Slashdot Mirror
Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle Open in Japan
blamanj writes ""Howl's Moving Castle" (Howl no Ugoku Shiro), is the latest animated epic from Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli. In a departure from his usual sources, this time Miyazaki has adapted a story by British author Diana Wynne Jones. The reviews look good." CT: Apparently Howl's opened a few weeks ago.
I'm not watching it if it's not digitally signed.
In Korea, only old people have slow news days.
For reals this time!
I like to place meaningful quotes in my sig, so people will know that I know what meaningful quotes are.
I didn't see anything on it, but have they done any dubbing? I personally prefer subtitles, but they may try to pull a "Must appeal to a wider audience" when they pull it over to the states. Will the English speaking version suck? Who knows.
Just a boy doing unproffesional IT work that's way above his head.
The moral in Sen to Chihiro no kamikaukushi ("Spirited Away") is basically "Don't destroy the environment" and "Children should learn manners".
Sounds very simple, but how many Hollywood films teach kids this stuff? It's subtle. I wonder what the moral is for this one.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
I probably won't watch it anyway, given that our arch-enemy in copyright lobbying has the exclusive U.S. distribution rights for Miyazaki's movies. I've decided that Disney gets little to none of my money until 2024, when Mickey and Pooh finally enter the public domain in the United States.
I'm sure the movie will just as good.
KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!!
You're kidding right? This thing has been out for a month. Before it came out there was a lot of hype but from the people I know who've seen it the movie wasn't very good.
5 ?nn20041124b1.htm
But it did do well in the box office:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl
Since your UID is smaller than mine, I can only conclude that you're trolling. -s20451 (410424)
http://www.nausicaa.net/miyazaki/newspro/latest_ne ws.shtml#newsitemEEpEEFukyFuAXaDnpx
:
November 22, 2004 "Howl" Breaks Japanese Weekend Box Office Record
From Kyodo Press Flash24:
Toho announced
'Howl' earned 1,400 million yen (~$13.5 million USD) at the box office in the first day of release and its next day (Nov 20, 21). This is the highest new record at a Japanese movie.
I'll just hop over to suprnova and . . oh wait . . . NoooooOoooo! ;)
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
I was in Japan in November and the movie was in theaters! How did you come up with "yesterday was the opening date"?
It's by Miyazaki. It has to be good.
That reminded me of the slogan of Smucker's jellies, jams, and such:
"With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good."
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
In japanese culture, cartoons are for everyone. If cartoon are for kids, everthing drawn is for kids, so art is for kids (Dali, Picasso...) And remember the propaganda cartoons featuring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck during the WW2.
Website
Quicktime 4 Trailer
XviD Teaser
~Berj
Hey, moderators, how's about you DON'T mod the trolls up, for a change?
You can't take the sky from me...
You mean slashdot posts are *that* far behind???
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
Seems to clue in to the fact that blamanj doesn't have a clue what he is talking about!
An obvious troll. It's either that or he's just an ignorant fool.
everyone seems to like'em, but personally ive been pretty dissappointed by everything they've done.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
Erm, ever heard of this program called the Simpsons? It's quite a popular cartoon I've heard.
Is this Sophie going to be the same girl that appears in his other movies? (Nausicaa, Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, etc.)
The moral in Sen to Chihiro no kamikaukushi ("Spirited Away") is basically "Don't destroy the environment" and "Children should learn manners".
Chihiro, at the beginning of the film, seems somewhat spoiled and incessantly whiney.
By the end, she has had to set her own goals, make her own decisions, accept responsibility, and carry through on a long-term plan. All without the guidance of her parents. It's the process of growing up and leaving the nest. Sorry, but "children should learn manners" just doesn't cover all that.
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
(Somehow I heard that Miyazaki came out of retirement to make Spirited Away after meeting a particularly spoiled child. But I suspect he'll never retire. Not that I want him to!)
You're right about Miyazaki always having a moral. But that might suggest to people who've never seen his work that he's preachy. Anything but. His stories are always simple, charming, and easy to enjoy.
> They're cartoons, and therefore for kids. That's a pretty definite correlation. ... see any Japanese films? Nope ... or maybe just one. Compare
> If he wants the Japanese movie industry to be taken seriously like the
> American one, try making films with *real* actors and scenes. Oh, no, that
> would require a budget. Take a look at the movie listings at your local
> picture house
> and contrast to the vast number of American films that make it out there.
Well, the US only has a relatively small fraction of the world's population, and believe it or not, these sorts of movies become huge successes making their producers and backers big bucks, even if some Yankee who's looking for the latest blow-em-up-real-good Hollywood splashganza doesn't even know they exist.
Miyazaki is an artist, and his animated films tell compelling stories in a manner that I doubt most Hollywood junkies could appreciate.
As to movie theatres in North America, they are pretty much dominated by the Hollywood system, and unless you live in a bigger community with theatres that can afford to run relatively unpopular films (foreign films, silent films and black and white films), the average movie-goer is sadly out of luck.
I've been watching a lot more older and foreign films lately. I watched Renoir's The Rules of the Game a month ago, borrowed it from my local library. What a brilliant film, but I doubt that most of my fellow Canadians and most Americans know it even exists. There's a whole ocean of great films out there, but the only way most North Americans ever know they exist is if Hollywood remakes it.
I'm not bashing American film making. I mean, Hollywood is perfectly capable of making great films still, but it's just very sad that someone like Miyazaki is condemned because he doesn't use live actors. What exactly does that mean nowadays in CGI filmmaking anyways. I mean, I consider movies like the Star Wars prequels to be basically cartoons. At some point in the not-so-distant future CGI will have evolved to the point that real-looking people on the silver screen will be completely constructed.
Whether it's animated, black and white, foreign and dubbed or subtitled into English, or a Hollywood film, I want a good story told well.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Yay. That's the best news I have heard in a while. There's some home left in the world.
The book's good too, but it has been known for great directors to turn great books into awful films.
By the end of the film, Chihiro has come to an understanding that the world doesn't revolve around her; everyone basically acts in self-interest, and therein is the value of true friends who will act on your behalf even if it's not in their interest.
She also learns independence. See, it would be one thing if Chihiro merely latched onto the Yubaba as a surrogate mother. But she doesn't. At the end of the film, she confronts even her, in order to free her parents. This is an astounding level of independence if you consider her character at the beginning of the film.
It's a level of maturity that many adults don't achieve. I can't say I'm sure that I have.
Accountability on the heads of the powerful.
Power in the hands of the accountable.
Like a medieval RV?
although fuck knows when it'l hit the uk. suppose i'd better start looking for a torrent
before 2024, they will have successfully lobbied to have their copyrights, trademarks, etc., extended again.
That's the point. If they extend the copyright, many of us will extend the boycott. Besides, the Supreme Court hinted in its opinion in Eldred v. Ashcroft that even though it would uphold a second successive copyright term extension (1976 and 1998), it's likely to find an unconstitutional "pattern of behavior" should Congress extend copyrights for a third time in a row.
I assume similarities in style, but that shot was an EXACT replica of the shot in Spirited Away.
One thing I do like about this one is that it seems to feature older people. I'm sick of this "teenager goes on a journey, becomes a man" or "child goes on a journey, grows up" anime. I'd like to see some issues for older characters. Very interested in seeing this.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
Let's start with the box and the liners. Miyazaki praises himself for introducing a plot with no good or evil. Supposedly, this is some kind of revolutionary step in anime development, or at least that's how it's portrayed. It isn't.
Also, though most anime I've been introduced to has themes appealing to a broad range of age groups, Spirited Away is clearly made only for children. I sat there, searching for absolutely anything that would appeal to people over the age of twelve, but I found nothing besides some blood. A little girl grows up and falls in love with this dragon river spirit thing. Does love that young/cross-species even make any sense? Contrast this with most Disney and Pixar films, which not only contain fanciful settings and characters for the kids, but highly emotional and challenging moral situations that manage to appeal to adult audiences. I doubt whether any academic exegesis of this film (besides artistic/historical) will be worth writing, because of the appearent simplicity of the plot. Contrast this with the fantastic Princess Mononoke, and again, most Disney and Pixar films.
Aint-It-Cool news reported on the 11th that Nausicaa.net had a news item on 11/23 that Pete Docter, the director of Monsters, Inc., would be directing the US release.
The Nausicaa site points back to a Japanese language press release from the 20th of November.
So this is hardly news.
Design for Use, not Construction!
It will be interesting to see how the English translation of Japanese translation of the original story translates to the screen, and to see how it compares to the original English version...
(Sponsored by cheeseSource for President 2012)
It's not a transaltion of the title, it is the title. "Howl's Moving Castle" is based on an english book written by Diana Wynne Jones. If you don't like it, talk to her about it.
Ita erat quando hic adveni.
Yep, it is the literal translation, from English straight to English, of an English title for an English book by an English speaking author. Those wacky Japanese.
Nope, it's english.
Sounds like something from Invader Zim
That's not the "moral," that's the background of Japanese culture from which it's created. It may be shocking to you, but working hard and not complaining are actual values (for both genders) that are very much embodied in Japanese child-rearing.
From the Japanese perspective, the moral of American media is "slack off and whine a lot."
The moral of that family-oriented japanese movie is (gasp!) in synch with the culture that spawned it? Unfuckingbelievable!
Main Entry1: moral
Pronunciation: 'mor-&l, 'mär-
Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Middle French, from Latin moralis, from mor-, mos custom
1 a : of or relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior
Main Entry2: moral
Pronunciation: 'mor-&l, 'mär-; 3 is m&-'ral
Function: noun
1 a : the moral significance or practical lesson (as of a story) b : a passage pointing out usually in conclusion the lesson to be drawn from a story
2 plural a : moral practices or teachings : modes of conduct b : ETHICS
You might as well have said "That's not a duck! It's a swimming bird (family Anatidae) in which the neck and legs are short, the body more or less depressed, and the bill broad and flat".
You can't take the sky from me...
You have failed the nerd test, lad. Try again.
...pick up the four volumes of _Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind_. It's the graphic novel's answer to _Lord of the Rings_. Miyazaki creates technologies, ecologies, empires, religions... and really, really cool villains: there's the vixen princess who lives on hatred, a bored, psychotic immortal king, and a three hundred foot tall cyborg. And I'm not a big fan of most Japanese comic art, but Miyazaki has a very organic drawing style heavily influenced by Moebius, and his art is incredible.
My ex-girlfriend (who was Japanese) told me that he made the film to show that there are wonderful things in nature that need to be preserved - and apparently, a good chunk of the proceeds from the film went to buy up some forests near Tokyo, or something like that. It's been around 10 years, so I'm not real clear on it, but I kinda sorta remember that much...
Once again, "don't damage the environment" is the message.
InThane
It's good to see Ginsberg's work getting some recognition, although I'm not sure where the moving castle comes in, and the Japanese schoolgirls will prove problematic.
"I saw the schoolgirls of my generation
Assaulted by tentacles, hentai and otherwise..."
Spirited Away is clearly made only for children. I sat there, searching for absolutely anything that would appeal to people over the age of twelve, but I found nothing besides some blood.
When you reach a mental age above that of a 15 year old, you'll find other things are interresting to people above the age of 12 than "blood".
You can't take the sky from me...
You forgot to link to the Official Japanese Website for Howl's Moving Castle For those who are Japanese-impaired, the first 4 links along the bottom edge of the letter read thusly: Info | Story | Character | Staff&Cast | ...
AnimeNEXT anime convention
Spirited Away was a pale gost next to Mononoke and Nausicaa. A child next to a master. What you should be asking is "is it better than La puta?" A movie about a moving castle.
Rossini! Or not. I'd even settle for Paisiello or Isouard...
Wow. That's just stunningly retarded. You don't belong on this web site.
I am almost speechless at the irony of this...
You must be new here
Pick up the bread knife and carve your way into forensic history
/ \" /-,!
(sorry... l33t doesn't really work in Japanese, does it?)
It's actually the original English title. In Japanese it's Hauru no Ugoku Shiro. Howl is the name of the evil wizard.
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
You.
Watch Grave of the Fireflies .
I challenge you or anyone else to say that because that movie is animated, it is in any way "for children". Here, I'll even get you started. It's an older movie, but the same studio.
Miyazaki came out of retirement to make Spirited Away and again to make Howl's Moving Castle.
He's begun to look the the James Brown of animation.
Oh, well, as long as he keeps coming back. He's still relatively young. May he live (and work) a hundred years.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I've seen em all. I liked the soap opera ones the least I think they float in the direction of badness.
Totoro is simple like a black and white lithograph, grease pen on stone bold lines and sublte back fill. Poco and Kiki are both very simple but one is yin and one is yang. I think Disney stole that Ballou air pirate show from Poco Roco just like they stole that stupid Atlantis movie. But hey give me a break, Sen to Chihiro wasn't that great a movie. It was good, hell it is far better than 99.9% of anime made today but it was childish. Intentionally childish but childish nonetheless. I am not a child. I appreciated the minutiae of the thing and the aesthetics but it was boring and transparent to me.
Mononoke and Nauscaa on the other hand are the adult works of a master. They are able to compress uncertainty and nuance into a single fractal meme. They deal with race, class, gender, the enviroment, religion, fanactism, arrogence, hate, evolution, love, and most of all the unreality and change inherinate in the universe. Nothing in Chihro rose the masterwork level. I would give Miyazaki a Ph.D. for Mononoke but Cihiro is only undergraduate quality (granted an undergraduate genius.) Don't cut people slack becasue they are good at what they do, hold them to a higher standard.
Fuck Disney. I watch em in Japanese with subtitles. Eisner can drown in his own shit for all I care, and if the stock holders have their way he might. God I hope shove the entire reel of "The Alamo" up his ass for wasting my money like that.
I mentioned Laputa because it invokes Howl in no small part. It seems redundant. I love Laupta btw the best part is the yin yang island. Half wet, biological, and free and half brittle, technical, and domineering. I also love it for being so damn Welsh. It's fantastic.
And may we then have the technology to keep his head alive in a jar, for another hundred years of Miyazaki films.
...just reporting second-hand information. :)
Besides, I swear that Miyazaki must've been on LSD when he came up with the cat-bus sequence.
InThane
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The quality of the English voice-acting was terrible, and the things they were saying were nowhere near the original Japanese dialogue. I guess I can understand a little bit because a lot of things in that movie are VERY difficult to translate to English and a lot of things don't make much sense if you don't know anything about Japanese culture.
Don't get me wrong. I loved the movie. Totoro is one of my favorites. Howl's Moving Castle, on the other hand, was IMHO the worst Miyazaki Hayao movie ever made. It wasn't a bad movie at all, but his other movies are just so excellent and it doesn't even compare (saw it in the theater in Shinagawa last week).
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
The scenery was breathtaking, the animation was very nice, the characters were well drawn, and the voice acting was quite good (Kimura Takuya did a very excellent job as Howl). It is Miyazaki's execution of the story where the movie falls down.
Before seeing the movie, I read the book written by Dianna Wynne Jones, and I thought it was good. It also seemed like just the sort of story that Miyazaki could make into a good movie.
Unfortunately, it seems like some things may have been lost in the translation and also Miyazaki tried to put in a message about the horrors of war which didn't really match the original story and its themes at all. A lot of things were changed from the book or added to the story with almost no rhyme or reason. It kind of seemed that Miyazaki wasn't quite sure what he wanted to do with this movie and it kind of has a thrown together feeling to it (well, as much as something as carefully planned as an animated movie can have that feeling).
A few years ago when I saw Spirited Away (Sen To Chihiro No Kamikakushi) about a month after I arrived in Japan, I was left the feeling of seeing something quite amazing. After seeing Howl's Moving Castle, the feeling was pretty much, "meh...so I saw it."
Not a bad movie, and good on a lot of standards, but definitely near the bottom of the Miyazaki Hayao movies.
"Empathise with stupidity, and you're halfway to thinking like an idiot." - Iain M. Banks
It certainly does. Remember the "stink spirit" that turned out to be a river god? Note the contents that spewed out when they pulled out the "thorn" in its side.
Another one: the Kohaku river disappeared as a result of new buildings that rose around it.
Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
I 3 Miyazaki. His movies rock.
Insert Pithy Quote here.
How is this news? The movie's been out for over a month, and I saw it myself 3.5 weeks ago. Miyazaki (though I love him) did pervert the original quite thoroughly in order to make a political commentary on war...
SELECT quote.text AS sig FROM quote NATURAL JOIN attribute WHERE attribute.description = 'witty';
0 rows returned
You've got his number... I bet he won't let himself play Zelda either : )
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
I saw it a couple weeks ago. The animation was beautiful, as is to be expected from a Miyazaki movie. However, the plot made absolutely no sense, and after talking with a friend who's read the book, the only conclusion I can reach is that Miyazaki's off his rocker and should have retired after Spirited Away. I wrote a longer tirade here.
And in a departure from nothing, Disney has adapted Miyazaki for a new feature titled Lion King III: Simba-san's Romantic Adventure.
Whenever this eventually makes it out in the US, isn't it likely they will follow the same model as with Spirited Away? When that came out in Boston I didn't have any trouble finding a theater that was running the subtitled version.
On another note, I hope to see this here in Tokyo this weekend. Not sure how much longer it will remain in theaters. </boast>