Howl, I howl for you
June 18th, 2005Ah, what a day. True, I spent 6 hours in the car, almost finishing my summer reading, but it was actually quite pleasant. You see, Howl’s Moving Castle opened last Friday in 36 theaters, the closest one being in Arlington. As I have already explained, I was unable to attend it last week, but it opened to a wider release of 200 screens this week. Unfortunately, the closest one was still Arlington. Oh God of Anime, why have you played this cruel trick on me!? So it was today that I made the pilgrimage to the Shirlington 7, my new home away from home. Mmm, I could taste the sweetness of the film slowly deteriorating into oblivion, but bringing a thousand tears of joy with every step on its journey.
I sat in the very middle of the theater (there must have been less than a dozen people there), surrounded by Japanese 8-year-olds. The previews began, I got ready for my 119 minutes of my first Miyazaki movie in a theater. The screen went black, and the familiar sounds of the opening music of the trailer filled my heart with a warmth it hadn’t felt since I watched that unicorn movie when I was five where the unicorn died. The Japanese title went up, and the “Howl’s Moving Castle” caption graced the bottom of the screen, hovering above the bottom of the screen. And then a character spoke. IN JAPANESE!!! Through some sort of forgiveness of whatever I had done to anger the God of Anime, he forgave me, and lead me to a subbed version of my love. And the best part, no Jason Marsden screwing up Haku’s voice! (who is a talented voice actor, but went in some crazy direction in that movie. I’m afraid I will never watch the English dub of Spirited Away ever again)
It may take a couple (or every possible) liberty in regards to the original story which I read 18 months ago after I learned of the coming movie, but I loved every second of it. I can see what people are talking about when they say it’s full of anti-war messages, but so freaking what? It’s not like anyone was under the illusion that Miyazaki was a conservative extremist or anything.
