#Howl's Moving Castle #
Re-releases of high-scoring films have become more common in recent years, with recent re-releases such as Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle, which was first released in 2004, a full 20 years ago. I believe that even if many people have not seen this movie, they must have seen it on the Internet and heard its name in other people's mouths, it is a veritable classic.
The name Hayao Miyazaki makes people feel very reliable as soon as it comes out, because this director and animator became famous in the last century, and there are many world-famous works, such as "Spirited Away", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Castle in the Sky", and the movie I want to talk about in this article is also one of his masterpieces. Judging from the evaluations of many netizens over the years, he and his works seem to have a magical healing power, which makes people feel calm and comfortable, and it is also a good childhood memory for many people.
So when this year's May Day holiday came, as soon as "Howl's Moving Castle" was released, fans couldn't wait to buy tickets to watch, and it is reported that the total pre-sale box office in April exceeded 5 million yuan. Such popularity, accumulated fame and word-of-mouth, it is easy for people like the author who have never seen it to visit, but the problem is that these first-time viewers directly disenchanted it after watching it: this is not good-looking.
After the broadcast of "Howl's Moving Castle", it was not the kind of praise that was envisioned, and not too many people said that the classic is a classic and it is really good, and more people complained about it: "I used to think it was romantic, but now I feel incomprehensible", "I can't understand it, I can't understand it at all"...... Although there are many fans who try their best to defend such remarks and do not hesitate to speak ill of each other, it is undeniable that there are a large number of non-positive reviews, and this movie has obvious loopholes.
The first is that its story line is arranged chaotically, if you read the original novel, or read the detailed analysis before watching the movie, you may be able to understand it, but it is easy to get confused if you read it without doing anything. Because there are many background conditions, details, and motivations for the characters' actions in this movie, it will make people wonder what the protagonist is doing.
For example, the heroine Sophie fell under the witch's spell, but she didn't give a detailed explanation or useful hint to this spell movie, so why she became younger and older for a while, it is difficult for the audience to guess; Another example is that the war runs through the beginning and end of the movie, but there is no decent explanation for what this war is for, who is fighting with whom, and why Sophie stopped fighting when she kissed a few members of the protagonist group at the end.
There is also the love line of the male and female protagonists, many people say that they cry for the love of the male and female protagonists, but in fact, Sophie just goes to the castle to clean up, Hal is busy all day long and doesn't know what to do, and Sophie doesn't spend much time together, and suddenly the two of them are in love to death, and the emotional line is not natural, this kind of abrupt love will not move people's hearts, it will only make people have a question mark. This also shows the flaws of the film's poor storytelling ability.
The second is the problem of obsolescence. First, the characters are outdated, especially Sophie's characters. Sophie is a very classic ordinary but extremely kind, and attracts the image of Cinderella with the male lead, which is found in many idol dramas in the early years. In the past, many viewers ate this set, but today's audience doesn't like it, for example, Sophie saved the evil mother-in-law who cursed her and took care of her, which is very puzzling. The fan's explanation is that "Sophie is originally kind", but the problem is that in the past twenty years, more new types of heroine images have appeared, and it is good that this kind of character is not scolded as a "white lotus".
Second, some of the settings that seemed ahead of their time were outdated. Seeing the end of this movie, I found that Hal would fall in love with Sophie because Sophie traveled to the future to meet Hal when he was a child before, and asked Hal to wait for him, so Hal fell in love with Sophie is fate, forming a perfect closed loop. This setting was naturally very fresh twenty years ago, but this has been used by many film and television dramas, such as "Lingbud Journey", "Your Name", "I Want to See You" and so on.
All in all, Howl's Moving Castle doesn't have a logical, coherent and clear storyline, and many of the elements are outdated. We can't deny that its painting style is unique and imaginative, but are there still few film and television dramas with a painting style and imagination? Therefore, this movie should use feelings to maintain its high reputation in the memories of those who love it, and it is not suitable for re-release, so that more people can break the beautiful filter of it.