Collie's Bestiary - Stormtiger

Synopsis

Sophie, a lonely girl who works in a hat shop, is literally swept off her feet by the charismatic but disguised wizard Howl. Shortly thereafter the jealous Witch of the Wastes curses Sophie by aging her body to that of a 90 year old woman, and Sophie must flee her home in order to figure out how to lift the curse. On her quest out into the Wastes Sophie meets various strange characters whom she aids or befriends: Turnip-head the scarecrow, the boy apprentice Markl, the fire demon Calcifer, and others, as she shelters in the strange, dilapidated, and famous moving castle of the wizard Howl.

However, Sophie refuses to give up hope, determinedly cleaning up the filthy castle and interjecting a note of calm pragmatism into the over-emotional and irresponsible Howl's life. The castle itself is practically one of the characters, driven as it is by the demon Calcifer's will, and provides a magical connection to various towns as well as viewpoints on Howl's personality.

Against the backdrop of Miyazaki's trademark beautiful scenery, in spite of the incipient war and its ensuing loss of humanity, Sophie faces challenges and strange characters before true love triumphs in the end -- although who is whose true love is sometimes at question.

A treat for the eyes

Yet again, Miyazaki has created a lush and lovely world which is easy to fall into. His characters are usually complex, fully realized, and interesting, and the strange technology is believable and visually engrossing. I love his peculiar "steam-punk" cars, ships, and flying vehicles -- especially his flyers. Miyazaki has a love affair with flight and the sky, and once again it is shown to beautiful effect in this movie. Rolling fog performs like curtains in a play: one moment parting just enough to reveal magical mysteries, then just as swiftly hiding again; sunlight and starlight alike dance through low clouds to bewitchingly highlight danger as well as beauty.

As with many Japanese movies, pause is given to set the scene, which allows us to admire the long, rolling, beautiful vistas: brilliant snow-capped mountain peaks, flower-filled valleys of incredible serenity and loveliness, rippling clear water flowing over shining pebbles. The shots of the various towns are equally fascinating, filled with graceful, industrious people in neo-Edwardian finery going about their business.

Even the long-shots of the war zones are visually compelling: ruddy smears of flickering flame lighting up destroyed, distant horizons while the viewer soars high above; darting sparks flicking dangerously close from the sudden, bursting fire-flowers of exploding bombs below, irregularly visible through the smoky, wind-blown night.

Howl himself is one of the mysteries Sophie must decipher, braving his charm and overweening vanity as much as his perplexingly childish mood swings, his multiple aliases, his frequent prolonged absences, and his apparent inability to behave like an adult. As Sophie discovers more about the beautiful, haphazard, but also curiously dilapidated castle, so too does she come to better understand its emotionally immature creator, and his stifling link with the perpetually cranky but good-hearted Calcifer.

As with the curse Sophie bears, Calcifer cannot tell others about the curse connecting it and Howl. However, Sophie soon figures out it has something to do with Howl being heartless, and that if either Howl or Calcifer dies, the other will die as well. She agrees to help Calcifer break the curse if the demon will then help her with her own curse.

Watching from the shadows is the smooth, brilliant, and dangerously manipulative Madam Suliman, a powerful wizard to whom Howl was formerly apprenticed, and who never clearly identifies as friend or foe. Howl fears facing her, for she insists he must grow up or be contained, as the heartless are too much a loose cannon, too dangerous, to allow them to run around loose.

Confections for the mind

There's so much beauty, so much visual imagination here that it's a bit disappointing to realize later how simple the plot is, and that the usual Miyazaki anti-war motif dominates the story background. This is not to say it's a bad motif, or that the movie was less than enjoyable, but I found my sheer, amazed wonder at Nausicaa: the Valley of the Wind to be missing from this movie. Indeed, much of the story's background is simply left unexplained, as unnecessary to the immediate plot.

This makes for a very streamlined story with absolutely no unneeded details in it -- but it also means there's nothing there that isn't immediately relevant. If someone mentions the Prince is missing, you know that's integral to the plot and will be important later. If a falling star looks and sounds momentarily like a humanoid entity, then fades away and dies, that too is critical and should be remembered. Any and all decorative, non-essential elements within the story are visual only, like pretty flowers in a field. No one does or says anything unless it's directly relevant to advancing the plot.

The actual plot is mostly classic fairy tale: plain girl is cursed and flees, aids strangers who become her friends and later aid her, enabling her to free her magical true love from his curse -- at which time, due to love conquering all, she also defeats her own curse and realizes her own inner beauty. It's a straightforward story... and frankly it worries me.

It would be lovely if true love truly conquered all -- and in the process magically transformed childish, petulant boy-men into caring, thoughtful adults -- but I've never, ever seen it happen. Unfortunately love, no matter how blind or needy, will not instantly change a bad (or even just badly spoiled) person into a good one. All too often in real life what appears to be just like a lovely modern fairy tale crashes and burns on the jagged edges of harsh reality.

What's left is the damaged remains of some poor woman who desperately and unstintingly gave her all, who is now doomed to wonder where she went wrong. Did she not give enough of herself; was she not loving enough? Her "true love" wasn't magically redeemed, must it have been due to some fault or lack in her? Fairy tales such as Miyazaki's version of this tale would tell her it was indeed her fault, instead of noting that sometimes whiny pretty-boys really are nothing more than spoiled brats -- not magical princes in disguise just waiting for a patient female doormat to kiss them and make everything all better.

Perhaps I'm getting jaded and cranky as I get older, but I'd so love to see beauty and artistic talent like Miyazaki's applied to a truly worthy story. Instead of a heroine who is accepted mostly for her housekeeping skills, wouldn't it be nice to see a heroine who was also magical and amazing? Perhaps she's a talented wizard herself, or a noted warrior, or a creative artisan of unsurpassed skill.

Wouldn't it be nice if her main characteristic was more than a mute, dogged determination to unrequitedly adore -- despite being treated like a servant? How fascinating it would be to see a story where the heroine herself was pursued as a worthy partner, rather than having to pursue until her unrespected love somehow brings the hero to his senses!

It's a pity Miyazaki didn't follow Wynne Jones's characterizations a bit more closely in this respect, since Wynne Jones's version of Sophie is a wizard in her own right by story's end. Other differences in the book included Sophie's having two sisters, as well as a connection between the story world and our world. For example, Wizard Sullivan (who is male in the book), the Witch of the Wastes, and Howl himself are all from Wales.

Interestingly, Wynne Jones's women are all more competent (and nicer) than Miyazaki's. The three sisters are all capable of spell-casting and care deeply for each other; Fanny, their mother/step-mother, genuinely tries to do her best for them all when they are left destitute by their father's death. Mrs. Fairfax the witch isn't tremendously powerful but she is generous, perceptive, and competent; even the Witch of the Wastes has some pathos in her malevolent power. There is no one like Miyazaki's Wizard Sullivan in Wynne Jones's book, smoothly and heartlessly puppeteering people even as she decries their irresponsible heartlessness.

Also interesting is Wynne Jones's inclusion of a riddle from a poem by John Donne and a mystery regarding two missing men, the which adds a bit of prophecy and distraction to the story. Unfortunately Miyazaki's story has no such subtleties -- it is yet another lovely rendition of his anti-war, love-conquers-all plotline which I first saw in Nausicaa. I really liked it then; it was new and amazing and breath-takingly beautiful. It's even more gorgeous in this movie, but I found myself wishing afterwards, once I'd had time to think about it, that Sophie'd had a bit less blind adoration and a bit more spine and magical talent.

The war occurring in the background of the movie felt almost incidental to Sophie's dilemma, despite the critical effect it had on her life. I would have liked more information both on it, and on the astonishingly manipulative-seeming Madam Suliman -- an hour could easily have been added to the movie just to fill in more about the world itself. Overall the movie is beautiful and enjoyable, and I wouldn't mind seeing it again so as to be sure I didn't miss anything in those lovely backgrounds. That's one thing Wynne Jones's charming book just can't do, unfortunately -- show us beauty like Miyazaki's.

In conclusion, Miyazaki's movie was as richly, satisfyingly beautiful as usual -- but the plot left me with a faint bad taste in my mouth. His revisions of Wynne Jones's book left us with a story that is not new or fresh, although up until Sophie turns into a metaphorical doormat, the characters are lovely.

Reader Comments

08.23.05: Ian's thoughts

(and my replies)

It's really odd, the timing of that release. It was kind of offputting to hear Christian Bale flipping out about his hair, when right next door you could hear him fighting with Ra's Al Ghul...

You're funny -- took me a moment to figure out what you meant here. ;)

08.26.05: Chandra's thoughts

(and my replies)

If you liked Miyazaki's movie of Nausicaa, you should try the original manga (also by Miyazaki). You can't fit more than a thousand pages of story into a two-hour movie, so he had to throw 75% of the story away and simplify what was left.

I started reading them when they were coming out in comic book form, but missed a few and got hopelessly lost. I decided to wait for the graphic novels, but somehow never got around to picking them up. I should do that now! Thanks for reminding me. ;)