FShuttari
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Post by FShuttari on Dec 8, 2023 13:40:45 GMT -5
Was able to catch the late screening last night. Not sure how to process this film and not sure if I fully even understand the film It’s a an emotional cinematic masterpiece Might be Miyazakis best work or at least a contender for his best film The visuals and sound are very reminiscing of spirited away and Princess Mononoke Will have to go into details in due time. Just go see it. *****/*****  |
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Dracula
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Post by Dracula on Dec 15, 2023 8:16:38 GMT -5
The Boy and the Heron(12/4/2023) I remember back when Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli were still a relatively obscure creator, in this country at least. I’m sure he had some cult following of anime fans from before I was even born but there was a time when it felt like I only heard about his work when people like Roger Ebert would advocate for it as a hidden gem. His 1997 film Princess Mononoke somewhat famously only got an arthouse release by Miramax and had to fight not to be cut down by “Harvey Scissorhands.” Slowly but surly people caught on though. His next film Spirited Away was a notably bigger hit that came close to penetrating the mainstream and won the man an Oscar. His next three films didn’t necessarily surpass that in terms of box office, mostly because they weren’t as good, but people continued to catch up with his older movies and with other Studio Ghibli and a younger generation of kids with hip parents grew up on his movies and now we’re at the point where his movies seem to continusly play in theaters each year as part of various retrospectives. I guess these movies still aren’t quite mainstream in the way that Pixar movies are, but for foreign produced movies with real artistic ambitions they’re about as widely known as they possibly could be. If you parody his work on a mainstream TV show people will know what you’re talking about and he is at least something of a box office draw. And now Miyazaki has once again come out of retirement again for what may well be his biggest opening yet in this market with his new film The Boy and the Heron.
The film is set during World War II, but away from the “front.” We follow a twelve year old boy named Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki) whose mother is killed in a bombing raid on Tokyo. After that his father Shoichi Maki (Takuya Kimura), an industrialist, moves the family to a rural town where he re-maries with a woman named Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura). Maki’s new surroundings are kind of hard to adjust to, he’s in this house in the middle of nowhere being run by these odd looking maids, but the thing that really weirds him out is this mysterious Grey Heron who keeps swooping past him and harassing him at his window. It soon becomes clear that this is no normal Heron, it can talk (voiced by Masaki Suda) and seems to have some sort of vaguely defined magical powers and it seems to be drawing Mahito to a mysterious nearby tower. Eventually he enters that tower and finds himself transported to a world of mystery from which he’ll need to escape.
When The Boy and the Heron was released in Japan earlier this year they made the unusual decision not to advertise the film at all leading up to its debut, allowing audiences to go into the film totally blind. They obviously weren’t able to keep that up for its international release for a variety of reasons but I didn’t really look up spoilers so true to the spirit of that campaign I did sort of go into this movie unsure what to expect. This is plainly a movie that holds some kinship to Spirited Away as both films are these “Alice in Wonderland” like stories in which children venture into strange and kind of dreamlike fantasy worlds. The journey into the unknown takes a bit longer with this movie and we get a bit more background on the kid in question, who is this rather traumatized and confused adolescent rather than an otherwise rather average tween. That adds a level of angst to the proceedings but doesn’t necessarily dominate the movie. The rest of the human supporting cast is certainly colorful with the film finding interesting personalities for Mahito’s father and stepmother, but ultimately the film becomes more interested in Mahito’s journey into a parallel dimension of sorts and particularly with the titular heron, who’s this kind of revolting looking creation whose hidden human head emerges from out of the heron neck.
That’s not the only avian horror in the film; for a guy whose such a fan of flight and aviation it’s interesting that Miyazaki seems to absolutely hate birds. The film also offers up man eating pelicans and a kingdom of militant parakeets. That’s kind of only the half of the strange goings on in this world and I don’t want to spoil all the visuals. I will say that the Spirited Away comparisons are not always completely complementary, that probably is the better movie and has more amazing visuals per minute than this does, but I would say that The Boy and the Heron does at least hold its own in comparison. The animation itself is pretty well in line with Studio Ghibli’s usual very high standards. The film’s backgrounds, especially in the early scenes, feel a bit more painterly than usual; perhaps sacrificing some movement in favor of scenery. Meanwhile the character models are all great. Mahito has a cool look, as do the adults in his life and the fantasy characters including the heron are quite creatively rendered, although I’m not quite sure what’s going on with the weird troll-like maids working at Mahito’s new home. The fantasy visuals themselves here are often plenty trippy in that characteristically Miyazaki way and it also changes things up and gives you new fantasy ideas through much of the runtime and you’re never quite sure where it’s going.
In Japan the movie was released with a title that translates to “How Do You Live?,” which is the title of a popular 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino, which was a favorite of Miyazaki’s as a youth. That book briefly appears in the film but having read the book this summer I can attest that this is not a direct adaptation of the book at all except in the most basic thematic level of both being coming of age stories about young boys who have a parent who passed away. That coming of age narrative seems to be the film’s main thematic throughline generally as the film seems less interested in Miyazaki’s usual interests of pacifism and environmentalism (though those themes are not completely absent either). At its heart it’s a movie about grief and growing past grief, but played out in a fantasy language, but it’s a bit more nebulous of a message than something like Princess Mononoke. And that movie and the aforementioned Spirited Away are of course, for me anyway, the high watermarks for Miyazaki that his best movies are going to be compared to. At the end of the day I don’t think this quite stacks up with those masterpieces but it comes a lot closer than a lot of his other late career movies like Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo have and if this turns out to be his final film I think it will be a stronger sendoff than The Wind Rises was. Whatever the film’s final legacy is it’s a pretty special thing to be able to be around while someone like Miyazaki is still making major works and it’s a treat that should not be taken for granted. ****1/2 out of Five
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 15, 2023 16:51:55 GMT -5
I remember back when Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli were still a relatively obscure creator, in this country at least. I’m sure he had some cult following of anime fans from before I was even born but there was a time when it felt like I only heard about his work when people like Roger Ebert would advocate for it as a hidden gem. His 1997 film Princess Mononoke somewhat famously only got an arthouse release by Miramax and had to fight not to be cut down by “Harvey Scissorhands.” Slowly but surly people caught on though. His next film Spirited Away was a notably bigger hit that came close to penetrating the mainstream and won the man an Oscar. Hot Topic girls that weren’t quite emo or goth, but too “quirky” for Forever 21 were precisely the Miyazaki fanbase. Kiki’s Delivery Service was released in 1997 by Disney. Castle in the Sky, also released through Disney, was in 1998. And Princess Mononoke, as you said, was released through Miramax in 1999. Everything else was distributed through North American anime companies, which had different dubs than the reissues by Disney that we’re familiar with. I’m not sure anime fans cared too much for Miyazaki. This was the era of Vampire Hunter D, Grave of the Fireflies and Akira. Anime was supposed to be the “grownup alternative” to Disney cartoons. That all changed with Sailor Moon. Once girls discovered anime, that changed the playing field. There’s a reason Disney chose Kiki’s Delivery Service as their first Miyazaki movie to distribute in the states. They had a very specific demographic in mind. |
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Dec 18, 2023 16:56:36 GMT -5
After years of rumblings about Hayao Miyazaki's coming retirement film (since walked back as he's reportedly at work on another feature), lo and behold, The Boy and the Heron is pretty great. More than great in fact, I'd argue it's among the best films Miyazaki has ever made and I do not say that lightly. The film is slower to reveal the boundless imagination of its fantasy world than comparable Miyazaki films, but the gradual discovery is engrossing. It's certainly hard to complain when Miyazaki and his team treat the mundane and familiar with as much delicacy and artistry as the more spectacular visuals. And when The Boy and the Heron finally does play its hand, the results are enchanting, a delightful parade of beautiful creatures and worlds which form the bedrock for a rousing adventure. At the core of this adventure is a moving, multi-generational story of letting go, to grief, to the past, and to legacy. Miyazaki's touch is so light that the full weight of the themes don't fully resonate at first. But as the story comes to a close a torrent of emotions comes rushing forth, all for the movie to conclude on remarkable understatement.
I'll always be excited for more Miyazaki, but if The Boy and the Heron ends up being his final word on cinema, I cannot imagine a better swansong. Utterly beautiful filmmaking. And a predictably brilliant score from longtime collaborator Joe Hisaishi.
A+
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 18, 2023 17:00:57 GMT -5
PG Cooper watched this? I don’t believe it. What’s next, an Iron Claw review? No way. Impossible.
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PG Cooper
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Post by PG Cooper on Dec 18, 2023 20:31:55 GMT -5
PG Cooper watched this? I don’t believe it. What’s next, an Iron Claw review? No way. Impossible. I'm very excited for The Iron Claw. Decent chance I don't get to it until the new year though. |
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Neverending
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Post by Neverending on Dec 18, 2023 20:52:07 GMT -5
I don't get to it until the new year though. Boo! |
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