The Boy and the Heron[html]
Hello folks, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today I’m thrilled to announce that we’ll be stomping our way through Hayao Miyazaki’s latest allegedly final feature, last year’s How Do You Live?, released abroad as The Boy and the Heron. Though its original title refers to a 1937 novel by Genzaburō Yoshino, it is apparently not a direct adaptation, and that’s frankly all I want to know about it. The film’s own promotion was limited to a single, ambiguous image of a man decked in a bird-like costume, implying both extraordinary confidence on Studio Ghibli’s part, and also an apparent desire for audiences to enter the film with no meaningful preconceptions.
That’s an easy enough request for me to fulfill; new Miyazaki films are rare events, and I count myself lucky that I’ve been able to admire this last act of his illustrious career in real time. From animating feats of fancy in Toei’s early films like Puss ‘n Boots and The Flying Phantom Ship, Miyazaki went on to spearhead some of the greatest TV productions of the ‘70s and ‘80s, before forming Studio Ghibli and becoming anime’s premier international ambassador. His remarkable catalog needs no introduction, and recent works like The Wind Rises demonstrate he’s still as passionate and determined to express a personal truth of artistry as ever. Let’s see what The Boy and the Heron has to offer!
The Boy and the Heron
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We open with an air raid siren rousing the people of the city from their beds. Based on the architecture, it seems we’re back in the closing days of World War II again. The specter of the war looms over decades of anime, offering a vision of human hubris and its consequences that no child of that era is likely to forget. Miyazaki’s works often center on the ambiguous allure of progress, encapsulated through the simultaneous wonder and terror at technological innovation characterizing works like Castle in the Sky and Princess Mononoke. These reflections have often been cloaked in metaphor or transposed across time, but as he’s reached the last stage of his career, he’s come to embrace visions of the war itself, as in this and The Wind Rises. It’s a common thread among aging artists – any sort of pretense disguising their preoccupations is discarded, so as to better, more authentically examine the fundamental questions of their lives
Lovely burning effect as ashes fall beyond this boy’s window
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The character acting is of course extraordinary, and we swiftly jump to a movement-into-depth staircase climb, an effect Miyazaki has favored ever since Chihiro was drawn through the garden in Spirited Away
The hospital is on fire, with this boy’s mother still inside. Him hastily pulling on his clothes is so tactile it feels almost rotoscoped, but that’s simply the caliber of key animation you tend to get in late Miyazaki films. Animating for a Miyazaki film is like acting in a Scorsese film – the masters only have so many works left in them, so most folks will drop anything for the chance to contribute
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Oh man, this animation as we take to the streets is gorgeous, and very much not in keeping with Miyazaki’s general character design work. It feels ragged yet realistic in a way that reminds me of Shinya Ohira, and given how frequently he’s tapped for Miyazaki films, I’m guessing it is indeed him
His animation is profoundly expressive in its variations of form, merging unusually realistic character designs with a fluidity of movement that echoes the felt experience of a frantic moment of crisis. His contributions to Rainbow Fireflies still play in my mind all the time
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It’s frankly a bit unusual to see an animator push this far outside Miyazaki’s usual paradigm – he’s normally very particular about correcting the works of others to match his style. Perhaps he’s actually softening that stance a bit, inviting more artists in for his final works
Gorgeous landscapes as we learn that our lead and his father left Tokyo after his mother’s death
Visions of mid- and post-war Japan are always fascinating, a nation charging towards modernity while still defined by ancient traditions and aesthetics. The country’s isolationist policy meant the years following its opening to the world were defined by hundred of years of history living in awkward cohabitation
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The boy’s name is Mahito. His father’s new wife is Natsuko
Wonderfully weighted animation, with the animators clearly delighting in articulating how the weight of Mahito and this luggage impact the frame of this buggy. Among his many fascinations, Miyazaki’s features will always celebrate the mechanical wonder of planes, trains, and automobiles
His mentor Yasuo Otsuka actually first came to love drawing by sketching the trains and various military vehicles he witnessed in his youth. A fascination with how locomotives physically draw and express power is a natural companion to animation, which demands understanding just how bones and muscles work, so as to better capture the intricacies of bodies in motion
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They stop for a line of new recruits heading off to war. These are the lean final days of the war, and there are simply no more young men left to send; Japan’s ongoing fortunes are clear in this motley assembly
It’s an image so specific it feels like it must have been recalled from personal memory. Young artists often strive for universality, to tell “the story that will touch everyone,” but many eventually come to accept that the specificity of their perspective and experience is all they can truly offer others, and that such specificity can actually, paradoxically make a work feel more universal in its own way
They arrive at Mahito’s new home, with a heron already perched on the roof
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Mahito’s father works at a “brand new factory,” a sign of modernity intruding on this beautiful rural landscape
God these backgrounds are gorgeous. Miyazaki’s works are just so lush and vibrant
The heron flies right past Mahito as they walk the halls of his massive new home
More Miyazaki staples – another slow walk into depth down this ominous corridor, and then a gaggle of old ladies who all more or less adhere to his style of drawing witches, most famously in Spirited Away
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Apparently Mahito’s father is named Shoichi
Their apologies for fussing over the luggage prove another opportunity for playful animation flourishes. Elderly faces have so much texture to them, so many expressive wrinkles, and the animators are clearly having a fine time playing with them
These variations in character design ethos are so funny. Some of these ladies’ heads are the same size as Mahito’s torso
The ladies are delighted by Shoichi’s gifts of canned meats and sugar, another reflection of wartime scarcity
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Mahito’s own new home abuts the larger estate. Lovely effect of trees reflected on glass as Mahito glances out the window. These sorts of feats of transparency are at least one direct benefit of Miyazaki working in the digital age
So much of anime is preoccupied with either the preservation or death of the old age that I almost feel a sort of secondhand nostalgia for these various older days, whether it’s premodern Japan or pre-80s Tokyo, as venerated in the works of both Takahata (Pom Poko) and Oshii (Patlabor)
The pattern on Mahito’s bed evokes the look of the heron’s eye, seemingly implying sleep might be a gateway between their worlds
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In his dreams, he’s still running to save his mother. Gorgeous flame animation here, calling to mind the wonders of Kizumonogatari
Powerful character acting as Mahito wakes, his expression shifting from confusion at his location to sorrow at once again having failed to save his mother
Mahito walks outside, heading down a small path that leads to a gateway and a pond beyond. Shades of Spirited Away here as well, alongside Howl’s Moving Castle and Princess Mononoke. The gateway feels like a portal to another world – one of those sacred Old Places in the world, where reality is fluid, and you could easily slip into another place and time. Miyazaki’s films don’t possess a consistent shared mythology (thank god), but they do respect certain conventions of how fantasy might brush against reality
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The heron flies away at his approach, directing him towards a tower hidden in the trees
God, I will miss these films. Miyazaki has inspired millions of artists, but there’s still no one who makes stories quite like him
Mahito is called back home by Natsuko, but chooses to continue towards the tower. Another trend in Miyazaki films – the protagonist who has been either physically (Princess Monoke) or emotionally (Spirited Away) distanced from their current life, and thus chooses to pursue a fantastical calling
As in Spirited Away, the passage into this new world requires traversing a tunnel, this time in the form of an old drainage path
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The old ladies call him back, at which point he realizes the feathers he was following have disappeared
The tower was built by a relative of the family, a highly intelligent man who apparently lost his mind, and one day disappeared, leaving only a half-read book behind
Though he heads up to his bedroom, Mahito’s anxieties keep him from actually falling asleep, and he waits at the top of the stairs until his father returns. He is haunted by his mother every night, and every day fears the loss of his father as well – a fear that’s not even irrational, given the fact that his father works in a factory supporting the war effort, a natural target for bombings
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Mahito clearly also feels bitterness towards his father for how swiftly he’s apparently forgotten Mahito’s mother. His father’s attempts to cheer him up and reestablish a sense of normalcy only parse to Mahito as a betrayal of their old life
The local boys reject and squabble with Mahito, and he ends up hitting himself with a rock in order to make his rejection look all the more severe
Love the playful contortions of his father’s vehicle as he races home. After all these years, Miyazaki’s vehicles still snort and stretch like Lupin’s car in Cagliostro
After his father storms out, the heron swoops right into his room, crowing for Mahito to save him
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That damn heron shits on his windowsill and then heads off to swallow a fish
Mahito quietly dresses and leaves as his guardian sleeps, taking a wooden kendo blade with him. Sleep is once again portrayed as a sort of portal or dividing line; these two worlds are supposed to be kept apart, but dreams can carry us between them as surely as that mysterious tower
The heron dive-bombs him! Mahito takes a swing! His wooden blade is broken in half!
Always nice to see Miyazaki’s classic expressive hair, with Mahito’s hair billowing up like a dog’s fur as he gets annoyed. Even in his more grounded features, Miyazaki understands that animation is an art of expression, not recreation. Seeking photorealism is a pointless squandering of animation’s limitless expressive potential, as useless a priority as seeking infinite graphical fidelity in videogames
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The heron claims it will guide Mahito to his mother
“She is waiting for you to rescue her.” The heron offers a common, alluring promise: the return to a lost certainty, the ease and comfort of childhood
Wonderfully creepy imagery as the fish of the river all rise in chorus, calling on Mahito to join them
Natsuko seems to understand whatever is happening here, and fires an arrow to ward off the heron. Her design and role in the story echoes another Miyazaki staple – the world-weary older woman, who has come to understand her role as a guardian in a chaotic universe. Princess Mononoke’s Lady Eboshi is probably the most famous example, but you can see shades of it in Porco Rosso’s Madame Gina, or even the person Sophie is becoming in Howl’s Moving Castle
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Another lovely visual flourish as Mahito emerges from a deep sleep, conveyed as him drifting upwards through water, which eventually parts and dribbles off the sides of his bed
Shoichi proudly boasts of his “300 yen donation” to the school, a real sign of the times
The line between fantasy and reality continues to be blurred in ominous ways. Mahito finds the kendo blade returned to the hall closet, but when he picks it up to examine it, it again crumbles into pieces
A stark contrast of traditional scenery and mechanical violence as we see a line of carts carrying fighter cockpits up to the estate
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The beauty of these cockpits is immediately contrasted against the austerity their intrusion has created, as Mahito and the old women complain about their lousy food and the scarcity of tobacco
Confined to bed due to morning sickness, Natsuko has retreated to an elegantly appointed yet seemingly decaying bedroom chamber, a fading icon of past glory
Mahito tenses as Natsuko touches her hand to his injury – an emphatically motherly gesture, here applied to his painful symbol of rebellion against this new normal
Mahito arms himself for his next encounter with the heron, trading stolen cigarettes for lessons in sharpening his pocket knife
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Mahito being so averse to entering this world of fantasy is an interesting break from Miyazaki tradition. His heroes are normally eager to step beyond their mundane lives, but the death of Mahito’s mother and this heron’s call to rejoin her has made him deeply suspicious, stolen his youthful curiosity
Employing his freshly sharpened knife, Mahito then constructs a bamboo bow
It’s a strange thing recognizing flourishes of body language from across Miyazaki’s work, like this crouched stance Mahito employs as he scurries forward with bow in hand. Most directors are not so hands-on as to ensure unity of body language across an entire catalog of films, but Miyazaki is famous for personally correcting a ridiculous number of cuts on his films, to the point where outstanding animators he works with are often less clearly discernible, because their signature flourishes are subsumed into Miyazaki’s standard animation vocabulary. Granted, there are major exceptions, like the fire sequence we keep returning to
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I recall Otsuka speaking of Miyazaki essentially transformed after becoming a director, shifting from a freewheeling animator to an overbearing perfectionist
This whole sequence also embodies another Miyazaki staple: the joy of crafting something with your own hands. There’s a reason his films are so full of bakers and artisans and engineers
Accidentally knocking over a pile of books, Mahito discovers a text titled “How Do You Live?” that was left to him by his mother
Apparently the book was one of Miyazaki’s favorites as a child. I’ll have to read it myself!
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He is interrupted by the old ladies calling for Natsuko, who has apparently disappeared into the forest
Once again, a portal in the underbrush signifies Mahito’s traversal into the world of nature and magic
He finds paved stones in the underbrush, the sign of a former path. They lead him back to the tower, where the lights turn on as if to greet him
Spirited Away is the most obvious prior touchstone for this story so far, both in terms of this constant portal imagery and ominous calls to a fantastical world, as well as the story seemingly being a vehicle for the protagonist to grow beyond their childhood perspective through gaining responsibility and learning consequences in that other world
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The old lady accompanying Mahito states that “only those of your bloodline can hear the master’s voice.”
Interesting that this old lady actually crosses the threshold with him. Having the “familiar” role be played by an actual elderly human seems like a nod towards Miyazaki’s own age and shifting perspective
The heron indeed brings him to a woman shaped like his mother, but she melts into goo at his touch. Another very Miyazaki touch – the forest god in Mononoke underwent a similar process of melting into sap-like mush, and Howl would experience a similar degradation when he overused his magic. I wonder why this particular image of precious loved ones melting into liquid became so deeply affixed in Miyazaki’s mind?
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Topic: The Boy and the Heron (Read 105 times)