The first time I watched Howl's Moving Castle was around the time of my sophomore year in graduate school. I remember discussing this movie with my classmates in the Japanese department, and most of the female students were amazed by Hal's peerless handsome face, and even became so intoxicated and obsessed that they didn't bother to continue to deal with me who was mediocre but was already picking my toes at the discussion scene.
Twenty years later, I became my mentor, and I talked about the old topics and new topics of this recently released film with my graduate students, perhaps because most of us are engaged in war research, in addition to showing the same star eye for the male protagonist, Miyazaki's anti-war concept has also become one of the central topics. As a result, our discussion jumps back and forth between the warm myth of love and the cold concept of war, which makes people feel quite torn and confused. The benevolent Leshan, the wise Leshui is naturally understandable, but vaguely I always feel that some kind of logic that can connect the two has been easily dismissed when we have our own enjoyment. For example, whose war is this war, why did it start, and what does the love (war) setting mean to war (love).
The heroes and heroines in the film, Hal and Sophie. Data map
After watching the film many times, my eyes fell on the inconspicuous four-color turntable by the castle gate, and I became more and more convinced that it would be a key to solving the mystery.
Four-color wheel: passive escape and freedom in the wilderness
Sophie, who wanders to Howl's mobile castle to earn a living because she was enchanted by the Witch of the Wilderness, discovers on the second day that the castle owner's life is switched between spaces by controlling the four-color turntable. Blue corresponds to Minato-cho, green corresponds to the wilderness, red corresponds to the capital city of Kingsberry, and black is only for Howl to get in and out.
The four-color turntable in the film (upper left corner of the picture). Data map
The life of the four-color turntable seems to be changeable, but in fact, it is not difficult to see from the daily pointing of the turntable hands and the morning market shopping of Sophie and Maluk that the daily life of the castle basically unfolds in Minato Town. Here, Hal assumes the alias "Jenkins the Sorcerer" and his disciple Maluk sell spells for a living.
The red moment on the turntable only appears twice, when the palace emissary summons and Sophie Tihar enters the palace, hinting at the castle owner's active distancing from power.
Hal was a timid and cowardly man, and when asked by Sophie how many names he had, Hal confessed that they were all "for the sake of a free life". This is related to the significance of the black mode in the castle's four-color wheel. In fact, this only happens the moment the castle owner enters and exits, and then immediately switches back to blue mode - apparently just to hide it. And the reason why he is so secretive and dormant is not only to avoid the "demon man" wilderness witch who is crazy about love, confused by beauty, and stalked, but also to avoid being found by the national power represented by his mentor, the royal magician Sallyman.
Hal tells Sophie that the reason why he could not refuse the king's invitation to meet him was because he had sworn allegiance when he was a child at the beginning of the school of magic. The highly talented Hal is a close disciple of Sallyman, who is the royal sorcerer and can even call on the Prime Minister and Chief of Staff. If the magicians are divided into the "official demons" in the court and the "wild demons" of the people, then Hal can become the next generation of demon kings in the "official demons" world, calling for wind and rain in the court, instead of wandering the wilderness and selling spells for a living. In the eyes of the national teacher, the kingdom has cultivated you, and serving the country is your unshirkable moral responsibility. If you don't go to the palace to see you, I am afraid that it will not only violate your personal oath, but also violate the courtesy of the monarch and ministers, and violate the friendship between teachers and students.
Despite this, Hal stubbornly made a choice - to give up the bright prospect of becoming a "demon king" and live his own "wild demon" life. In the simple him, all this is not reluctant, not torn, and there is no pretentious rhetoric such as "love has to be done" and "forced to get involved", but he is moved from the heart, between "magic + power" and "magic + freedom", he chooses the latter.
Sally Man later discovered, "The child's heart was taken away from me by the devil." His magic is for his own use." This master may not know that Hal traded his heart with the son of the stars, Cassifer, in exchange for not only a super magic power that can compete with him, but also a "freedom" in the opposition that she may not recognize.
It is a double sense of "being in the wild", not only in the sense of life, which limits the scope of the castle's activities to the inaccessible wilderness, but also reflects the spiritual and value level - he needs to ensure that he has the negative freedom to say no to power. In fact, Hal's life can be summed up in one sentence: power is precious, love is more valuable, and if it is for freedom, the head can also be thrown away.
Howl's Moving Castle in the film. Data map
Toshio Suzuki, the producer of this film, once said, "Magicians make contracts with devils and fight as weird monsters, which is the 'war' of this era." Howl, who knows magic, is the only one who has no intention of war and spends his days doing nothing. But in the movie, the most terrible "devil", the chief master of the demon world, is probably the will to war of the national power represented by Sallyman. In the eyes of the state apparatus, in the atmosphere of war in which the whole people are angry, the wandering in the wilderness that refuses to co-opt power and is free from the system of war mobilization is itself uncooperative; This is what "evil" is in the eyes of the powerful, and this is true of Hal, as is Porouk in "Porco Rosso".
The defense of the enemy in Honnoji?
One of the core plots of this movie that I care about the most is the Hongmen banquet that is convened in the name of the king.
Confronted by Sophie, Sally Man points out Howl's problem on the spot - "his magic is only for himself". You know, in fact, Hal is not a selfish person, his magic is to give back to society and benefit others, and of course, on the other hand, it is also necessary for his own life, and he does not need to be exalted.
The accusation of the national teacher is intended to condemn Hal for his lack of spiritual consciousness to serve the country. However, this accusation is somewhat untenable. Because another "wild demon", the wilderness witch who has been expelled from the court for fifty years, is full of ambition and intends to show her strength and serve the country. She thought it was because "that idiot Sally Man finally knew that he couldn't do it without my power." The witch was not only destroyed and stripped of her magic by Sallyman's magic array to invite the king into the urn, but also became a tool for the national teacher to make an example of Howl. Looking at the witch who had been beaten back to her original form, Sally Man told Sophie that the kingdom would no longer let "suspicious magicians and witches" go, and that if he "didn't come, we would take away his magic".
Here comes a dubious word - "suspicious". This is a condemning argument that does not need to be based on any facts and evidence, and it is also a cheap excuse for the palace power to intervene in society and infringe on the people. In fact, although this invitation was made in the name of the "king", it seems that what the national teacher was looking forward to was not the loyalty of "doing his best for the country", but first of all, to eliminate dissidents and purge the ranks, so that the "wild demons" would become "official demons" who spoke about the rules and became her own people, although her words were full of good intentions such as curing the sick and saving people, and even used the example of the witch of the wasteland to show that she intended to protect Hal's body and mind from being devoured by the devil. It sounded like love.
Witnessing Sallyman's heavy hand, Sophie, the "Pendraken Mother" who came to the appointment in place of Hal, stood up angrily and accused the palace of being cruel to the elderly and its conspiracy to kill people. She told the national teacher that Hal wanted freedom, not the title of demon king. At the trap designer Sally Man, the two old women were asked to climb the stairs and the palace was forbidden to help, which was naturally intended to induce the fat and frail Wasteland Witch to collapse on a chair and "sit" to die, thus dismembering her magic. In the eyes of the mortal Sophie, this is the arrogance of power and the contempt for "people", and she thus sympathizes with Howl's choice, and firmly says "no" to this terrible "love" from power for her love.
The Witch of the Wilderness (left) and Sophie (right) who are tortured by Sally Man climbing steps in the film. Data map
Courageous by Sufi's bravery, the timid Hal came to the crowd in the form of a king, even though Sally Man had already figured it all out - "Pandoraken" was Hal alias, and the person standing in front of him was his own person. To Sophie, Howl's statement pretending to be the king was quite insinuating and vigilant: "Relying on Sallyman's ability, the enemy bombs really can't destroy the palace, and they all fall on the surrounding towns." ”
Hal's attitude was in stark contrast to the real king, who was rushing to announce the imminent decisive battle to Sallyman. The king only cares about the victory or defeat of the enemy, living in the golden bell jar of magic, he can't hear the cannon fodder wailing on the front line, he can't see the misery in the neighborhood, he seems to be just a person in the chess game, and Hal cares about magic only protects the powerful, but makes innocent civilians suffer heavy casualties and bear all the consequences, which makes him see through the essence of "magic to serve the country".
The encounter between the real and false kings unexpectedly and intuitively exposes some of the core questions of all wars, such as who is fighting for whom, who is the beneficiary and who is the victim, whether the enemy and the enemy army are the only and real enemies, and whether the enemy is really in the temple.
Hal, who was discovered by Sallyman, had to move passively to avoid trouble - he couldn't afford to provoke it, but he could afford to hide. He replaced the blue and red colors in the four-color palette with yellow (Sophie's home) and pink (Howl's secret garden), away from his familiar neighborhood and political power center.
While taking Sophie into his private garden, Hal unexpectedly sees a large warship full of bombs flying through the air, and he wonders how it could pass by. In the film, when the colossal ship flies over the roof of a small house in the secret garden, the brazen intrusion and savage of power against the secret life of the individual is self-evident. Hal knew it was going to attack the town and its people. When asked by Sophie whether he was "friend or foe", he lamented, "It's all the same". When Sophie's town has been turned into a sea of fire by bombing, Maruk's accidental opening of windows has led to Sallyman's penetrating spies (such as the Rubber Man Puppet) trying to break into the house. At this point, the private world corresponding to yellow and pink has been completely violated, and Hal has no way to retreat, and he can't afford to provoke or hide.
In the film, the kingdom's giant ships pass through Howl's secret garden. Data map
The Realm of Demons: Individual Choices in War
It is highly likely that the war was triggered by the disappearance of the prince of the neighboring prince. He was cursed by the Sally Man Magic Syndicate and turned into a scarecrow and abandoned into the wilderness, and his life would have come to rest had it not been for Sophie's crooked rescue and affectionate kiss. At the end of the film, the Witch of the Wilderness asks the prince in human form to return to China to end the war, which also hints that he is the root cause of the war's problems.
In the film, the neighboring prince who was magically turned into a scarecrow. Data map
Through the video connection of the "official demon" spy dog Yinyin, Sally Man saw the prince return to his human form and return to China, so he decided to call the prime minister and chief of staff to end this "stupid war". This is not only because of the lack of strength, but also because the country's war lies will be exposed.
In this way, the disappearance of the prince of the neighboring kingdom in this country and the fact that the other party has no choice but to go to war and retaliate will be an excellent excuse for the warmonger king, who believes in the rule of magic and has long intentions against his neighbor, so that he can portray his country as an innocent victim and justify this seemingly self-defence war.
In fact, he had premeditated and prepared for a long time, and it is not difficult to see from the details of his war fanaticism, his vigorous accumulation of troops and horses, the introduction of new warships, and the incitement of public opinion by the state apparatus. In the middle and late stages of the war, the country's new warships were beaten into a sieve by its neighbors, and the opposing warships slaughtered into the harbor and dropped leaflets like snowflakes, but the military and police forbade the citizens to pick them up, because the ruling group's foolish war lies would be exposed, and they could not afford the political consequences of defeat in their own country.
All this is very similar to Japan, which was invaded by the US army at the end of the war. The refusal of Hal and other "wild demons" to recruit the "official demons" is not an evasion of distinguishing between right and wrong, but because they know very well that this is a fascist militarist state that is centralized at home, belligerent at outside, and treats human life as a mustard and is difficult to fight on its own.
As soon as the battle began, the night flight in the air made Hal see a sea of fire from the South China Sea to the north. He was unexpectedly attacked while not in the battle. Just like the rubber puppets, the monsters transformed into eagles and demons in the film, as well as the attack weapons in the shape of dragonflies and bees, are like indifferent domesticated creatures with some kind of value and identification system built-in, they do not have to bear the burden of thinking, judgment and emotional dilemmas, they only need to obey orders and act coldly. What is the difference between the masses and the soldiers who have been brainwashed by fascism?
In the film, the heroine Sophie sees the flames of war engulfing civilian areas. Data map
Once a person loses the compassion, empathy, thinking and judgment that people should have, and forgets how to cry and laugh, they will never be able to "become human again", because those speculation, warmth, pain, joys and sorrows are the supreme dignity and basic symbols that distinguish human beings from demons, ghosts and beasts.
It can be seen that war in Miyazaki's case is a struggle between people and inhumans, regardless of whether they are friends or enemies. Anti-war, anti-war, but the problem often lies before the war and outside the war. We must actively and relentlessly ask what causes "war" and drives people to "war", rather than passively accepting "war" as an immutable fact itself, which can only lead to an inconceivable self-hypnosis and barbaric moral kidnapping.
Originally isolated in the uninhabited wilderness, the sympathetic passive liberal Hal finally had no way back, he chose to take action and rushed into the flames of war. This reminds people of Liu Yiqing's "Parrot Fire Fighting". Seeing the birds and beasts in the mountains that love each other deeply, the parrots "dip their feathers in the water and fly and sprinkle them" ("Xuan Xianji"). Although the kindness of "tasting overseas Chinese is unbearable to be seen by the mountains" in myths and legends, the gods help them, but the real war often asks the parrots for more, even the price of their lives.
In fact, what drives Hal to action is his love for the people in the castle, especially Sophie. Fyodor Dostoevsky once said in The Brothers Karamazov, "Love the concrete, not the abstract." Love life, don't love the meaning of life. "Loving your neighborhood, town, mountains and rivers, loving every specific and micro life around you and defending its life and dignity means that you are loving your "country", not the king's "country";
Howl's small strength is not helpful in the battle, he can only choose to let Cassifer guard the house, while he fights outside the house, and he can at least take care of what he loves in the midst of the fire, because he meets the people he must protect.
Later, Sophie discovers that Hal, who is supported and inspired by love to fight, is seriously wounded, and may even die in the flames of battle. At this point, she told the people of the fort, "As long as we are here, Hal will not cease fighting, and I would rather he be a coward." So, Sophie made a decisive decision to take Cassifer out of the castle and let it collapse. Every cheer of the people on the side of the road facing the soldiers in the film is undoubtedly a reminder, and you will only hope that the person you love will live with flaws, and you will not hope that he will become a hero from another world. This is the light of humanity and the power of love.
In the film, Sophie tries to save a seriously injured Hal. Data map
Even with the latest warships, this unjust war for the king was inevitably defeated. Because of the last video spy sent from the front as the "official demon" spy dog, Sally Man saw that the people she wanted to incorporate finally came together by guarding each other, and even the "official demon" spy dog chose to give up the prosperous life, abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and formed a happy family with them. At this point, Sulliman pretends to say that she wants to end this "stupid war", but this is by no means the result of being moved by human warmth, it is only the result of her lack of strength and the debunking of war lies. In fact, as long as the warmonger king and his support (including, of course, the "official demon" group and its puppets, and the people who have given up thinking because of the passion of war) still exist, the "stupid war" will continue to be staged, and all they need is a ridiculous pretext.
(The author is a professor at the Department of Japanese Language and Literature, Fudan University)
Southern Weekly Contributing Writer Wang Shengyuan
Editor-in-charge: Liu Youxiang