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Howl's Moving Castle
Sep. 20th, 2005 09:31 pmTo the Tyneside Cinema at lunch time, for the press preview of Howl's Moving Castle. Always a strange experience, seeing the film of a book you know and love well. Doubly strange in this case, because this is not so much a free adaptation as a story inspired by Diana Wynne Jones's book: it was odd to emerge from the cinema feeling that I couldn't really talk about the film with the friends who had seen it with me, for fear of committing spoilers of the book.
Never mind, I can do that here. I know that films are films and books are books, and I don't take the attitude that "they got this wrong!". But what I think of the film is so tied up with how it relates to the book that I do want to talk about how they differ.
( And the first difference is that the film has the most amazing visuals )
( And now come the spoilers )
The only change I can see no reason for is in the name of Howl's apprentice: is there some good Japanese reason why the conventionally-named Michael should have become Markl?
Never mind, I can do that here. I know that films are films and books are books, and I don't take the attitude that "they got this wrong!". But what I think of the film is so tied up with how it relates to the book that I do want to talk about how they differ.
( And the first difference is that the film has the most amazing visuals )
( And now come the spoilers )
The only change I can see no reason for is in the name of Howl's apprentice: is there some good Japanese reason why the conventionally-named Michael should have become Markl?
