MovieChat Forums > Hauru no ugoku shiro (2005) Discussion > A little too surreal

A little too surreal

posted 8 years ago by cooler56
3 replies | jump to latest

It is often said that the difference between fantasy and surrealism is that fantasy "makes sense." It is encapsulated within its own world that is run by certain rules, and logic.

However, I found that this film used a lot of imagery that was not well explained or tied into the plot and the overall fantasy theme. Usually Miyazaki is great with creating an airtight seal around his fantasy worlds, but this movie raised a lot of questions.

My explanation is that the movie had to leave out a lot of things that the book explains. And reading the synopsis of the book confirms my theory.

In the film, there were a lot of things that may seem "cute" at first but overall feel uncomfortable when trying to fit them into the grand scheme of things. For example, I couldn't comprehend how "silly" a lot of the characters were. I think Miyazaki genuinely hates the concept of an irredeemable "villain" so he had to make characters like the Witch of the Waste silly and ridiculous in character even though she started out as a very malevolent being.

I found Howl too "Willy Wonka" like. Yes, he uses his charming demeanor to hide his inner pain but I found that he just behaved a little too ridiculous overall. And there are things in the film that are not well tied into the plot, like Howl flying around like a scarecrow in a warzone (part of a war that is not explained) killing off magical beings. It's almost like he does it for fun.

Or even Suliman, who has a very "lawful neutral" demeanor and we are never really sure if she wants Howl dead or not? She doesn't seem to care either way in the end, and neither does she seem to care about prolonging the mysterious war that she has waged.

Overall, this film seems to be more like an Alice-in-Wonderland acid trip for Sophie instead of a magical adventure. There were too many things that we just had to take "for granted," and a lot of non-sequitur narrative that just seemed to go everywhere. I found that there was not a lot of opportunity to really grasp the gravity of the themes and characters and how it is all connected. The film seems to treat it all as a big joke with a happy ending. Because it is a children's movie? I don't know.

But I won't let all of that take away from the fact that this film is beautifully done.

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I agree. This was the least coherent of Miyazaki's films.

Who's at war and why is never explained. We have no idea what Suliman's goal was. The relationship between Sophie and her mom made no sense. Sophie left on her own because she got turned into an old lady. Then later her mom tells her she can come back as if she had been cast out while in fact she was missing.

Another thing that made little sense to me were the black goo monsters. They serve the witch early in the movie...but still try to attack Howl's castle when the Witch is pacified and powerless.

[–] darkfrances (47) 4 years ago

I have just assumed that the goo monsters were still trying to protect the Witch of the Waste, even in her powerless state. But that point could have been made more clear.

As to the mother - she is relatively aloof and careless, on the one hand. On the other, when she meets Sophie at Howl's house she had been sent by Suliman, so we can assume that a discussion between the two had taken place. That mother is willing to betray her daughter and her friends is pretty nasty, and the info that she was a stepmother would have been helpful.

As to Suliman's goal... Now that I think a bit more about it, I think she wanted Howl to be less of a wild card. He was not entirely loyal to the court (we're not sure what enemies he was fighting in the various times he was away from home), plus she knew he had given his heart to a demon, and that was bound to have bad consequences. She would rather have an obedient Howl at her side, but a Howl depleted of his powers was still a reasonable alternative to wild Howl.

[–] darkfrances (47) 4 years ago

Hmm, I looked up the book's synopsis, and it seems indeed that the movie changed / eliminated various aspects. And it did make the war a bit confusing - although I suspect that the point was that war was bad and all parties involved should stop it no matter who was who.

Suliman's behavior is confusing indeed. I assumed she just happened to be under the King's command, so she was doing what the king wanted (which was war) - but this does not explain clearly enough her attitude to Howl.

I have also noticed that Miyazaki's movies tend to contain no villains - there is no bad character, instead the various nasty situations arise from mismatched plans or needs, by missing the broad picture, or by genuine mistakes. However, I find this rather interesting and satisfying: it seems to genuinely regard various matters from multiple perspectives. Just as it happens in real life - there are no arch-villains, just people who want or need something that is incompatible with somebody else's needs or wants... You know how it's said that history is written by the victors? I'd say the same about moral values and the rift between right and wrong: on a social scale, it's written by the victorious mentality. On an individual scale, it's written by whatever one-sided perspective gets ahold of us.
So a villain is usually only a villain if we limit our angle.
At least this is how I see things - there are no villains around me, although plenty of discomfort has come to me from other people. It's just that this discomfort comes usually without ill intent, and even when there IS ill intent, it's usually caused by something independent of me (hunger, tiredness, a dying parent, a lost job etc.).

Overall, I do find a lack of villains far from childish.

As to the general cute/funny mood - personally I haven't thought that it diminished the more serious themes of the movie, but I haven't read the book, and a brief plot synopsis wouldn't help here too much.