Howl's Moving Castle

Based on a children’s book by a Welsh author Diana Wynn Jones, this has an irresistible premise: teenager Sophie is cursed by the Witch of Waste and finds herself trapped in the body of an old woman, and is unable to tell her mother or anyone else what has happened. She finds help of sorts with the wizard Howl, living as a servant in his astonishing walking castle.

Sophie is an innocent who must prove her resourcefulness, courage and conviction in a bewildering, alien world where politics and war have the capacity to transform friends into enemies, and scientific progress destroys the environment and people alike. Tragic, enthralling, heartfelt, surreal, fantastic… it’s the kind of children’s film which puts most adult dramas to shame.

Sunday matinee: English language version. Monday evening: Japanese with English subtitles.

A stunning example of a pure, disorienting dream logic that cinema provides all too rarely.

Joshua Rothkopf, Time Out New York

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