"The world is so big, life is so long, there will always be such a person, so that you want to be gentle." 」
- Hayao Miyazaki, "Hal's Moving Castle"
As of 2019, Miyazaki's animated films accounted for as many as four of the top 10 box office films in Japan. Spirited Away, Hal's Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and Goldfish on the Cliff were ranked number one, five, six and tenth on the list, respectively.
Miyazaki single-handedly dominated half of Japan's domestic film market, even surpassing the powerful DreamWorks Hollywood in the United States.
In an animated screen of 24 frames per second, Miyazaki created a miracle on paper. With "Spirited Away", Miyazaki won the Golden Bear For Best Film at the 52nd Berlin International Film Festival, which is the first animated film in the history of the world's three major international film festivals to win the award.
In 2005, Miyazaki received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival. Miyazaki broke the two-dimensional limit through his animation works and became internationally famous as an animation director.
Since co-founding Studio Ghibli with Takada and Toshio Suzuki in 1985, a total of eighteen feature-length animation works directed by Hayao Miyazaki have been released, which are basically well-known classics.
Miyazaki once said, "To create an animation is to create a virtual world that comforts the souls of those who have lost their courage and are struggling with the cruel reality." ”
Miyazaki's animated films have a distinct personal style, and the tone of the colorful fantasy world is warm and sad, conveying a kind of reflection and reflection on reality.
Each of his works is closely related to the heartbeat of the times, such as "Princess Mononoke" released in 1997, which reflects the relationship between man and nature, and the environment is condemned by disasters from nature after its destruction, and its background connection is the Kobe earthquake in 1995.
Released in 2001, "Spirited Away" expresses the story of Chihiro entering a lost world and finding herself after being robbed of her name by Grandma Tang, and its corresponding background is: the "lost decade" since the collapse of Japan's bubble economy in 1991, and it is also a new turning point in the new century.
"Hal's Moving Castle", released in 2004, is an anti-war animation that tells the love story of The Magician Hal and the ordinary girl Sophie in the context of war. It reflects the context of the Iraq War.
Miyazaki himself was so disgusted with war that he missed the Oscars in 2003 and wrote a manifesto: "It is a very sad thing that such an unfortunate situation is happening in the world today, and although it is won, it is impossible to rejoice." Therefore, the character of Hal was also given an anti-war personality, although timid and cowardly, he went up to the difficulties for peace and used magic to stop the fire of war.
Miyazaki once said that his most satisfying work is "Hal's Moving Castle", which I personally feel is a masterpiece comparable to "Spirited Away".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the essence of love, which is beyond appearance</h1>
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > all encounters are reunions after a long absence</h1>
"Hal's Moving Castle" is not the most brilliant in Miyazaki's animation, but it is the most full of characters. Sophie's personality becomes richer and more charming with the promotion of the plot, especially like Sophie standing at the door of the moving tram, her body is full of outward tilting force, and the dark skirt is blown by the wind and fluttering, with the beauty and sorrow that belongs to the girl.
Sophie's first encounter with Hal is one of the most old-fashioned and classic heroes to save the beauty, Hal's blond hair flutters with the wind, emerald earrings loom, luxurious clothing, elegant temperament, blue eyes full of gentleness.
Such a tall and perfect magician Hal, embracing the little self-ashamed Sophie, walked and jumped in the air in a strange and graceful dance, overlooking the bustling towns and carnival crowds that were constantly retreating at his feet, and somehow there was a kind of lonely romance.
Hal's initial image is a glimpse of a rare super handsome man in Miyazaki's male protagonist. As long as the girl's heart does not die, it is enough to be captured and giggle. Such a Hal is something that sophie, who thinks she is ordinary and humble, does not dare to fall in love. Therefore, Sophie, who was cursed by the Witch of the Wasteland to become an old woman, completely released herself.
It was so old, so old that she didn't have to care about anything, and she gave Sophie the courage to approach Hal. Sophie is willing to grow old, and enjoys the mental numbness that old brings, abandoning the shyness and sensitivity of the maiden, Sophie rightfully works as his cleaner In Hal's mobile castle as Sophie's mother-in-law.
When Sophie first entered the castle, it was a filthy and messy space covered in cobwebs and dust, crawling with reptiles and rats and ants. The castle itself is an illusion created by Hal's heart. The situation is born of the heart, and the castle is Hal's own mental reaction. Beneath a glamorous exterior lies a decadent and depressed heart.
The arrival of Sophie has completely renewed the interior of the castle. The gray faded under Sophie's broom and rag, revealing the color and luster of the furniture floorware. And Sophie also enjoyed the cleaning process, when Sophie leaned on the table and chair facing the lake to drink tea and rest, watching the long clothes on the long clothesline washed to the wind, I think she experienced a kind of joy of nesting for love.
And those who watch this cleaning process will also be infected by a happy woman who complains angrily and violently, and at the same time rushes out of the earth-shattering movements of the wind and fire, and will also be cured by this gradual transformation of cleanliness.
Watching "Hal's Moving Castle" for the first time a few years ago, I didn't understand why Hal saw the "Sophie Mother-in-Law" who entered the castle without permission and lived in, and was not surprised, and accepted her very calmly and naturally. He greeted a long-lost deceased person like a long-lost person: Who are you? Then with aggressive tenderness squeezed Sophie, who was cooking, aside, snatched the shovel from her hand, skillfully instructed Sophie to lay hands and make a hearty breakfast. Eggs and bacon were buzzing on the pan, Hal was concentrating on cooking, looking silly Sophie, even if the appearance was old, the girl's heart was pounding at the moment.
Young Hal and old Sophie produce a beautiful picture in this inexplicably scattered love, but it is not contrary to it at all. At the end of the film, Sophie travels through the time tunnel through the magic ring and sees the thin and innocent teenager Hal standing alone in the wilderness, the meteor light splashing around, Hal swallows the meteor fire demon Cassifah, and then holds out a burning heart fire from the chest cavity: Hal and Cassifa merge into one.
Sophie shouted the crucial sentence at the moment of being sucked into the tunnel of time and space: "I am Sophie, waiting for me, I will go to the future to find you." Hal looked at the vanished Sophie in amazement in the gradually shattered picture, and the young Hal and the future Sophie had a lonely waiting agreement. Sophie ran through the tunnel of return as she let the teardrops fly uncontrollably from her eyes into the void.
"I can go, I just don't know why I keep crying." At that moment, she understood that—Hal of Sophie, who had been waiting for "will come back to him." So, the first time Hal came home to see the aged Sophie, he knew that the man he was waiting for, was back. There was nothing to ask, through the endless wilderness of time, came, impartial, a new day began. On this morning of meeting, make your first hearty breakfast for your loved one...
When Hal first met Sophie, he said "Finally found you", which is a long-awaited encounter, even if he sees Sophie who has been stripped of her youth by magic, Hal can still touch Sophie's young and pure soul through her aging body. The so-called love is the appearance that penetrates the skin bag and holds hands in the depths of the soul.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the ultimate in love, is to accept all</h1>
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > what saves each other is the courage born of love</h1>
Sophie's facial posture changes subtly with emotions between old and young. After Hal moved the castle, he set up one of the passages of the gate to the Secret Garden. Hal takes Sophie into this fairyland of flowers and blue water, and the moment Sophie's feet cross the stream, she transforms back into a maiden. She restored the girl's appearance and heart, and happily shuttled through the sea of gorgeous flowers.
However, when Sophie listened to Hal express her love for her and her plans for the future, she suddenly grew old, suddenly realized her humility and ordinaryness, and she stooped low and said the seemingly calm words:
"The only good thing about getting old is that there are fewer things to lose." Old age is Sophie's self-abandonment, inner oldness.
Sophie's sudden change of appearance is also based on the courage given by love. The first time, when she was mediating between Hal's mother and Hal's teacher, who was also an enemy, Shaliman, she straightened up and approached Shaliman in an incomparably firm and calm tone:
"I finally know why Hal didn't come here. You say that Hal's heart was devoured by the devil, that he was indeed a wayward and timid man who didn't know what he was thinking in his head, but at least he was blunt and honest, and he wanted to live his life. Hal won't come here, he won't be the Demon King, he will definitely find a way to solve the problem with the demon himself, I believe he will! ”
Her eyes burned with flames, and she forced her eyes to look at Shaliman with fearless and frank eyes, and in her sonorous counter-argument, Sophie's image became younger and taller, and finally Sophie regained her girlish appearance in Shaliman's eyes, with awe-inspiring love.
Shaliman laughed out loud as she found Hal's weaknesses and weaknesses. And Hal, sure enough, came to the rescue of Sophie in Shaliman's expectations, under the black hair were the eyes of courage that revived, hugging the stunned Sophie, and his tone was bright: "Such a terrible place, Sophie is not coming, how dare I come." "Human nature is weak, but for love it is strong."
Another time Sophie's face suddenly changed was when she returned from the tunnel of time and space to the valley where she had fallen. Seeing Hal, who had transformed into a black giant bird due to extreme fatigue from the protracted battle, he lay on the ground in blood, waiting for Sophie to return, the eighteen-year-old girl Sophie.
"Hal, I'm sorry you're waiting for me here, and I haven't come until now." Sophie held Hal's vicious face between the blood-dripping feathers, Andh's bestiality had already covered human nature, but the remaining sanity made him fly back to his lover when his life was about to run out. Sophie flew out of the valley floor at the feet of the giant bird and landed on the fragmented mobile castle that was only a plank of wood, and the castle crumbled along the edge of the cliff, which was the overwhelmed life of Hal and the fire demon Cassifah.
At this time, the old and frail Wasteland Witch, holding the fire demon Cassifah carrying Hal's heart, refuses to hand it over to Sophie, stubbornly wanting to possess the young man's heart. I think it is the yearning and obsession of the young and the twilight of the yearn. Under the old decayed face that has been destroyed by the years, there is still a craving and possession of beautiful love.
In the face of Sophie's outstretched smooth young hand, she returned her heart in the hesitation and nostalgia of extreme reluctance. It is a compromise on aging, and it is also an acceptance of aging. Sophie held the heart preciously: "It's small, so warm", "Because that's Hal's childlike heart," the fire demon replied. Sophie placed the heart on Hal's chest, and the light of the meteor splashed around, hal lived, and so did the fire demon Cassifah. Hal said that the body is very heavy, sophie said because the heart is very heavy. Filled with love!
Warm music sounds, and the newborn moving castle flies among the lazy clouds. Colorful, Hal leans against the railing of the terrace and kisses Sophie, Sophie's bright yellow skirt flutters in the blue sky, is there a better picture than this...
As a magician, Hal possesses powerful magic, but under the impeccable disguise, he has a weak and timid heart. Just because he dyed his hair the wrong color, he fell into a complete collapse, and his life stopped at that moment when the young Hal handed over a pure heart to the fire demon. Despite Qianfan's experience, he is still a sensitive teenager pretending to be strong.
Sophie has always been an ordinary being, doing tedious work, wearing old-fashioned dresses, and inferior to her appearance. Under Sophie's weak appearance, but there is an incomparably firm and pure faith, it seems that Hal is protecting Sophie, but it is actually Sophie who supports Hal's courage. When the cowardly Hal bravely faces the enemy, when Sophie comes out of the quagmire of inferiority, it is actually the most sincere and inclusive acceptance between the two, and a mutual salvation born of love gives them extraordinary courage.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
There are plenty of flying shots in Hal's Moving Castle, where Hal, who is transformed into a swift, weaves through the hail of bullets in an attempt to stop the protracted war. Hal's castle was initially flightless, moving and walking on the ground like a giant steam monster. When the war stops and Hal and Sophie live happily together, the castle becomes a gorgeous spaceship, leisurely navigating through the blue sky and white clouds.
The theme of flying runs through almost most of Miyazaki's works, Kiki in "Witch House Rush" who flies on a broomstick, Nausicaa in "Nausicaa" glides with flying wings, the little sister in "Totoro" flying over the sky on the body of totoro, the entire city floating in the sky in "Castle in the Sky", and even Miyazaki's film "The Wind Rises" in tribute to Zero fighter developer Jiro Horikoshi, and the whole film shows flying.
In Porco Rosso, the pilot Poruko, who is magically transformed into a pig, has a lot of flying shots. In the context of World War II, repressed individualism had nowhere to go, and flying meant, for Poruko, "high idealism in a vulgar world." ”
In fact, this sentence is also particularly suitable for Hal, in a war background, using the power of the individual to try to save, which is an idealist's tragedy. The core theme of "Hal's Moving Castle" is resistance and resistance to war, however, I just want to make the vision short and short-sighted, I just want to feel the love of this teenager's heart, like a little infinitely blended white, clean and clear.
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