard of Oz-like commentary on age and beauty. However, this is probably the most subversive movie we will see for many a time.