Tsao- Howl's Moving Castle

picture from HERE

Howl's Moving Castle was another one of Miyazaki's that I really enjoyed. I genuinely chuckled out of pure enjoyment at certain points of the movie; The story was great and the movie was wonderfully directed.

This film had a lot of themes that could be easily pointed out. One of them involved the perception of beauty, and how "beauty comes from within". While Sophie was not considered beautiful compared to her sister, who got all the attention from men every day or her mother, who is married once again to someone rich, she was the most beautiful one on the inside. She was alone and to herself from the beginning of the movie because she had low self esteem, and did not feel she belonged much. She simply worked at the hat shop to fulfill the wishes of her father. Things take a sharp turn however, when Howl finds her in the alley with the soldiers. They were connected by fate from that moment that they met each other. Because of Howl, The Witch of the Waste put a curse on Sophie which turned her into an old gray-haired lady. Through this, she felt more comfortable with herself and who she was because her appearance didn't matter anymore. She could act as herself and from this learned that beauty comes from within.

Howl plays a very handsome, mysterious character. Although I didn't really understand the contract between him and Calcifer in the beginning, and why Howl chose to (or had to) make that contract with him, we learn that Howl has been waiting for Sophie this whole time to help him break the curse and get his heart back. He eventually falls in love with Sophie, and stops running away from things that he needed to face because he felt the need to protect Sophie. My favorite character in the movie would have to be Calcifer and Turnip Head, because of Calcifer's wittiness and Turnip Head's sweetness.

The Witch of the Waste has been drained her powers and turned into a harmless old grandma, but Sophie takes her in anyways even though she proposed a previous threat. This shows her kind heart and maybe why she was the chosen one to break the curse in everyone.

Though Howl eventually turns into a monster, that does not stop Sophie from loving him because he is still the same Howl on the inside. This is a repeating motif in the movie: Beauty lies from within. At the end, we see Markl and Heen and the whole family flying away happily on a new castle, and this scene just makes me feel a heartwarming feeling on the inside. This movie's concepts were not hard to grasp, which makes it appropriate for both children and adults, considering the original story was a children's story.