Hayao Miyazaki is perhaps Asia’s greatest living visual storyteller. The co-founder of Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli has been responsible for many beautiful and heart-wrenching films – think “Spirited Away”, “My Neighbour Totoro” and “Howl’s Moving Castle”, to name just three – many of which he directed.
The 82-year-old had previously announced that his 12th film, “The Boy and the Heron”, would be his last. By some accounts, he has reversed this decision and has several new ideas brewing. Time will tell!
Unlike most movies, the marketing efforts for this one was highly unusual, a single poster being the sole promotional material for the longest time. One might surmise this was to keep the characters and plots under wraps.
Regardless, any Miyazaki film is worth watching even if you know nothing about it.
So, what’s “The Boy and the Heron” about? Miyazaki’s latest is named after a 1937 novel of the same name, although this is where the similarities end.
The film takes place during World War II, when 12-year-old Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) loses his mother to an American bombing raid. He and his father Shoichi (Takuya Kimura) relocate to the countryside, where they meet with Mahito’s maternal aunt and new stepmother Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura).
As he gets accustomed to his new surroundings, Mahito learns of a mysterious, abandoned tower close to his home. Even more intriguing is an omnipresent heron (Masaki Suda) that turns out to be more than an ordinary bird: the talking Ardeidae tells Mahito his mother is still alive!
Mahito thus sets out on a journey to find her and Natsuko, who has gone missing, venturing into the tower and being transported into a strange world with even stranger inhabitants.
“The Boy and the Heron” feels semi-autobiographical at times, with Mahito’s circumstances similar to Miyazaki’s history. Both grew up in Japan during the war, and both lived rather privileged lifestyles with their fathers involved in aeronautics.
In fact, one character in the film could be interpreted as a representation of Miyazaki himself. But since he has previously expressed his dislike of creators inserting themselves into their work, it’s left to you to decide if said character is a stand-in for the director or not.
The movie is less of a crowd-pleaser than an arthouse film: the way the narrative is structured, in particular, may leave some lost, while the story feels uneven at times, as though some important connecting scenes were left on the cutting-room floor.
Still, “The Boy and the Heron” continues Ghibli’s tradition of gorgeous 2D animation, with virtually every frame a painting in its own right.
This is pleasing given that the studios’ previous effort, 2021’s “Earwig and the Witch”, was criticised for its CGI; it is good to see Ghibli returning to its much-cherished roots.
To that end, the precision and attention to detail here is nothing short of staggering. Much praise has to be given to Ghibli’s staff who clearly put much heart into their work, with even the simplest of objects and movements beautifully animated.
And then there are the colours. Oh, the colours. It is quite the visual feast, hues crucial in setting the mood for each scene, working in tandem with the brilliant score.
Just watch the scene where Mahito discovers his mother’s fiery fate: bright, hot colours fill the screen along with black, a symbol of the destruction and grief of the moment.
On that note, grief is exactly what the movie is all about, and it is represented beautifully. “The Boy and the Heron” teaches people what it feels like, and what it takes to overcome it.
And just as the heron pesters the boy constantly, grief never lets you take a breath; trying to ignore it makes it all the stronger. In the end, what needs to be done is accept it, just as how Mahito befriends the heron and works with him to move forward.
‘The Boy and the Heron’ screens in cinemas nationwide from today.