Film Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron - Discussion & Hype Thread

[chocolate_supra]

OMG That makes the warawara make so much more sense too!!

Spoiler

Souls born in that realm of his mind, they represent all the characters he's created and put out into the world

 

[kvetcha]

Yes I would say this describes how i felt about the music quite well. definitely have to rewatch soon to gather my thoughts on this, the story and generally all aspects.

My sister pointed out that the score is distinctly minimalist (as in, the school of composition), which is actually a place that Hisaishi started out early in his career. In a sense, it feels like a full circle moment.

 

[kvetcha]

I don’t know if anyone listens to Blank Check, but their episode on this movie is great and very enlightening.

 

[rêverie]

imo when you read the movie as a metaphor for Miyazaki’s wrangling with his own life’s work, the things he gave up to achieve it, and the ultimate uselessness of trying to continue it on once he is gone, it all snaps into place.

the world beyond the tower is explicitly not a mirror, it is the mind of another man. Mahito’s grand uncle is consumed and obsessed by the act of creation, unable to control his impulses to the point that he abandons his family and lives life sequestered in a tower, his entire existence dedicated to keeping this place he spun into existence from collapsing back into void. the movie feels like Miyazaki’s lament of what could have been in his life, of the futility of spending his life trying to keep his kingdom alive for just one more day, and of the importance of allowing the next generation to forge their own paths rather than conscripting them into maintaining a thing that previous generations created for their own amusement. I found it shattering on a molecular level.

it’s one of the great artists of our time wondering if his life has been misspent.

i do agree, that is definitely one of the POVs to look at the movie thru and it certainly makes it all much clearer. though...

Spoiler

the world is described as more than just the grand uncle's imagination. himi mentions that the world they're in has many doors to many places. i don't think the destruction of the grand uncle's world meant the entire other world is completely gone.

Holy shit I didn't realize

Makes the original title "How Do You Live?"ake a lot more sense, too.

wait so is Mahito actually Goro, then?
Is he telling Goro to knock it off and go do his own shit?

not to sound like a broken record, but yah, "The Boy and the Heron" title does a major disservice to the movie.

 

[kvetcha]

i do agree, that is definitely one of the POVs to look at the movie thru and it certainly makes it all much clearer. though...

Spoiler

the world is described as more than just the grand uncle's imagination. himi mentions that the world they're in has many doors to many places. i don't think the destruction of the grand uncle's world meant the entire other world is completely gone.

not to sound like a broken record, but yah, "The Boy and the Heron" title does a major disservice to the movie.

Spoiler

I agree. One world collapses, but others remain. The Tower is a nexus.

 

[chocolate_supra]

 

[kvetcha]

that's the difference between a company that makes merchandise to fund movies and a company that makes movies to fuel merchandise.

 

[KingOnion]

Holy shit I didn't realize

Makes the original title "How Do You Live?"ake a lot more sense, too.

wait so is Mahito actually Goro, then?
Is he telling Goro to knock it off and go do his own shit?

I think Miyazaki stated he was making this film for his grandson? I’m not up on Ghibli news but I was under the impression that Goro definitely wasn’t going to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Spoiler

My second viewing with an slight understanding of the career metaphor was much more eye opening. I think he’s ultimately telling his family line to follow their own paths, not get into animation just because they’re related to a great artist.

I also think the parakeets represent capitalistic interests. The desire to eat being a likely metaphor for consumerism. The way they capture Himi and bring her to the tower keeper is also something I see as Miyazaki warning his children, grandchildren, etc of business interests which just want to capitalize on the Miyazaki lineage.

There’s a ton to speculate on in this movie, it’s easily among my favorites of this year. Very happy I was able to see it in theaters.

 

[rêverie]

I think Miyazaki stated he was making this film for his grandson? I’m not up on Ghibli news but I was under the impression that Goro definitely wasn’t going to follow in his father’s footsteps.

Spoiler

My second viewing with an slight understanding of the career metaphor was much more eye opening. I think he’s ultimately telling his family line to follow their own paths, not get into animation just because they’re related to a great artist.

I also think the parakeets represent capitalistic interests. The desire to eat being a likely metaphor for consumerism. The way they capture Himi and bring her to the tower keeper is also something I see as Miyazaki warning his children, grandchildren, etc of business interests which just want to capitalize on the Miyazaki lineage.

There’s a ton to speculate on in this movie, it’s easily among my favorites of this year. Very happy I was able to see it in theaters.

i was pondering on what the parakeets represented - that's definitely a good interpretation!

when i first saw it, i was a little frustrated with all the ideas seemingly thrown into it and how confusing it was at times. after the second time though, it was much more fun to go into it knowing a bit more what's going to happen so i could instead pay more attention to all the possibilities of what different aspects of the movie mean.

 

[Scrawnton]

I took my wife to go see this this past weekend and it has really stuck with me. Everything about the movie was simply outstanding. I'm embarrassed to say that this was my first time actually watching a Miyazaki movie but I was able to pick up on every undertone (I think?).

I only decided to see it because the movies premise intrigued where as I lost my own mother 13 years ago as a young adult and it took me a long time to journey through all those emotions. I wanted to see how this movie handled it and I was not disappointed.

I ended up ordering blu rays for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away and I look forward to seeing those.

 

[kvetcha]

I took my wife to go see this this past weekend and it has really stuck with me. Everything about the movie was simply outstanding. I'm embarrassed to say that this was my first time actually watching a Miyazaki movie but I was able to pick up on every undertone (I think?).

I only decided to see it because the movies premise intrigued where as I lost my own mother 13 years ago as a young adult and it took me a long time to journey through all those emotions. I wanted to see how this movie handled it and I was not disappointed.

I ended up ordering blu rays for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away and I look forward to seeing those.

boy oh boy do you have a journey ahead of you. Miyazaki’s filmography is quite literally all bangers

 

[rêverie]

I took my wife to go see this this past weekend and it has really stuck with me. Everything about the movie was simply outstanding. I'm embarrassed to say that this was my first time actually watching a Miyazaki movie but I was able to pick up on every undertone (I think?).

I only decided to see it because the movies premise intrigued where as I lost my own mother 13 years ago as a young adult and it took me a long time to journey through all those emotions. I wanted to see how this movie handled it and I was not disappointed.

I ended up ordering blu rays for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away and I look forward to seeing those.

spirited away is my favorite miyazaki movie, hope you enjoy it. come back and let us know how you like both! howl's moving castle and porco rosso are also very good, i'd recommend you see those next.

haven't seen grave of the fireflies (not miyazaki but still studio ghibli) or the wind rises, but they may be closer to the mature tones of the boy and the heron.

 

[WestEgg]

The more I sit on things, the more I do think I overall really like the movie. It’s still not my favorite Miyazaki film, but thinking about it more through the lense of him telling a very personal story exploring his life and legacy gives it a lot more weight.

 

[KingOnion]

I ended up ordering blu rays for Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away and I look forward to seeing those.

You can’t go wrong with Miyazaki’s films, but this going especially right. Spirited Away is what got me in after seeing some of it one night on Toonami 20 years ago. Mononoke is probably in my top 3 favorite movies ever.

 

[rêverie]

You can’t go wrong with Miyazaki’s films, but this going especially right. Spirited Away is what got me in after seeing some of it one night on Toonami 20 years ago. Mononoke is probably in my top 3 favorite movies ever.

hah! toonami is what got me into miyazaki films too. i remember seeing totoro (which i loved immediately) and spirited away (which scared me back then lol.)

 

[KingOnion]

hah! toonami is what got me into miyazaki films too. i remember seeing totoro (which i loved immediately) and spirited away (which scared me back then lol.)

Hell yeah, frightened children rise up! Definitely was spooked by the pigs early on and of course No-Face. I was probably 9 or 10 when I watched it.

Random scared child story, but around the same time I somehow rented Resident Evil 4 and couldn’t even make it through the opening cutscene. The POV from the woods on the driver by the road was too intense

 

[big lantern ghost]

Tomorrow is the day, friends; I will finally be seeing this movie! The theatre serves booze and ice cream! Woo!

 

[rêverie]

Hell yeah, frightened children rise up! Definitely was spooked by the pigs early on and of course No-Face. I was probably 9 or 10 when I watched it.

Random scared child story, but around the same time I somehow rented Resident Evil 4 and couldn’t even make it through the opening cutscene. The POV from the woods on the driver by the road was too intense

funnily enough, i have a similar story but with the resident evil revelations demo. couldn't even get like max 30 minutes into it without being too scared to continue. what a little scaredy-cat i was! even worse, i was probably pushing 12 at that point lmao

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@big lantern ghost - hope you enjoy. let us know what you think!

 

[VolcanicDynamo]

I saw the film yesterday - specifically the sub, but I hope to also see the dub at some point. It gave me a lot to chew on and I'm still thinking about it.

To some extent, it feels like a sort of "Miyazaki's Greatest Hits," returning to ideas and concepts he's shown over the course of his career. Horrors of War as a backdrop? Return to nature as an escape? Fantasy with the mundane? Secret magical worlds? Amazing old people designs? At least one really gorgeous scene of food? We got it all. But this isn't done to be sloppy or self referential, of course, because he and his crew still have something to say with it, revising themes and concepts potentially one last time to make something that is really contemplative at its core.

The story works on a lot of levels. We have the literal text - we have the central theme of learning to let go and move on, acknowledging pain and grief and malice but being willing to move forward and not lose sight of the joy of life. We have the deeper aspects of the plot - the Sea World being a world built and maintained with malice, an empty world where those effectively forced into it resort to dark things like eating other sentient beings because they have no other choice. It parallels the world above, where war is a constant backdrop, where even our hero, who lost his mother to war, still indirectly benefits by having wealth and having his father's factory, and the mixed feelings that inspires. The choice Mahito makes to not succeed his great granduncle in that path acknowledges the malice that can make for a worse world and vows to embrace the good, make it better despite the problems. We have the subtext of Miyazaki as a creator observing his life's work and thinking about the next generation. Miyazaki is a creator who himself grapples with cynicism despite his hopeful works, and it is easy to see him paralleled by the great granduncle, as many have already laid out..

It's weird and gorgeous and contemplative, and I really enjoyed it.

 

[Scrawnton]

Here's my promised update on my experience with Miyazaki films for the first time. I watched Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away over my Christmas break. I loved both of the films; however, I enjoyed Princess Mononoke more since I am an environmentalist.

Both games deliver there message is in obvious yet subtle ways where certain nuances are easy to miss. I'm not going to go too deep into the plots but I want to say my favorite take away / messages for each.

At the very end of Princess Mononoke when some Iron Town resident says "I didn't know the forest spirits made flowers grow too" or something to that extent while everyone stares and witnesses the beauty of the natural world. That part tells me that despite the ravaging of the land for its resources these people have done, they are realizing that the natural world isn't just ore and animals to hunt, but the natural world is something beautiful and pure and it gives me hope that these people learned the delicate balance of nature and life and become more in tune with the world going forward.

Spirited Away is harder for me to grasp a specific take away. One thing I liked is how I interpret the twin witches to represent the same person in the real world. To me they represent someone who has to play the "game" of adult hood and business to feed their greed, but deep down in them is someone who wants to live peacefully and calmly and leave the reality of working nonstop behind them. We all go through the struggle of being overworked and stressed from the daily grind and it makes us shrewd but deep down we all have a calmness and rationality that can be reached if given the right scenario.

To continue my journey, I ordered the blu ray for My Neighbor Totoro.

 

[neil]

Saw it subbed today. Lovely looking film. Enjoyed it up to the point where he enters the tower. Story just wasn’t there for me.

 

[Clov]

Watched it subtitled today! Great way to end my winter vacation before @Phosphorescent Skeleton fly back home tomorrow. This was the second Ghibli film I've seen in a theater. It was a much better experience than the first I had seen, The Wind Rises. Not because of the quality of the movies- I like The Wind Rises a little more, actually- but because of who I was with. When I saw The Wind Rises, I saw it with a good friend of mine who snuck an entire bottle of goldshlager into the showing. By the end she had finished almost half. With the Boy and the Heron, I watched it with Phos in the (much too expensive) premium theater where people could order overpriced pizza and wine and we could lift the arm of the seat up so we could snuggle and giggle at the parakeets together.

Anyway, I liked it! Mostly. Great animation, looked beautiful. Laughed a lot when the heron first spoke. Definitely has major late style vibes, and feels even more like a "farewell" from Miyazaki than The Wind Rises did, with the Great Granduncle character striking me as being Miyazaki himself. There won't be another one! Couldn't help but feel that it was a bit sexist in the way women were portrayed as being destined to be mothers or servants (who take care of children). It's a complicated film honestly, and not Miyazaki's best, but I'm glad I saw it in a theater when I had the chance.