You can’t change what’s far away from you Love is a flame that remains constant during every stage of life, and for Miyazaki it becomes the glue between moments of life that are away from each other. And in the movie, we often happen to see Sophie fluctuating halfway between the advanced age (gray hair that no longer go away) and the strength of youth (when her face loses every wrinkle and turns again into a child’s one): it’s when her feelings for Howl are stronger. In any case, one thing is sure: when you love, you no longer age. Being old gives you physical ailments, it makes you notice “how hard it is to move”, but it also gives you an astuteness that you don’t have when you’re young, and the wisdom of who always knows what’s right. Youth and old age are themes always present in the film, from the moment when little Sophie is transformed into an old lady, for a curse that will last the whole vision. I’m done running away, now that I have something I want to protect.
But some scenes later, Howl himself explains his change to Sophie, when she asks him not to fight, to flee from the war: “I’m sorry. In the second part of the movie, Sophie lists to the Suliman some of Howl’s character flows, and cowardice is one of them. In the novel Howl is a womanizer, in the movie this trait has been reduced but the protagonist is still a elusive character, who struggles to bind with others, carrying a peculiar selfishness. Universally valid messages, as often oriental art wants to spread, worth remembering from time to time. But one thing that distinguishes Miyazaki’s Castle from the other films is the strong educational component of the story, which is taken from the novel by Diana Wynne Jones but, through Miyazaki, moves often on different directions, in order to send specific messages. Among the most beloved and successful movies produced by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, Howl’s Moving Castle sums up many of the elements that the Japanese filmmaker loves: the extreme fantasy, the magic that penetrate reality, the shapes of the imaginary creatures (or even buildings) that overcome the wildest creativity.