#05: THE BOY AND THE HERON

 

STARRING: Luca Padovan, Robert Pattinson, Karen Fukuhara, Gemma Chan, Christian Bale, Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh, Willem Dafoe, Dave Bautista. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Running time 124 minutes.

I've always loved animation, indeed I even studied it at Uni, and among my favourite animators there's one name that stands head and shoulders above the rest, Hayao Miyazaki, perhaps the world's greatest living animator, writer and director of animated movies. In the past he's given us Spirited Away, My Neigbour Totoro, Laputa (my favourite), Princess Monokoe, Pocco Rosso to name but a few and to that list of masterpieces you can happily add this, his 12th film as writer and director.

The Boy and the Heron is the first film written and directed by Hayao since 2013's The Wind Rises. Whereas that film was a fictionalised biographer of Jiro Horikoshi, the father of the infamous Japanese Zero fighter plane, The Boy and the Heron is an different kettle of fish. Part fantasy, part family drama, part fairy tale.

The film follows a young boy, Mahito Maki, who loses his mother in a hospital fire that sees his father and him relocate to live with his pregnant aunt in the countryside. It's there that he encounters a mischievous magical grey heron who promises to take him to his mother, whom he claims is still alive and so begins a fantastical story that takes the boy on a quest unlike anything I've ever seen before, offering up originality and depth that just continues to delight and amaze with each passing scene. 

It's such a joy to watch an animated film at the cinema that isn't just the usual generic CG Hollywood guff filled with wise-cracking sassy kids and talking animals or robots, where pat stories and valuable life lessons are dishing out and learned by a bland boring characters. 

And this was truly astonishing to watch, it's a visual masterpiece and I found myself time after time just marveling at the subtles and exquisite attention to detail that fill this film through every single second of its 124 minute run time. I found myself opening gasping in awe at the small throw away details, the way a crease ebbs and flows across a sleeping boy's clothes, the way the lapping sea stains the beach before leeching away. The visuals are truly astounding and left me almost weeping, and yet the visuals would be nothing if the story did not match. 

In that department, Miyazaki does not disappoint, creating a fantastical world so rich and detailed it truly beggers belief, our hero, Mahito's journey into that world on his quest is never pat, or simple, the audience is never pampered and the multi-layered story deserves your attention. It's also a film filled with subtle references to his past triumphs, from Laputa to Spirited Away and Valley of the Wind via Princess Mononke and even Lupin.

In the space of a single month I have now seen two Japanese films that have had a profoundly effect upon me, this and the equally as brilliant Godzilla Minus One, both of which it occurred to me are set during WWII. 

This is a film you truly need to see, even if you're not a fan of animated films, it's a film that could only be done through the medium of animation or Anime if you're being pedantic. Miyazaki is a true master of storytelling and this film ranks as one of his greatest, up there with the Oscar winning Spirited Away, and I firmly believe that come this year's Academy Awards this film too will win the award for Best Animated film, indeed it deserves to win for Best Picture instead.

A beautiful, wonderful, dazzling movie with true heart and emotional depth that deserves to be seen on the big screen. It is pure cinematic perfection.

10/10