Who isn't going to see a new Studio Ghibli film directed by Hayao Miyzaki in the movie theaters? I know I am. I haven't seen every single Studio Ghibli film, but the opportunity was there and I had to jump into it. Apparently so did the crowd. I saw this film at 7:15 pm on a Friday night which could be a strange time period to watch a movie, but there were quite a few people there and it was a pretty comfy and quiet time during the film despite all the strange things that happened. Especially since a lot of them made me wonder if Miyazaki is doing ok so this isn't a cry for help. I was worried about spoilers, but how do you spoil something like this?
I would like to made the bold statement that The Boy and the Heron's story in the beginning is a lot like the start of the story in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe except it's in Japan not England and it starts with one boy named Mahito and not a family of orphans. After Mahito's mother was killed in a fire in the middle of WW2 in Tokyo, he and his father move to the country with his mother's sister who apparently is marrying his dad who owns an airplane factory. Not to mention how this house has a weird tower that is blocked off and a heron that constantly calls him to see his dead mother and that eventually leads him to diving into this weird wonderland.
The through line of this story is Mahito coming to terms with his mother's death and accepting his new mother. In the opening minutes of this movie, Mahito barely existed and barely responded to everything around his new situation besides bowing and quick statements. There was also a moment where Mahito tried to kill himself by picking a fight with people at school and then trying to kill himself by hitting himself in the head with a rock leading to a lot of bleeding. Over the course of the film, he slowly accepts his new situation as he searches for his new mother that disappeared into the depths of that wonderland. He really does care about his new mother after all.
That being said, the world presented in this film is so wild and does make me question a lot of things. This feels like the real reason why this film was marketed by not being marketed. How do you explain the insanity of a wonderland to people? Especially one that refuses to tell you the mechanics of the world like it being held together by someone related to Mahito who has to build a tower of blocks everyday or otherwise it all disappears. What about a world where Parakeets and Pelicans are humongous and consistently want to cook Mahito and whoever is with him at the time. There are so many random details that never get explained before moving onto the next thing that isn't explained. It really does push against what it's going for.
Visually, this film is astonishingly good. The character designs are 100% studio ghibli designs and the settings and designs are excellent too. I mean, it's kind of expected at this point as Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli produce an interesting film. Put quotation marks on interesting things. It's crazy that Miyazaki has been announced to be working on another film after this despite being so old. This film is something that I am still processing in my head because it's a lot. Like I really mean that, but there are some wild moments that make me wonder how this film came into being. I am glad that it did because it is a definite conversation starter once you've seen it. I did enjoy it quite a bit even if I was trying to parse what was going on a lot.
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