Der Junge und der Reiher

I have been recently getting into Studio Ghibli films and I've been impressed. I was highly looking forward to this movie strictly because it was the first time I got the opportunity to see a Miyazaki film on the big screen. And the English dub is studded with talent.

I must say... I feel let down. I almost fell asleep halfway through, and the ending didn't make sense. There was so much happening and things weren't explained. I understand that there was probably deep symbolism attached to certain writing choices, but what's the point if the viewer has no idea what they're trying to say?

There were some good scenes and some good humor, but overall I feel a little empty.

Mahito's life is dramatically changed, he's lost his mother, and his father has started a new life in the country, escaping a war. One day Mahito follows a heron, and enters a whole new fantasy world.

This first thing I'm going to start with, the visuals, what a feast for the eyes, it is a vividly, beautiful film, some of the scenes are honestly captivating, not just the animations themselves, but the colours and creativity.

To be honest, I can't say I fully understood what was going on, I did find myself needing to read up about the plot, as some of it did go over my head, I imagine this improves with a second viewing.

It feels like a very personal story, I wonder if Miyazaki was exercising personal demons through it. As always there's a strong moral angle running through it, but plenty of really good scenes.

I'm nitpicking, but I did prefer Spirited Away, maybe simply because I found it easier to follow, but I'd recommend this very highly.

Worth seeing for the incredible visuals alone.

7/10.

This is one of the good ones. However it reflects as much the passion and skill of Hayao Miyazaki as his old age confusion. His latest "last movie" starts one way and ends (abruptly) another. It has elements from his own life, his previous work and some new ideas, but the gist of the film is reconciling with loss and moving forward, recognizing there isn't much one can do. A very old man mentality in a movie about a child entering a magical world filled with wonder and dream logic.

The animation was so beautiful, the story a bit disjointed, but quite captivating. It was the ending that kind of disappointed. This film has been a long time in the making (in 2019 it was 15% complete, allegedly, with Miyazaki directing a minute of the film a month) and it shows.

The Japanese title is "How do you live?", the same as the Genzaburo Yoshino's instructional coming-of-age novel that Miyazaki's mother gifted him. In the film, the boy finds the book with a message from his dead mother, instructing him to read it, but it never goes anywhere. There are a lot of other hints and symbols that are quite opaque to non-Japanese, so I felt that I've missed chunks of what the movie was supposed to convey.

Perhaps the most interesting quality of the film is how easily it can be interpreted multiple ways, the ambiguity both confusing and thought provoking. As we experience dream and child logic we get a glimpse of the transmuted reality underneath. The grief, the loss, the benevolent yet oppressive culture, the futility and pain of war, the missing and missed parenting and so on.

Bottom line: is it a masterpiece or a slice of Miyazaki, jumbled beyond recognition? Both. I felt it might be a fitting farewell film, but also that I missed so many meanings from it. I liked it.

If you have never watched a Hayao Miyazaki film, I wouldn't recommend starting with The Boy and the Heron.

For an introduction I'd recommend to start with Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (1997).

If you become amused and the films resonate with you. Then you will enjoy The Boy and Heron. It isn't the strongest of Hayao Miyazaki and Ghibli films but a very good addition to their filmography.

The film begins with a slow pace of mostly visually defining the world, characters and their dilemmas. As the movie progresses you see touches of another realm. Before you know it, it becomes a full-blown feverish dream of Hayao Miyazaki imagination and story telling. It eventually comes all together back on its feet at the end.

Was it fun and visually pleasing? Yes.

Was I confused at times And had a lot of unanswered question? Also yes.

Not his best, but a very solid fairy tale from the master with lots of his trademark elements like stoic characters, spirit worlds, flying scenes and characters running through narrow passages.

It is stylistically comparable to Spirited Away and Howls Moving Castle, although a bit less epic in scope. Like those films it inhibits a certain darkness and maturity at times with a war as a backdrop, that is not really aimed at children. I personally liked it and wished that more filmmakers in animation would have similar aspirations, but I guess those who do are expelled to do short movies. But back to Miyazaki's movie: it is bursting with lots of ideas, symbolism and fairy tale motifs like Snow White (with a dead mother, seven dwarfettes and a glass coffin with a sleeping beauty). At other times the character dynamics invoke Jim Henson's Labyrinth, where the protagonist has to rescue a kidnapped loved one and work with a henchman who sells him out at every opportunity until they start bonding.

All the visual ideas are great but sometimes they can unnecessary bloat the picture. It is one of Miyazaki weaknesses to be over-indulgent and unfocused at times, sometimes he needs to tighten the story in certain places - especially during the last stretch it can feel exhausting. I still like the leisurely pace in the beginning and that the movie takes it's time to slowly pull us into another world/afterlife/beforelife however you want to call this place. There are beautiful visual metaphors like when the little balloon creatures fly off into the next world, one can say that those symbolize the protagonists own emotions bubbling up into the surface (this is also the first sequence where we see the main character smile and express genuine emitions) - and that he tries to repress those feelings. Especially towards his new stepmom which he tries to rescue seemingly out of pure obligation for his father. It is also no coincidence that we witness the appearance of an avatar of his real mother in that very same sequence - she tries to protect those cute balloons from hungry predators, but in the process burns most of them. The clinging to the ghost from the past is preventing a new blossoming/beginning. There simply aren't easy and clean-cut solutions, neither in nature nor our society.

There are certain moments where someone can get the impression that Miyazaki is making a statement towards his own legacy and the studio he helped to build. There are themes of responsibility & duty versus family sharing a lot of similarities to his last movie 'The Wind Rises' . I appreciated the ending, without getting into any spoiler territory, a lot of people wondered or were baffled why the final scene feels sort of "tacked on". But when you closely observe it, it is sound with the movie's themes and illustrates rather well the important choice of our main character.