Post-modernists create a world that recontextualises and appropriates conventions, while also departing from modernism. Post-modernism in film attempts to subvert the prevailing conventions of narrative structure and characterisation, and evaluates the audience's suspension of disbelief. Many post-modern films have the propensity to deal with overturning archetypes through film techniques and the characterisation through the film. This particular film explores the themes of magic realism, hyperrealism and change and journey. Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ creates a post-modern world through the use of mise-en-scene, sound and music and characterisation. 

 

Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. Miyazaki, born the 5th January, 1941 in Tokyo, is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, author, and manga artist, who co-founded the renowned Studio Ghibli where many successful films were directed and produced. Miyazaki started his career in 1963 and for 50 years of story-telling through entertaining plots, compelling characters, breathtaking landscape and stupendous animation in anime feature films like ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, ‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’, ‘Only Yesterday’ and ‘Spirited Away’ have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition world-wide. Hayao Miyazaki work’s have been famed for his reoccurring themes of feminism, pacifism, environmentalism and the truancy of villains. His films are often involve the concern of child transition and a marked preoccupation with flight, which is evident in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’. Although Miyazaki is said to have a pessimistic outlook about the world, he prefers to show children a positive view of the world rather than a negative, while still rejecting the simplistic stereotypes of good and evil. Many of Hayao Miyazaki’s films are populated by strong female protagonists that subvert the archetypal gender roles common in Japanese fiction and animation. 

 

The film ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, is a 2004 Japanese animated fantasy film, based off of British author, Diana Wynne Jone’s novel of the same name. ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ depicts a young woman named Sophie is cursed by the Witch of the Waste, which turns her into an old woman, unable to tell anyone of her plight. Unable to continue her job at her mother's hat shop, she goes to the ambulatory castle of the notorious wizard Howl and insinuates herself into his household. Sophie befriends Calcifer, the fire demon who powers the castle and who is bound to Howl by a contract, the terms of which Calcifer cannot reveal. They promise to help each other with their problems. Like Calcifer, Howl can also see through the Witch's spell, and he and Sophie fall in love. Sophie helps Howl confront his former teacher, and the Witch of the Waste.

 

Hayao Miyazaki animation style is very well thought out and extensive, especially in each frame. Miyazaki is inclined to use very human-like movements in his feature films, where the art portrayed is done by using water colours. Although computer-generated imagery (CGI) was engaged starting with Princess Mononoke, and was used to give "a little boost of elegance”, Miyazaki has continued to work by hand. Miyazaki has stated in an interview with the Financial Times, “it's very important for me to retain the right ratio between working by hand and computer. I have learnt that balance now, how to use both and still be able to call my films 2D.” However, in Ponyo, Miyazaki reverted to traditional hand-drawn animations stating that “hand drawing on paper is the fundamental of animation.” 

 

Miyazaki was exposed to the world of illustrated stories during his childhood, saying that not only did he like the subject matter and artwork but also appreciated the immersion into the stories. Hayao Miyazaki has said that he was inspired to become an animator through ‘The Tale of the White Serpent’, which is considered to be the first modern anime and ‘Snow Queen’, a soviet animation, which was one of his earliest influences in animation as well as his motivation. Akira Kurosawa, successful in bringing Japanese cinematography in his films had influenced Miyazaki’s cinematography in his animations as well. The director has also publicly expressed fondness for Roald Dahl's stories about pilots and airplanes; the image in ‘Porco Rosso’ of a cloud of dead pilots was inspired by Dahl's ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’. As in Miyazaki's films, these authors create self-contained worlds in which allegory is often used, and characters have complex, and often ambiguous motivations. Other Miyazaki works, such as ‘My Neighbour Totoro’, ‘Princess Mononoke’, and ‘Spirited Away’, incorporate elements of Japanese history and mythology. Western authors including Lewis Carroll, Diana Wynne Jones and Le Guin have influenced Hayao Miyazaki’s feature films. As well as being influenced by many, Miyazaki has also influenced others such as Glen Keane, director of ‘The Little Mermaid’ and ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino have cited Miyazaki as the biggest influence on Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. Miyazaki has indicated that he sees such praise as stifling instead of encouraging the exploration of creativity and the development of a personal style in younger artists.

 

Sound portrayed in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, is heavily influential on the mood and atmosphere of the scene. While the scene has been set as a placid and a quiet atmosphere, the non-diegetic soundtrack depicts a hint of adventurous tones which foreshadows upcoming events in the film and connotes with Sophie’s personality and characteristics within the film. When Sophie has become cursed and leaves her hometown as she can not be seen as an old woman, the slow paced soundtrack of wind and brass instruments, leading into a fast beat soundtrack of an accordion and a piano, creates tension and suspense as to where she is headed. During her expedition to the witch of the waste, the consistent upbeat string and wind instruments is used to reflect the tones of change and transformation that she is persevering. For example, when Sophie has finished cleaning up the castle and looks outside, the peaceful and serene soundtrack illustrates Sophie’s happiness and content with the change she has gone through and her living conditions. Much of the change and transformation at Sophie goes through is depicted through the use of the dialogue and the tone of her voice. Before Sophie had been cursed by the witch of the waste, the tone of her voice was quite mellow and euphonious, but after she had been cursed, her voice differed according to her age but also the tone of her voice as an old woman, became wiser and sharper. Furthermore, Miyazaki’s use of sound effects in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ are extremely intentional. Sound effects used throughout the film help support the authenticity of the landscape and scenery. For example, while Sophie is in town shopping for groceries, the sounds of chatter amongst the people around the markets create a sense of legitimacy for the audience. Additional sound effects like trilling and glistening are used to reflect the magic realism that is depicted in the mundane world. For example, while Sophie is watching Howl’s childhood through the black realm, Calcifer is depicted as a shooting star, where sounds of twinkling and trilling are used to display the movement of the star. Sound plays an extremely important role in films, especially animations as there are no physical sounds that are used in the world, where Miyazaki has planned the use of sound exceptionally well. 

 

In terms of mise-en-scene in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, Hayao Miyazaki’s use of colour and lighting in his films, especially ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, is purposeful and planned exquisitely. His use of depth in colours of the world versus the colours during times of corruption and darkness contrasts harmoniously. We are first introduced to Howl’s castle when Turnip-head brings the castle to her during her journey to the witch of the waste. The castle is shown through a wide shot, where the landscape is depicted as quite mysterious and eerie due to the dull hues of grey seen in the floating clouds. The colours of the moving castle has been intentionally drawn to be dull, so that it can fit the landscape. However, the rich shades of copper, browns and greys make up the castle to be intimidating and domineering. There is an immediate juxtaposition of the castle with the way it is portrayed, as castles are usually elegant and sturdy, but the illustration of the castle contradict the convention. The castle is portrayed to look human-like, with legs, mouth, eyes and a body, where it connotes with ‘Frankenstein’, as the castle is built up of many different parts joined together, even though it doesn’t fit. The lighting conveyed in this scene is quite dark and eerie which can be interpreted as one of Sophie’s fears during her transformation and journey. Themes of hyperrealism can be apprehended in terms of the castle as the castle seems to be realistic in the world, which gives the audience an illusion of reality. Depth and the intricacy of colours is depicted in Howl’s bedroom, where there are many toys and objects that fill up his room, which foreshadows his adolescence later on in the film. We first see his room when Sophia brings milk to him after he throws a tantrum. Miyazaki has illustrated his room to be cluttered, but also luxurious considering all the gold and jewellery that is displayed. Howl’s bedroom is a disarray of many colours, the most prominent including hues of green and yellow with touches of red and purple, which can be used to symbolise his first-class status. However, his bedroom can also be interpreted as a reflection of his body and mind as through adolescence, there are many ideas and images that run through your mind. Depth of colour is also portrayed while Sophie is cleaning Howl’s bathroom where there are splashes of all the different colours of the rainbow all over the walls to once again portray his adolescence, as children normally finger-paint on walls. The mise-en-scene used in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’, is very intricate and detailed, in which Miyazaki has done this to symbolise and foreshadow what’s to come. 

 

Characterisation in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ plays an important role in revealing and telling the story. Hayao Miyazaki portrays each character with a contrasting personality to one another, where each character subverts the stereotypical convention of their gender or their personality. Sophie, the protagonist of the film, is portrayed as submissive and shy at the beginning of the film as she is encountered by guards who call her ‘cute’ and describes her as ‘a little mouse’. However, after her transition into an old woman through the curse, she becomes much more assertive and gains self-assurance. Miyazaki has conveyed Sophie’s character as a heroine, which is not what one would expect in a film, as usually a female character is portrayed as gentle and forbearing. Sophie in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ is illustrated as an independent woman, as she has had to change her entire life around due to the curse that has been cast on her. Sophie’s whole persona is subverted by Miyazaki as although she looks like an old woman, the tasks that she completes throughout the film, differs from an archetypal old lady. For example, when she is leaving Madam Sullivan’s palace, Howl tells her to fly the plane back to the castle, in which she flies it back with no complication using the magic ring that ties her to Howl and Calcifer. The characterisation of Sophie’s character in the film reveals a lot about her journey and transformation throughout the film, where she gains much knowledge and learns much more about herself while she is cursed. As before she was cursed, her attitude to society was very much sheltered and secluded, her journey as an old woman has made her become more wise. On the other hand, the characterisation of Howl’s personality in the film is slowly revealed throughout the film. In the opening scene of the film, Howl’s castle can be seen through the window of Sophie’s work station, where many other women are infatuated by him and his mysterious side. However, throughout the film, parts of his personality is shown where similar to Sophie’s character, Howl’s personality and gender is also subverted by Miyazaki. In the start of the film, Howl’s character is portrayed to be very heroic and mysterious, like a man should be, however as the story progresses, scenes subtly reveal parts of his personality, which is that he is in actuality stuck in childhood as he gave his heart away to Calcifer, a dying star. As Howl’s character is stuck in his adolescence, his personality that is revealed is that he is a coward and has been hiding away from his enemies. This subverts the convention of the typical heroic man in a film, that saves everyone in the end, where rather than Howl, Sophie emerges as the heroic figure. Characterisation in ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ progresses through the film, where Miyazaki has subtly revealed more and more about a character throughout the film to subvert conventions. 

 

Post-modernists create a world that recontextualises conventions, in which the film ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ directed by the renowned animator Hayao Miyazaki succeeds in carrying out. ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ has subverted the prevailing conventions of characterisation from archetypes. Throughout this film, the themes of hyperrealism, magic realism and change and journey have become evident to support the post-modern aspect of the film. Hayao Miyazaki’s ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ creates a post-modern world through the use of mise-en-scene, sound and music and characterisation.