Favourite film...

Narrowing down a favourite film is a near impossible task for me. I tend to have to be in the right mood to watch a particular film and therefore find it difficult to just put on a film no matter what the occasion/my frame of mind/what I’m in the mood for seeing. With this in mind, I decided to try and narrow it down to maybe a favourite director or a favourtie genre and then attempt to pick a favourite from that list. Even that’s been damn hard though.

My favourite genre - well it’s not technically a genre it’s a more like a series of films that come under the anime banner, but let’s not get caught up in details - is probably the films made by Studio Ghibli and in particular the works of Hayao Miyazaki. His story-teling ability and eye for detail make him a seminal, world renowned director within this genre and as a result his films are adored by people of all ages in many countries around the globe.

Picking a favourite from his output is difficult because many deal with differing topics (for example Princess Mononoke differs greatly in its narrative style from say, Kiki’s Delivery Service) and all his films are just stunning to look at. I’d go as far as to say that they’re beautiful.

Anyway, after much thought I’ve chosen Howl’s Moving Castle as my favourite. In all honesty I could easily have picked Princess Mononoke or Kiki’s Delivery Service instead, but I’ve seen this film most out of the three so I felt I’d be able to write about it in a greater depth. Seriously check out all of Miyazaki’s work though, as well as everything else released by Studio Ghibli if you haven’t done so already.

‘Howl…’, essentialy a love story between a young witch named Sophie and a wizard by the name of Howl, is classic Miyazaki, featuring many of his usual thematic ideas. Heavily present are the themes of redemption and hope, as well as righting the negative aspects that affect one’s life. The setting for the story is also unsurprising to those familiar with Miyazaki’s work; stunningly beautiful natural landscapes surround a town strongly reminiscent of the Victorian era. Added to this, their is the seemingly standard addition of an animal sidekick, although they assume a lesser role here than Gigi does in Kiki… for example.

Overall one of the things I admire about Miyazaki’s work in general is his ability in binding stunning visual wonderment and a childish nature with more grown up ideas and themes and this is illustrated perfectly in this film. It rivals most Disney films in terms of its creativity and message and strikes me as an incredibly life-affirming piece of cinema whenever I watch it.

xo