The Boy and the Heron
A new Hayao Miyazaki movie is always a cause for celebration. The famed Japanese animator behind Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and a bunch of other great work always delivers something visually arresting and emotionally resonant. His latest, The Boy and the Heron, is no different. The film is showing in two formats: one in the original Japanese language with English subtitles, the other in an English dub that features an all-star voice cast including Christian Bale, Willem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson, and Florence Pugh. I screened the former.
The protagonist is Mahito, a young boy whose mother died in a fire. His father is now engaged to her sister, Natsuko. They all move to her estate out in the country. Mahito is soon bothered by a grey heron that keeps poking around. He follows the bird into the woods, where there’s an abandoned, sealed tower. When Natsuko goes missing, Mahito suspects the heron knows what happened. The quest for answers takes him inside that tower.
Befitting a Miyazaki picture, there’s a heavy fantasy element. Mahito ends up in an alternate world filled with sights that are both wondrous and bizarre. Among them are a group of cute bubble-like spirits called Warawara that become the souls of newborns. Giant parakeets, meanwhile, are the enemies of humans who enter their realm. The Boy and the Heron creates a magical place it’s fun to get lost in. Surprises are everywhere, guaranteeing that we become as enthralled by it as Mahito does.
Miyazaki’s story of course works on a deeper level, too. There are themes related to loss of a parent, adapting to major change when you’re a child, familial bonds, and more. Most impressive about the director’s films is how seamlessly he weaves complex ideas in. You can enjoy them for the dream-like qualities, but you always get choked up at the end. That’s especially true here, as Miyazaki’s tale has autobiographical components related to his own childhood. From beginning to end, you sense the artist injecting great personal meaning into his project.
The Boy and the Heron touchingly captures the sensation of a young child trying to cope with mature problems they’re not developmentally mature enough to completely grasp. If you ever had to deal with something big as a kid, you’ll identify with Mahito’s plight. The heron, the parakeets, the Warawara and everything else represent the stuff that’s exhilarating or scary about such a scenario. Miyazaki understands the resilience of children and pays tribute to the power of growing up in a grandly entertaining style.
out of four
The Boy and the Heron is rated PG-13 for some violent content/bloody images, and smoking. The running time is 2 hour and 4 minutes.
