Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle

I've got two films to cover, as I didn't find the time to discuss Sprited Away last week. I think it might be suitable to discuss them in the same post anyway as I find it curious that the films were released one after the other but while Spirited Away may be one of my favorite Miyazaki films, Howl's Moving Castle may be one of my least favorite.

I'm not quite sure what it was about Howl's Moving Castle that didn't sit right with me. To be completely fair I should probably watch it again before deciding I don't like it too much, but first impressions are important.

Howl's Moving Castle feels like Miyazaki trying to cash in on his legacy. Every single frame of it is so gorgeous and dripping with the talents of the best and brightest artists of Japan that speaks to the success that Studia Ghibli has become off of the financial whoppers of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Studio Ghibli had come a long way since its most iconographic film My Neighbor Totoro had to be released alongside Grave of the Fire Flies over fears it wouldn't perform well on its own...

So that brings me back to Howl's Moving Castle. It felt like Eye Candy for the sake of Eye Candy. And Fantasy for the sake of Fantasy. rather than being fascinated into struggling to understand it, I found myself trying to care enough to struggle to understand it. Spirited Away on the other hand, while not always crystal clear, spoke at a much more deep and artistic level to me... it was clear that the Fantasy all served an important purpose... and the beautiful exciting visuals heightened what we had come to actually care about.

I'm also not sure where to fit Howl's Moving Castle in terms of Miyazaki's distinct voice, besides the theme of Howl's pacifism towards the war. Spirited Away seems like an important sequel to My Neighbor Totoro, though...  it delves deeper into fortifying ones spirit through spirituality, tradition, and nature. I'm not quite sure which 10 year old is more tragic - Satsuki or Chihiro. In some ways I have to say it's Chihiro because she's so modern.. We all grew up with Chihiros, and we encounter them daily. The listless child who has a light they can't seem to turn on...  who is jaded 30 or 40 years too soon on and by superficial culture. Satsuki is tragic in a more extraordinary way... having to deal with a sick mother... her tragedy is still heightened by realism, however; I certainly felt for her more upon learning that she's somewhat autobiographical for Miyazaki and his brothers...

It's the ordinariness of Chihiro's tragedy that makes it so powerful.. She's so ordinary that we have to be hit over the head with Spirited Away to even realize it's tragic!

No Face in Sprited away is quite an enigma.. I've been trying to marinate on him quite a bit. It's clear that eating is a huge theme in Spirited Away... Chihiro must eat of the world to keep from vanishing from it. The biscuit of the river god causes no face to vomit out his crazy consumption. All of which was a grotesque depiction and metaphor for materialistic consumption. What I puzzle over with no face though is how he doesn't start indulging in all of his consumption without first being a sycophant having to literally consume other people through false gifts. He doesn't even have a voice prior to consuming that frog guy. It's all quite puzzling but it seems to speak to me at very core level..  like it all somehow makes total sense in spite of its craziness.

The Gods of Princess Mononoke

The Gods of Princess Mononoke are somewhat difficult to get a grip on at first for the Western viewer, though maybe for the Eastern viewer too? I don't know...

I think one safe thing to say about them though is that when the Western viewer watches it, they need to take their spirituality out of the sky, away from an anthropomorphic white male who created humans in his image and into the hands of nature - and its wisdom or lack thereof. Even for the non-religious westerner this is a little bit of an undertaking, I think, because Abrahamic thought is in the atmosphere of our culture and philosophy.. it informs us and centers our world view in subtle and interesting ways.

This spiritual shift towards the Deer god is a really beneficial exercise, I think. I vaguely recall a hilariously dumb quote from Jerry Falwell or a similar idiot about how we can continue to exploit the earth's natural resources as much as we want and not worry about the consequences because God put them there for us and wants us to use them and wont punish us for using them. What a disastrous Lady-Eboshi-esque arrogant position to take!

Compare that to the Deer God of Princess Mononoke. God is Nature, life and death.... this more pantheistic,  holistic balance of the ecosystem. It becomes a logical fallacy to exploit nature and bend it to your whim and will...  Nature, after all, still has the power of life and death - including not just every plant and animal, but every human as well.  Technology and civilization has dramatically altered human's relationship with nature - switched who played by whose rules..  but there's still something nature has on us, and probably always will - and it's a zinger - our own mortality. Even if we don't complicate matters by trying to destroy the Deer God, he he still walks the night taking life... according to its own whim or lack of whim, design or  lack of design.

But to intervene is futile. To try and kill the Deer God makes no sense.. death cannot be destroyed unless life too is destroyed, human lives not exempt. I think that's what the climactic moments of Princess Mononoke tell us. We take the Deer God's head from him and put it in a cylinder and run around with it for too long and the forrest dies, then eventually us too. It dramatically shifts death from its natural course into an unknown and chaotic one. One can't help but think of global warming as a blinded and confused Deer God looking for its head. Miyazaki is asking us to give the head back - even if it is too late. Or, perhaps, it's never too late. Things will change and be different.. The natural Deer God might die but something else will bloom in its place - we don't have to die along with him.  The little kodama at the end assures us that the Deer God is still there - somewhere.

Death is a big thing to wrap our head around. It makes otherwise rational people completely crazy. It is the unknown. It is the last thing nature has on us. I think it's comforting that Miyazaki depicts the death of Okkoto as a loving kiss of release by the Deer God. The Deer God reminds me of Totoro in that sense.. the spiritual king of the forrest.. the comforting wisdom of nature. I can't help but picture a tired and withered Mei with cataracts lying on her death bed after 90 short years of life - when it's her time to go - that moment of release comes as a kiss from Totoro.