"Howl's Moving Castle" - My Review

Today, I’m going to do something different. Why? Someone actually told me “You see a lot of films, why don’t you discuss them on your Blog instead of talking about love and all that cheesy things?”, at first I was like “HEY! What’s wrong with cheesy subjects?”, but then I tought “That’s actually not a bad idea!”. So here we are today! But don’t worry, I won’t stop posting about “cheesy things”… And I have what I consider a special choice for my first “movie review”, Enjoy!

Don’t want cheesy things? Well I chosed a cheesy movie! – what a rebel.
So, the reason what I chose this movie is pretty obvious.  I’m not an expert, but I love anime, for some reason (and I’m excluding Hentai from this affirmation), anime seems to me the only type of cartoon series and movies that are entertaining for both children and adults, without making them not understandable for childreen and not considered stupid or boring by elders. “Howls Moving Castel” is not exception to that. I think it is not very discussable the opinion that Hayao Miyazaki is the best anime director. I liked “Spirited Away”, but for some reason “Howls Moving Castle” was a lot more fascinating to me. My theory in that is that “Spirited Away” is more commercial or I related more with the characters on "Howl's Moving Castle". My conclusion is that is probably a little bit of both. But that’s just my opinion. – perfectly arguable.
Yes, an average normal girl finding a cute, gorgeous, kind magician guy and him to fall in love with her it’s a pretty damn attractive idea. But the values, the perspectives on War and the way different people handle it, is also interesting and present in this film. And the intention behind people’s actions and choices and their personal history, it’s clear in this movie. Also, the physical aspect that it’s transmitted in this movie is subtle and in my opinion very relevant to express to people. The fact that someone young with a old body is recognize as just someone with a young mind with physical obstacles, leads to the importance of the personality of someone, and to not judge a book from its cover. – that’s sweet. And the idea of that someone who becomes lost in his own world and its own goals loses his heart even If is a kind person, that’s a pretty good metaphor.
The music in the movie is no less than expected from an anime and it is perfect for the context which is in. So, not wanting to be more spoiler for the ones who actually didn’t see it back in 2004, I'll just advice someone that only saw this movie back then or doesn’t see it in a while,see it again! This is a pretty good movie to repeat, You’ll probably notice some details you didn’t notice before.
Being that said, this movie is in my favorite list… ;)

And with this soulfull, brilliant and romantic soundtrack I end my first pseudo-movie review.

Emotion vs. Reason

It’s funny how we seem to tend more to see love when we’re on war… Funny, but not illogical, after all, it makes sense to search for one extreme when You’re experiencing the other. Because when you’re on War, the first thing you try to do is to protect your loved ones. But does that mean that you love them less when you don’t feel such a necessity to protect them? I don’t believe so.
So the problem isn’t in the feeling, people don’t stop feeling love just because They’re not on a war environment. The issue seems to be on the expression of that love. It’s true that people don’t express love all the same way, but at the smallest sign of danger, of hate, we could jump and scream the loudest we could just to say how much we love our family, friends, partners, and so on… Once more, a logical conclusion. But there’s still one important point missing here: emotions are not supposed to be logical… So what the hell is happening here?! Oh, I forgot… The good old emotion vs. reason drama. Many, many people since writers, philosophers, just any anyone with an romantic and artistic vein debated about this. And still it didn’t got old. Why? To me, the answer seems pretty simple and clear, but putting in to practice? That’s a whole other level. That answer is Yin Yang, balance, equilibrium, equilibrio, baransu.
In my opinion, one of the most important concepts to understand and search for in our life. Because in practice it is impossible to reach it, but it is a key to success and happiness. I repeat: success and happiness, not perfection. There’s nothing wrong with searching for perfection, If you’re conscious that it doesn’t exist such a thing… Same thing for imperfection. Truth is: it is what it is and work with what you have. That’s how you mix reality and faith. That’s how you can be logical and emotional. Because is from the moment you believe that thing can happen! ;)

Patience

People are funny… In one way or another, we seem always to prefer the asshole, and surround ourselves with people who hurt us. Sounds stupid, right?... Well, it’s not breaking news that the human being can be the stupidest creature on earth (and we call ourselves the rational one). But after all why we act like that? Well, We are impatient.

In a young’s person mind, consciously or inconsciously, we see the clock moving and moving fast and we don’t have time to think twice sometimes. So if someone that I don’t know at all says that loves me? Hell, I’m gonna take that opportunity. And when we wake up, we’re on a bad an intense relationship. Sometimes we actually find the one… But realistically the probability for that to happen is insanely low. There’s no need to be a genius to realize that.

Opportunities come and go, that’s a fact. And it hurts to give up on something that you know you want (Who said it didn't?). But that doesn’t mean that you should jump into every chance that you get. When you see an open window, door or whatever, search in your heart, is that really the path that I wanna go? Can I really trust that person? Your instincts are rarely wrong when you get in that personal space.  And time then means nothing, because you don’t actually see it pass.

And love is one of the things that you can’t rush into. It takes patience to find the right person. It takes courage to walk out on a dream or someone you love. It takes maturity to wait for the other person, whatever state They’re in. But the more you search, less you’ll find it. And love when is true love, Love can wait.  

Luck

Evaluations, exams… Why in the world they had to exist? Why should we prove ourselves? Why should I be compared to others?  Well, I could actually start a speech on how important is to society to be organized to be functional, and that everybody has their owns functions and jobs for that to happened, and that implies people having to be prepared to be in the category that They fought for, but that’s not my point here.

My point is, if you have an important goal to achieve, you’ll probably be putted on the spot. That happens to everyone (ok, almost everyone). It doesn’t matter if is an exam in high school, in college, to have you’re driving license, to become employed, If you’re doing it and you believe that you prepared yourself the most that you could, there’s still luck involved in that process. Especially in the last two examples. And when there’s so much  luck involved, you can’t help to be afraid, to be nervous, to think “What the hell is going to happen to me?”, you may not be the most religious person in the world, but you’ll pray then!

So What? Life is unfair, buhu! People makes mistakes, including you (what a shock). Sometimes you’re not lucky, something unexpected happens, you have a bad day, or you don’t have the support you need. Many things cause bad luck (just ask karma). But sometimes you’re lucky, you pass, good!  Learn with it, be humble. Appreciate it. Life will be much more kind with you. Same thing with love… If you’re THAT girl, and you find THAT guy, then don’t take it for granted. Fight for what you love, fight to be the best you can be at being yourself. Then the impossible loses the “im”, and you’ll not only surprise the others, but more important: you’ll surprise yourself, you’ll learn more and grow and become more wiser. So breathe once, think twice and GO!

Man vs Women

Relationships are complicated…  (Eureka!) It’s very difficult to find someone with who you click, and that you can’t stop thinking about.  Might be someone that you actually don’t see every day, but when you do, it makes your whole week… Someone that you already miss when you’re saying good bye and you’re seeing each other in a couple of hours... Yeah, love is strange, stupid… It sounds like an illusion sometimes, but in the right timing it can make a person a lot happier.

Why is so complicated after all? Well, wrong is very attractive and there for we end up falling in love with the wrong person. The sad thing about it? You know it! You know it’s wrong and you still want it. Yeah, you’re great together. He’s funny, charming and good looking. She’s sweet, innocent, avoids any drama and looks like a baby doll. But she has dreams of having a family and settling down, he wants to spend his life traveling (or vice-versa). He loves her, but has no time for her, he’s confused, he doesn’t want to hurt her, she thinks he’s her prince charming.

Enough with generalizations and examples, it’s true also that in some cases, even with all that obstacles, it works somehow. To exist bad, exists good. So the best thing to do is to recognize both. Be passionate, fight, but be realistic, be serious. Don’t search for qualities and flaws on the other person (you’re not their therapist), just know them. And don’t point them out, because no one knows better the quality and flaws of someone than the person itself and because you might be judging something that you don’t know that well.  

So… You don’t have time? Make time, it’s the easiest thing when you love someone. You’re confused? Don’t know like her/his personality or body? Learn to love her/his flaws and qualities, because you are human too. Change and be changed. That’s only way to love and be loved back. Experience is not needed to understand that. Inexperience sometimes makes it more real and pure.



Choices

There’s always a time in a young’s person life where life changing choices must be faced. And that time tends to be short, to be crucial, to be confusing. Things that adults… Ok, some adults, seem to already control… We don’t! It’s always about our future… It can be in school, in the relationship with our parents, in the relationship with our friends, but the thing that seem to be the most difficult one to get right, is love.

With love comes many questions in a person’s mind… “Am I loved back?”, “What should I do now?”, “Is this true love?”  And who knows the answers? Mummy? Daddy? Older Sister?  The Science Teacher? No, probably only you know the true answer and no one else. But to be in that state, you already made a choice: the choice “Yes, I’m in love”.

When you’re young somehow you’re always meeting new people and life seems full of opportunities… Where or Who to turn to? So what now? You can do nothing, that’s choice… You can wait and see, If you’re not a jealous person, because in that case you'll probably see other people be successful in that same department, and you won’t like it, and you’ll say “What If I had…”.

You can also trust your instincts. That seems to be the right choice… When you have good ones. And only experience can dictate that. But you're young, you don’t have many experiences. Besides, you should be thinking about what you want to do for the rest of your life, not love.

So, yes, it’s complicated (who said it wasn’t?), but for big, enormous, unavoidable dilemmas, there’s only one thing to do: do not to complicate! Breathe a little and find out what and who makes you happy, what and who you love. If you go from there, just follow the flow carefully, because there’s no way your instincts will be wrong then! And If They are, don’t be a drama queen about it and learn with your own mistakes.

Incoherence

Psychology is beautiful… To be able to help or guide someone without giving straights rows advices… That’s not easy! But to think that some people do it, and actually have some influence in others people’s life… It sounds like a gift.

And what is wrong with advices? Well… People sometimes many times don’t listen. Why? It’s not easy to hear from another person “You’re doing this wrong! Why don’t you do this and that ?”. Part of the human nature is to defend ourselves… Some people lie, lying to themselves as consequence. Others find every argument possible and more to prove the others wrong. Others say “You do the same thing! Why are you saying that to me?! Who you think you are, God?!” missing the point of an advice… In that case you’ll probably hear “Do what I say, don’t do what I do”. Because nobody is perfect, and everyone makes mistakes. People don’t always match their own believes with their own actions. People are incoherent. Does that mean that They can’t care for their friends? Family? Boyfriend/Girlfriend?

So let’s clear this up: when someone is giving you an advice, even being incoherent, probably is because that person cares about you and wants the best for you! And probably cares more than a therapist cares for his own patient. So there is no need to get defensive or aggressive.    There is no need to be hurt or hurt the other. Forgiveness is a beautiful thing too. Let’s not forget that, let’s listen. And let’s  also not forget that incoherence is constant in a young person’s life. Because when you’re young, you’re finding who you are and what you want, you’ll make mistakes in that process, and you’ll think that you’re the king of the world (Thanks Leonardo DiCaprio) and that you’re always right. So, to give you some sense, you can count on the people who love you. And what will They do? Give you an advice. :) And that's the beauty of people, what make us so special: we love. And we spend time and energy with the ones we love.