The Boy and the Heron
Year: 2023
Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, Mark Hamill, Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson & Florence Pugh
Runtime: 124 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 12/01/24
Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, Mark Hamill, Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson & Florence Pugh
Runtime: 124 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 12/01/24
Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli are widely considered to be the masters of Japanese feature animation, with a long and storied history together that includes acclaimed titles such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbour Totoro. It shames me to say then that I have only ever seen one Studio Ghibli film, that being Spirited Away, and I’ve only seen it once way back in 2007, so I don’t really remember an awful lot of it. But one of my friends is a reasonably big Miyazaki fan and was desperate to see The Boy and the Heron at the cinema. I tagged along to see what all the fuss was about, having seen rave reviews and coming to understand that this was a comeback for Miyazaki who had announced his retirement back in 2013. So, as an outsider to the unique stylings of Ghibli’s films, what did I think of The Boy and the Heron?
Following the death of his mother in WWII Tokyo, Mahito (Soma Santoki/Luca Padovan) moves to a rural estate with his father, Soichi (Takuya Kimura/Christian Bale), who has married his late wife’s sister, Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura/Gemma Chan). With a baby on the way, Mahito is struggling to handle the war, the move, the loss of his mother, and the overbearing nature of his new one. Amongst all this, a Grey Heron (Masaki Suda/Robert Pattinson) that lives on the estate seems to be pursuing Mahito and luring him towards an abandoned and dilapidated tower, with the promise of being able to reconnect him with his late mother.
Following the death of his mother in WWII Tokyo, Mahito (Soma Santoki/Luca Padovan) moves to a rural estate with his father, Soichi (Takuya Kimura/Christian Bale), who has married his late wife’s sister, Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura/Gemma Chan). With a baby on the way, Mahito is struggling to handle the war, the move, the loss of his mother, and the overbearing nature of his new one. Amongst all this, a Grey Heron (Masaki Suda/Robert Pattinson) that lives on the estate seems to be pursuing Mahito and luring him towards an abandoned and dilapidated tower, with the promise of being able to reconnect him with his late mother.
To start off with the obvious, yes, The Boy and the Heron is an absolutely gorgeous film. Whilst I haven’t seen many Ghibli films, I am familiar with the studio’s work through images and clips I have seen online and they have always excelled at making incredible looking films, and this one certainly is no different. Everything you see is animated by hand, and to be able to say that in this day and age is really quite special. Too often do studios rely on computer animation because it’s faster and cheaper, but at Ghibli there seems to be this understanding that the animation produced by hand has a far greater connection with audiences, and they’re right.
It's my understanding that The Boy and the Heron has darker and more mature subject matter than what Ghibli usually handle, and that is certainly reflected in the visuals. The opening which sees Mahito running through a war-torn Tokyo in search of his mother is haunting, and his frequent traumatic flashbacks throughout the film are quite distressing. But this is then contrasted with the colourful, fantastical, and almost whimsical world that Mahito finds himself in once he enters the tower. It’s all beautiful, every single frame is a work of art in its own right, and I’d happily watch the whole film again just to soak up the visuals. But what about the story?
I must admit I was expecting a bit more here. The premise is brilliant and promises exploration of themes like grief, trauma, a loss of childhood innocence, and so much more besides. The first act grabbed me and was so engaging. Going on this journey with Mahito and watching him struggle to come to terms with everything that’s happening was really great, and I saw his conflict with the Heron as this metaphorical resistance against this peaceful new life. Mahito was conditioned to see danger in everything, and this peaceful animal became his target as it taunted him in his imagination.
It's my understanding that The Boy and the Heron has darker and more mature subject matter than what Ghibli usually handle, and that is certainly reflected in the visuals. The opening which sees Mahito running through a war-torn Tokyo in search of his mother is haunting, and his frequent traumatic flashbacks throughout the film are quite distressing. But this is then contrasted with the colourful, fantastical, and almost whimsical world that Mahito finds himself in once he enters the tower. It’s all beautiful, every single frame is a work of art in its own right, and I’d happily watch the whole film again just to soak up the visuals. But what about the story?
I must admit I was expecting a bit more here. The premise is brilliant and promises exploration of themes like grief, trauma, a loss of childhood innocence, and so much more besides. The first act grabbed me and was so engaging. Going on this journey with Mahito and watching him struggle to come to terms with everything that’s happening was really great, and I saw his conflict with the Heron as this metaphorical resistance against this peaceful new life. Mahito was conditioned to see danger in everything, and this peaceful animal became his target as it taunted him in his imagination.
But of course, I knew the film would explore more fantastical themes, and as the film moved into this spiritual world I kind of fell off the film entirely. I think Mahito going on a journey to grow and reconnect with his mother in a spiritual world isn’t a bad idea, but the way it’s done feels extremely disjointed and often pointless. I struggled to keep up with what was happening, what it meant, and why it was important to the story. Almost the entire time the film was in this spiritual world I wanted it to hurry up and leave to get back to Mahito moping around the estate, chasing the Heron and getting into fights with kids at school. That was far more compelling to me than anything the film offered up once Mahito and the Heron ventured into the tower.
I then also found the ending to be underwhelming. The conflicts certain characters faced I felt weren’t compelling at all. The choice of whether characters wanted to stay in the spirit world or return to the real world to me felt pointless, because despite the war the real world was so much obviously better than the spirit one. It also just kind of ended, the final scene feels like it jumped too much time in an attempt to wrap things up.
Whilst I am usually a fan of watching international films in their native language with subtitles, I saw The Boy and the Heron with its English dub and I was very impressed with the quality of it. I think particular praise needs to be given to Pattinson, who’s vocally so unrecognisable in the role that I would never have guessed it was him doing the voice had I not known that going into the film. In fact most of the bigger names I struggled to pinpoint who they were, it was really only Bale that stood out to me, but even then he was using his English accent which is often a rarity. I’d say you’re getting a good deal with the English dub, unlike most anime dubs I have seen this one seems to have been done with quite a bit of care. The dialogue is never clunky or feeling like it’s been run through Google Translate, instead it feels specifically written for English speaking audiences and the big-name cast do genuinely pull out all the stops for it.
Whilst The Boy and the Heron wasn’t everything I had hoped for after hearing years of hype surrounding Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, it was still an enjoyable film. It was visually stunning from start to finish, and Jow Hisaishi’s score is hauntingly beautiful. But the story does leave a lot to be desired at times, as I don’t think it uses the excellent premise to its fullest potential.
I’ll certainly be checking out more Studio Ghibli films in the future because of this, but I think I may have gotten more out of the film had I been better acquainted with the studio’s previous efforts.
I then also found the ending to be underwhelming. The conflicts certain characters faced I felt weren’t compelling at all. The choice of whether characters wanted to stay in the spirit world or return to the real world to me felt pointless, because despite the war the real world was so much obviously better than the spirit one. It also just kind of ended, the final scene feels like it jumped too much time in an attempt to wrap things up.
Whilst I am usually a fan of watching international films in their native language with subtitles, I saw The Boy and the Heron with its English dub and I was very impressed with the quality of it. I think particular praise needs to be given to Pattinson, who’s vocally so unrecognisable in the role that I would never have guessed it was him doing the voice had I not known that going into the film. In fact most of the bigger names I struggled to pinpoint who they were, it was really only Bale that stood out to me, but even then he was using his English accent which is often a rarity. I’d say you’re getting a good deal with the English dub, unlike most anime dubs I have seen this one seems to have been done with quite a bit of care. The dialogue is never clunky or feeling like it’s been run through Google Translate, instead it feels specifically written for English speaking audiences and the big-name cast do genuinely pull out all the stops for it.
Whilst The Boy and the Heron wasn’t everything I had hoped for after hearing years of hype surrounding Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, it was still an enjoyable film. It was visually stunning from start to finish, and Jow Hisaishi’s score is hauntingly beautiful. But the story does leave a lot to be desired at times, as I don’t think it uses the excellent premise to its fullest potential.
I’ll certainly be checking out more Studio Ghibli films in the future because of this, but I think I may have gotten more out of the film had I been better acquainted with the studio’s previous efforts.