Some more things to think about, to follow on from Weeks 8-9!!
1. In this paper we have considered Herge's The Blue Lotus as an example of orientalism, that is, the way the 'East' is constructed in western discourse. Miyazaki lived for a spell in Italy and almost half of his feature-length films - Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Laptua: Castle in the Sky (1986), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - are set in Europe. Yet Miyazaki's Europe is a kind of imaginative reconstruction with fantasy elements that defamiliarises actual European settings and culture while remaining somehow remain indelibly Japanese. See the article I gave out by Dani Cavallaro (2006), pages 167-70.
Did you note any effects of such - what could be termed - 'Occidentalism' in Howl's Moving Castle? How might Europe function imaginatively for a Japanese audience? How do you think it works for a western audience? (Whew! That's my longest question yet :)
2. According to Cavallaro how successful was Howl commercially and critically?
3. What 3 major differences does Cavallaro identify between the book (a European fantasy novel by Wynne Jones) of the same name?
4. What does Cavallaro tell us about the technical aspects of Howl's production in terms of the animation technique and special effects?
Nice to see some smiles after this screening ＼（＾ ＾）／
What did you like (or not like, if that's the case) about Howl?
Hi everyone.I really enjoyed the movie Howl..finally an interesting movie to watch.haha.At first i was so keen in watching it as i wasnt really a bbug fan of animation but after watching it,it really open my eyes to see that this was good piece of work and i love how Miyazaki was so creative in developing this movie.Howl had many interesing features and also there was alot of humour in it.I never expected that!haha.But yeah overall it was a good movie and i believe we all enjoyed it.i shall answer more later on the other questions.
Same as you, before taking this paper, I thought that anime and carton are the same,they are childish and only for children, not suitable for my age, haha.
But, Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle rebuild my understanding of anime. There are action, romance and sometimes humor in the movie, as well as beautiful and impressive frames. These factors attract viewers deeply.
It's really worthy to watch, and of course, I enjoyed it!
According to Cavallaro (2006), there is 'Occidentalism' in Howl's Moving Castle in terms of the broader setting of the film.
The movie sets in 19th-century of Europe which is the kind of idealized world that Japanese dreamed Europe. We can see that the castle across the picturesque land, the reflections of the sun in serene streams and rivers, colourful flowers, lush meadows, snow-capped mountains and scenic clouds, and elegant buildings. Such setting is a fictional universe, and pure idyll, but not the real Europe which is a land scourged by way, polluted by the smoke-belching chimneys of quickly-developed proto-industrial conglomerates.
I think such occidentalism could give Japanese audience an unreal impression of Europe as an ideal and perfect world.
As for how does it work for a western audience, acctually, I have no idea. Maybe, I guess the westerner will find it is too perfect to believe? Or, they may feel a little bit funny?
According to Cavallaro (2006), Howl's Moving Castle succeeded both commercially and critically. It won the prestigious Osella Award for Technical Excellence at the 61st Venice Film Festival and received the Audience Award at the Sitges International Film Festival. Also as the most extensive theatrical released movie in Japan that being screened in 450 cinemas at the same time, it earned 1,500 million yen (&14.6million). Later, it earned $18 million from the Korean viewers.
Hi grace,i agree with u about the occidentalism.I think Howl has alot of werstern influence and you can see that the settings in the movie are more european.I think as u said grace that the japanese will have an idea of the European culture after watching Howl.On the other hand im not sure about the western audience..maybe as you said they might find it weird as maybe this european influence that is in this anime is not what they have in mind..im not so sure about this too..any ideas??
Deli, occidentalism is more than western influence, it's about how the west in constructed in (in this case) a Japanese cultural work. Using the sources provided, as Grace does, helps inform our responses.＾ ＾
For question 1, i agree with what Grace and Deli said. The Howl's moving castle definately got effected by 'Occedentalism'- startig from the broder setting in imaginery French region, the appearance of characters etc. As Grace said it 'drew illusion art in Europe of 19th-centurh culture and society' for Japanese and showed the idealized world that the Japanese designate.' (Cavallaro,2006, p.168) So it would be a ideal and great world for Japanese and for other Asians as well. I think it also could provide some hopes to the people for future life expectancy. For a western audience, i think they also got some sort of ideas for Asian culture and society which is different from them. But i'm not sure they could feel this exactly from the film Howl's because it's quite Westernised.....
For question 2, Howl was more than successful both commercially and critically as Grace said- I was surprised with the records-as one of Asian films it was really a great hit! I knew it was quite famous in Korea but didn't know it was seen by 770,000 people in just four days! (Cavallaro, 2006, p.158) ^^;;
Question 3. According to Cavallaro(2006), there are three major differences between the book and the film.
1) The wizard's reputation who eats a heart. - 'Howl is portrayed far less falmboyant and capricious figure in the film and he projects himself as an angel and a demon in equal measures.' (p.160) 2)The Witch of the Waste. - She only depicted as a demon form in a film while she actually returned to human in a book. Also in a book she is described quite 'carefully beautiful' but in the film she just looks like a huge and quite ugly demon.(p.161) 3)The depiction of Sophie. - In a film Sophie in not exactly depicted as an absolutely ancient-looking woman with the witch's curse because of the animation techniques and rather presented as either young or old as the story develops. (p.161)
For question 2, I think Howl's moving castle was really successful both critically and commercially. I was surprised because according to Cavallaro it was seen by 770,000 people in just four days in Korea as Hanna mentioned.
According to Cavallaro (2006), Howl’d received numorous awards including the Osella Award for the Moving Castle,’ which was shown at 450 cinemas to more than 1.1 million viewers in Japan. It’d earned $14.6 million from Japan, $18 million from Korea (for around 3 million viewers in a record), $42.1 from France and more than $100 million from England.
"Howl was the only non-English language movie released in 2004 to make more than $100 million in that year" (Cavallaro , 2006, p. 158).
13 comments:
Some more things to think about, to follow on from Weeks 8-9!!
1. In this paper we have considered Herge's The Blue Lotus as an example of orientalism, that is, the way the 'East' is constructed in western discourse. Miyazaki lived for a spell in Italy and almost half of his feature-length films - Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Laptua: Castle in the Sky (1986), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992) and Howl's Moving Castle (2004) - are set in Europe. Yet Miyazaki's Europe is a kind of imaginative reconstruction with fantasy elements that defamiliarises actual European settings and culture while remaining somehow remain indelibly Japanese. See the article I gave out by Dani Cavallaro (2006), pages 167-70.
Did you note any effects of such - what could be termed - 'Occidentalism' in Howl's Moving Castle? How might Europe function imaginatively for a Japanese audience? How do you think it works for a western audience? (Whew! That's my longest question yet :)
2. According to Cavallaro how successful was Howl commercially and critically?
3. What 3 major differences does Cavallaro identify between the book (a European fantasy novel by Wynne Jones) of the same name?
4. What does Cavallaro tell us about the technical aspects of Howl's production in terms of the animation technique and special effects?
Nice to see some smiles after this screening ＼（＾ ＾）／
What did you like (or not like, if that's the case) about Howl?
Hi everyone.I really enjoyed the movie Howl..finally an interesting movie to watch.haha.At first i was so keen in watching it as i wasnt really a bbug fan of animation but after watching it,it really open my eyes to see that this was good piece of work and i love how Miyazaki was so creative in developing this movie.Howl had many interesing features and also there was alot of humour in it.I never expected that!haha.But yeah overall it was a good movie and i believe we all enjoyed it.i shall answer more later on the other questions.
Hi,deli
Yes, it is a fantastic anime!
Same as you, before taking this paper, I thought that anime and carton are the same,they are childish and only for children, not suitable for my age, haha.
But, Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle rebuild my understanding of anime. There are action, romance and sometimes humor in the movie, as well as beautiful and impressive frames. These factors attract viewers deeply.
It's really worthy to watch, and of course, I enjoyed it!
According to Cavallaro (2006), there is 'Occidentalism' in Howl's Moving Castle in terms of the broader setting of the film.
The movie sets in 19th-century of Europe which is the kind of idealized world that Japanese dreamed Europe. We can see that the castle across the picturesque land, the reflections of the sun in serene streams and rivers, colourful flowers, lush meadows, snow-capped mountains and scenic clouds, and elegant buildings. Such setting is a fictional universe, and pure idyll, but not the real Europe which is a land scourged by way, polluted by the smoke-belching chimneys of quickly-developed proto-industrial conglomerates.
I think such occidentalism could give Japanese audience an unreal impression of Europe as an ideal and perfect world.
As for how does it work for a western audience, acctually, I have no idea. Maybe, I guess the westerner will find it is too perfect to believe? Or, they may feel a little bit funny?
According to Cavallaro (2006), Howl's Moving Castle succeeded both commercially and critically. It won the prestigious Osella Award for Technical Excellence at the 61st Venice Film Festival and received the Audience Award at the Sitges International Film Festival. Also as the most extensive theatrical released movie in Japan that being screened in 450 cinemas at the same time, it earned 1,500 million yen (&14.6million). Later, it earned $18 million from the Korean viewers.
Hi grace,i agree with u about the occidentalism.I think Howl has alot of werstern influence and you can see that the settings in the movie are more european.I think as u said grace that the japanese will have an idea of the European culture after watching Howl.On the other hand im not sure about the western audience..maybe as you said they might find it weird as maybe this european influence that is in this anime is not what they have in mind..im not so sure about this too..any ideas??
Hi guys
Deli, occidentalism is more than western influence, it's about how the west in constructed in (in this case) a Japanese cultural work. Using the sources provided, as Grace does, helps inform our responses.＾ ＾
For question 1, i agree with what Grace and Deli said. The Howl's moving castle definately got effected by 'Occedentalism'- startig from the broder setting in imaginery French region, the appearance of characters etc.
As Grace said it 'drew illusion art in Europe of 19th-centurh culture and society' for Japanese and showed the idealized world that the Japanese designate.' (Cavallaro,2006, p.168) So it would be a ideal and great world for Japanese and for other Asians as well. I think it also could provide some hopes to the people for future life expectancy.
For a western audience, i think they also got some sort of ideas for Asian culture and society which is different from them. But i'm not sure they could feel this exactly from the film Howl's because it's quite Westernised.....
For question 2, Howl was more than successful both commercially and critically as Grace said-
I was surprised with the records-as one of Asian films it was really a great hit!
I knew it was quite famous in Korea but didn't know it was seen by 770,000 people in just four days! (Cavallaro, 2006, p.158) ^^;;
Question 3.
According to Cavallaro(2006), there are three major differences between the book and the film.
1) The wizard's reputation who eats a heart. - 'Howl is portrayed far less falmboyant and capricious figure in the film and he projects himself as an angel and a demon in equal measures.' (p.160)
2)The Witch of the Waste. - She only depicted as a demon form in a film while she actually returned to human in a book. Also in a book she is described quite 'carefully beautiful' but in the film she just looks like a huge and quite ugly demon.(p.161)
3)The depiction of Sophie. - In a film Sophie in not exactly depicted as an absolutely ancient-looking woman with the witch's curse because of the animation techniques and rather presented as either young or old as the story develops. (p.161)
For question 1, i agree with Garce. We can see the view of paris and like I said before, Miyazaki went to paris to recod real sound of train in paris.
Cavallaro says Miyazaki's Europe as one that the Japanese have contructed "akogare no Paris (the Paris of our dreams)" (p. 168).
For question 2, I think Howl's moving castle was really successful both critically and commercially. I was surprised because according to Cavallaro it was seen by 770,000 people in just four days in Korea as Hanna mentioned.
I found more about question 2.
According to Cavallaro (2006), Howl’d received numorous awards including the Osella Award for the Moving Castle,’ which was shown at 450 cinemas to more than 1.1 million viewers in Japan. It’d earned $14.6 million from Japan, $18 million from Korea (for around 3 million viewers in a record), $42.1 from France and more than $100 million from England.
"Howl was the only non-English language movie released in 2004 to make more than $100 million in that year" (Cavallaro , 2006, p. 158).
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