Wednesday, February 17, 2010

I've just discovered Studio Ghibli!

Ya. Ya. You can call me uncool, backdated, slow... whatever... for being the only person who has not heard about Studio Ghibli before but I guess its better late than never, right? Anyway, while I was on holiday with hubs at Lipe Island, the resort we stayed in kept repeating an animated film titled 'Howl's Moving Castle'. Of course, hubs and I were too busy exploring the island so we didn't really get to watch the whole movie but whatever we saw roused our interest enough to scout around town looking for a copy of the DVD the minute we got back to KL.


I managed to get a copy of the movie and I think the effort of looking high and low for the DVD was really worth it! Howl's Moving Castle is one in a million. It's the latest addition in my 'I Like' category on Get Glue (LOL) and definitely the latest on my list of things to rave about to my friends.

Howl's Moving Castle is based on a young adult fantasy book by British author Dianne Wynn Jones. The story revolves around Sophie Hatter who encounters a young wizard called Howl by chance. The chance encounter made the Witch of the Waste (who also has the hots for Howl) jealous enough to put a curse on Sophie and turn her into an old woman. With the curse upon her, Sophie embarks on a magical journey in her effort to break the curse.

I absolutely loved Howl's Moving Castle. The characters were unique, the storyline was one of a kind and Sophie's adventures were truly magical. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly recommend it. The voice-over cast has quite an impressive list of actors like Christian Bale, Billy Crystal and Jean Simmons. I intend to purchase a copy of the original book just to see the difference between the book and the movie. Here's a trailer of the movie if you're interested:


Since I liked Howl's Moving Castle so much, I decided to get copies of other movies produced by Studio Ghibli. The other movie that I've seen is Spirited Away. Personally, I thought that it was not as good as Howl's Moving Castle but it was still an enjoyable movie to watch. Here's the trailer for your viewing:


I can't wait to watch the rest of the Studio Ghibli movies. I hope all their movies are as good as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away. 

If you've seen a Studio Ghibli production, which one is your personal favourite?

5 comments:

Jacques said...

Spirited away is one of my fav' ghiblies, but the problem with the movie is that it is very "japanese". It is filled with cultural references that we don't get as non-japanese, and you really need to browse a lot of fan reviews to start understanding the depth this movie offers.

My favourite Ghilbies ever are Porco Rosso and Totoro, closely followed by Mononoke.

Am jealous you're only discovering them now !
I wish I could re-discover them ;)

Buddhaphish said...

Gosh, I love Miyazaki!!

If you can, invest in the entire DVD collection, you would have no regrets because each movie is pretty special. My favourites are Spirited Away, Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service. I also really enjoyed Princess Monoke (rather sad though), Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausicaa, and a new favourite, is Ponyo! Adorable movie!

What I love about Miyazaki is that he makes the simplest things seems so special. Like just making dinner, it makes you salivate!

The book by Dianne Wynne Jones is different but I think better than the movie. DWJ is also one of my favourite children authors.

Unknown said...

Went to Speedy Video yesterday to purchase the DVD set but do you know if they have English versions of the DVD?

Buddhaphish said...

My DVD set has English subtitles which I don't mind because it's really cute to hear them in Japanese. Plus the subtitles are good and makes sense. You can get Ponyo - the American version (i.e. voices) which I recommend because the current (pirated) version has terrible English subtitles! You can also get Princess Monoke in English but it would be tough hunting it down.

Aisyah said...

I've collected all the movie by Studio Ghibli...all of them are my fav, but I like Howl's Moving Castle the most

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