Miyazaki does it again with this deeply profound fantasy
In 2013, legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki said he was retiring after the release of his film “The Wind Rises.”
It’s a common refrain for Miyazaki, who said he was retiring after “Princess Mononoke” and the Oscar-winning “Spirited Away.” But he has yet to stick with retirement, as evidenced by his first film in a decade, the enchanting “The Boy and the Heron.”
Based on the 1937 book “How Do You Live?” by Genzaburo Yoshino, which was given to Miyazaki in his youth by his mother, “The Boy and the Heron” is a deeply personal project from the auteur. Like his other work, it is a fantastical, imaginative film that straddles the spirit and human worlds, with a story rooted in relatable emotion, threaded with hope for the future despite the harshness of reality.
Set in the waning days of World War II in a rural village outside Tokyo,
“The Boy and the Heron” follows Mahito, a young boy grieving the loss of his mother, who has been killed in a fire. He and his father move away from the city, to a village where his father runs a factory, and where Mahito meets his new stepmother — his mother’s sister Natsuko. Mahito gets to know his strange new home, where seven grannies cluck over him and the pregnant Natsuko and a pesky heron won’t leave him alone.
The magical heron — with terrifyingly huge human teeth and a bulbous nose protruding from its beak — promises to take Mahito to his mother. But it’s not until the ailing Natsuko wanders into the forest that Mahito dares to enter the mysterious tower on the property with the heron man as his guide, a granny in tow. Inside, they encounter a wizened Great-Uncle and sink into a strange underworld, a parallel universe of sorts.
Determined to save Natsuko, Mahito finds all kinds of thrilling characters and creatures in the underworld, including the powerful fisherwoman Kiriko. He befriends a fire maiden, and tangles with an army of human-sized parakeets. As bizarre as it is here, everyone he meets seemingly has a tether to people and animals in his own life, and through his adventures, Mahito learns about himself, those around him and those who he has lost.
There is a timelessness to “The Boy and the Heron,” rendered with the hand-drawn animation of Miyazaki and the Studio Ghibli artists. Despite the jaw-droppingly gorgeous, surreal worlds and characters from Miyazaki, we are never not invested in Mahito’s growth and motivation to save both of his mothers.
But at the core of this hero’s journey there is also a profound existential question posed by the Great-Uncle, the keeper of the magical tower, where he keeps the universe in balance. He’s seeking a successor, and he poses a question to Mahito that resonates back then and now: Who will be a steward for our world? Who can make sure the world remains beautiful and not an abomination?
In postwar Japan, during Miyazaki’s childhood, the world felt precarious. It still feels that way today. These big questions drive the meaning of yet another masterpiece from the animator. Thank goodness retirement doesn’t agree with him.
MPA rating: PG-13 (for some violent content/ bloody images and smoking) Running time: 2:04
How to watch: In theaters