The Boy and the Heron
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
13 December 2023
See
Him: Mojito (Soma Santoki) a young boy travels to join his father and his new wife in rural Japan during World War II, after his mother dies. There he discovers an abandoned tower in the forest, and a Grey Heron, who beckons him to enter.
Her: The Boy and the Heron - supposedly the last film by Hayao Miyazaki.
After his mother’s death in a hospital fire, Mahito moves to a new town to live with his father and his new wife. He struggles to settle in a new town, while living trough grieving experience, doesn’t get on with his classmates and one day decides to physically harm himself. One day his step mother tells him about a mysterious tower in the forest that her granduncle built. When she, while being pregnant, goes into the forest and doesn’t return, Mahito decides to follow her despite the warnings of the Grannies.
Think
Him: The tower is a portal to another world, Studio Ghibli land, where the rules of physics and logic don’t apply. It’s more abstract, based on Shinto and the creativity of Miyazaki. I should say it follows its own logic, and does lead the viewer along in a way that you can follow how the Grey Heron is actually a fat little bald man (Masaki Suda) and it takes place prior to the real world timeline with many of the same characters taking a metaphorical magical form.
Her: I think I’ll never be the same after watching this film. It’s magical. There is so much beauty on screen, wisdom in every dialogue, my conscious and subconscious were really disturbed during watching it. I have more questions tan answers. Is his step mother the same person as his mother in the Other world? Why did the great-granduncle aka the creator (aka I assume Miyazaki himself) had to test him so cruelly? Because wisdom is the truth that in order to be understood requires to be felt?
Feel
Him: The parts I felt the most was where and when these two worlds converged and merged, how the heron is standing in the lake and the fish are calling in chorus to Mahito, and the toads swarm and cover him as the music swells. Feelings of catharsis are rare, but most dependably delivered by films. Usually when you know something to be true but can’t articulate it. The last times I experienced this were the HBO miniseries I Know This Much Is True and Station Eleven.
Her: Absolutely overwhelmed, it gave me a religious feeling. I fully transgressed into this magical world of these characters inspired by Shinto. At times majestic, and at other times - monsters. I felt like all of us in the audience were little Mahitos tested by the master Myazaki if we could handle this world after he’s retired of his duties. Can we?
