THE BOY AND THE HERON

Japan, 2023, 127 minutes, Colour.

Japanese voice cast. English-language voice cast: Luka Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Gemma Chan, Christian Bale, Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista, Denise Pickering, Mamoudou Athie, Tony Revelorii, Dan Stevens.

Directed by Harao Myazaki.

The Boy and the Heron may be seen as the culmination of the distinguished career of Japanese anime director, Harao Myazaki. He has made outstanding films since 1971, audiences remembering Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle, Spirited Away.

This is likely to be the director’s final film and everyone agrees that it is a triumphant ending.

Myazaki is a painstaking director, “He began storyboarding for a new feature-length project in July 2016, and official production began in May 2017. The film's title was announced in October 2017, targeting a release around the 2020 Summer Olympics. By May 2020, 36 minutes of the film had been hand-drawn by 60 animators, with no set deadline. Production spanned approximately seven years, facing delays as it navigated challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic and Miyazaki's slowed animation pace, before nearing completion in October 2022” (Wikipedia)

The Setting is during World War II, Tokyo, the story of a little boy, Mahito, his father a munitions manufacturer, and the sudden tragedy of his mother dying in a hospital fire. It is 80 years since World War II and Japan’s involvement, still some memories.

The family moves to the countryside, the father to marry his wife’s sister, the boy unsettled, bullied at school, wounding his own head to make himself seem a victim.

But, that is at the level of realism. Most of the film takes place in a fantasy world, the boy led into a strange tower in the countryside by the imposing heron, sometimes scratchy, sometimes friendly, sometimes unmasked as a bird man. Audiences who enjoy Japanese fantasy stories will be intrigued by this fantasy world, the role of the women, his mother, his aunt, their alternate-world presences, and the role of a previous ancestor in creating this mysterious tower and world. And, as always, there are sinister villains, especially here a troupe of strange parakeets.

The film is beautiful to look at, the storyboarding so strong, pictures, movement within frames, and the painting so detailed, almost reality.

There are climaxes, confrontations, moral decisions, and a quiet ending in Tokyo after the war.

1. Classic Japanese animation? The career of the director? Culmination of his career? Japanese reception, international reception?
2. Classic Japanese animation, extensive work, time-consuming, the details storyboarding with framing, perspective, action within the frame? The detailed painting, lifelike, shapes, characters, colour, sense of reality? The musical score?
3. The World War II setting, Japanese memories? The opening with Mahito, the hospital burning, news of his mother, his father and the munitions factory, the move from Tokyo, the train trip, the country town, meeting Natsuko, the situation, and the six old maids? Settling in, Mahito unsettled?
4. His age, the fighting, the self-wound, his motivation, his feelings of guilt and responsibility, the later confession?
5. The heron, its look, behaviour, sinister, large, leading Mahito to the tower, the story of his ancestor in the building of the tower, the recluse, the visuals?
6. The heron speaking, the revelation of the face, the bird man, the enticement for Mahito to find his mother, the toads and Natsuko helping, the whistling arrow, Mahito making his own, using the heron’s feather, its accuracy?
7. The boy reading, Natsuko going into the forest, the pursuit, with Kiriko, going to the tower? Finding the imitation of his mother? The clashes with the heron, wounding the beak, reducing the heron to a bird man?
8. The encounter with the Wizard, descending to the oceanic world, the role of the pelicans, beauty, menace, a younger Kiriko, fishing, magic, the catching of the giant fish as an offering? Himi, the pelican’s explanation?
9. The parakeets, monstrous, in action, control? With Himi, his father finding Mahito, his returning into the tower?
10. The stones, the vibrations? Finding Natsuko in the delivery room, the reams of paper, his mother?
11. The Wizard, taking them to the uncle, the piling of the stone blocks, the balance? Mahito and his dreams? The uncle, the heritage, his motivations, the past, the future? The role of the bird man? In the tower, Himi at the top of the tower, the King parakeet?
12. The Wizard, the building of the blocks, Mahito sensing his malice, the scar and his confession?
13. The climax, Himi, his mother, the exodus from the tower, the creatures resuming their shapes, Mahito keeping the stone?
14. Two years later, Tokyo, the family?