Wednesday, January 3, 2024

The Boy and the Heron (2023)

IMDb plot summary: A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Starring Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, and Kô Shibasaki.

The Boy and the Heron is the newest film from Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. It tells the story of a young boy whose father remarries after the wife's death, and as the boy settles into the new home with his new mother, he encounters a strange heron who promises who bring him to his mother. This is a much more symbolic, surreal story than many of Miyazaki's, full of dreamy sequences that don't feel like they are a representation of the adventures the boy is going through so much as that it's a journey through his subconscious. While that sometimes works for me, I don't resonate with it as much here, certainly not like I do with other Miyazaki movies. However, as always, the creature and set design of this world are gorgeous, and it does manage to narratively pull it all together in the final few moments in a way I found very creatively satisfying. I'd like to revisit it again someday now that I know not to expect such a straightforward adventure storyline.

How it entered my Flickchart:
The Boy and the Heron > The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Boy and the Heron > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
The Boy and the Heron < The White Tiger
The Boy and the Heron < Onward
The Boy and the Heron < Shiva Baby
The Boy and the Heron < The African Queen
The Boy and the Heron < Mister Roberts
The Boy and the Heron > Kiss Me, Stupid!
The Boy and the Heron < Steven Universe: The Movie
The Boy and the Heron < The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall
The Boy and the Heron > Guilty As Sin
The Boy and the Heron < Robin Hood (1973)
Final spot: #946 out of 3855, or 75%.

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