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Western Qualities of Howl's Moving Castle

Page history last edited by Kathryn Hansen 14 years, 3 months ago

Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle bears the signs of heavy Western influence, an interesting mixture with his talents in the anime genre of film. Being based on the eponymous book of British origins, it is easy to attribute the overriding Western aspects of the film to the story's original form. Miyazaki deliberately plays with thematic elements of Eastern and Western cultures in the film, running them side by side in his fantasy world where some of the most extravagant things can also be some of the most mundane. This page explores some of the implications of that mixture in the film.

 

Western Imagery

 

Probably the most apparent Western quality in Howl's Moving Castle is the imagery of people and places. Below are two examples from the beginning of the film of the imagery used by Miyazaki to give a much more Western feel from the early establishing shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first image shows the general populace in Sophie's hometown, all of whom strike me as very Western looking characters. These pale skinned people, men with thick moustaches, three-piece suits, and top hats, and women in Victorian dresses with parasols look more attuned to a Charles Dickens novel than a Miyazaki film. Creating a cast of Western-looking anime characters seems very out of place for this specific genre of film, but I think Miyazaki uses these styles for his characters to reflect the grander theme of harmony within Howl's Moving Castle. Alongside the narrative of the film and the interesting depiction of the environment, creating this Western look for a Japanese style of film making works as excellent imagery for Miyazaki's attempt at showing accordance in different areas of the world--the grand and the mundane, humans and the environment, Eastern and Western traditions.

 

Western Ideology

 

It is clear that this film is aware of its Western origins, and because of that awareness, it is able to play with basic Western traditions and comment on some Western ideology both in serious and playful ways. An excellent example of this is the scene in which Sophie, Markl, and Howl all have breakfast together in the castle:

 

 

Bacon and eggs constitutes the quintessential American breakfast, certainly not the "proper breakfast" Markl would refer to if this film were trying to be strictly Japanese. Sophie, who has yet to meet Howl in her newly enchanted old age, attempts to pass herself off as a housekeeper for the castle.  Someone who would typically do the cleaning and cooking from a Western mode of thinking. But instead of sitting back and allowing Sophie to finish cooking this American breakfast, Howl takes charge. This "men don't enter the kitchen" stereotype is one now being broken in cultures around the world today and, in a way, this segment comments on values and traditions that have begun to stray across those borders of stereotypes. This isn't a scene evocative of 1950s American culture like "Leave it to Beaver," nor is this trying to pass as old Eastern tradition like Disney's Mulan. Instead, Miyazaki again shows harmony in the interaction of these characters and the interaction of the influential Western culture with  the "Eastern-ness" seemingly inherent in Japanese animation. This scene shows how  different traditions or ideals can interweave to make a cohesive scene.

 

Following a British story allows Howl's Moving Castle to juxtapose Eastern storytelling with the formulaic Western fairy tale. Much of the plot follows traditionally Western fairy tales, and the ending of this film makes a bit of a quip about the repetetive ending of so many Western fairy tales.

 

 

As a Western audience, we expect everything to work out in the end for the protagonists. Though they may pass through hardships; the end always points towards a happy future. And Miyazaki doesn't disappoint, necessarily. In fact, it takes only a matter of seconds to uncover true love, save Howl's life, and end the oppressive war. This is Miyazaki's Eastern jab at the predictable outcome of Western fairy tales, that no matter what, Dorothy gets to go home in the end. But the brevity of this traditionally important part of fairy tales shows a different point of view on this type of ending and makes it, arguably, the most unrealistic part of this film. Many reviews deride this ending as "disappointing," and probably because they expected the return of Calcifer and defeat of Sulliman to last more than two minutes [1]. This supposed letdown of a conclusion, I think, is intended to leave the viewer with an inoccently self-deprecating laugh about in essence, the ridiculous ending of all fairy tales. Though Miyazaki strictly followed the formula of a (Western) "fairy-tale ending," he did it in a way to leave a lingering question of the reality of those endings. Letting the villain shake her head and shrug off her disapproval at "a happy ending after all."

 


Works Consulted

 

[1] Ward, Cynthia. "Harmonic Convergences: A Review of Howl's Moving Castle." Locusonline. 14 June 2005. Web. 8 December 2009

 

Comments (1)

Sean Desilets said

at 12:36 pm on Dec 10, 2009

* The difference between _Howl's_ ending and the fairy tale ending, it seems to me, is that the film concludes not with a marriage and the punishment of the villains, but with the formation of a new family that is *inclusive* of the film's apparent villains. I don't know that this is "eastern," but it certainly flies in the face of the ending (and beginning) of _The Wizard of Oz_, to which the page alludes (as does the film).

* As usual, a thoughtful and compelling page

* That same breakfast scene continues with one of the most dramatically "eastern"-seeming moments in the film--that iconographic letter-spell burning itself into the table.

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