I Just Saw

I just saw The Boy and the Heron and it was great. A fantasy drama out of Japan, it’s set mostly around the bombing of Tokyo during the 1940s and follows a young man whose mother dies and whose father then takes him to the countryside to set up home with a new wife. But her sprawling estate contains mysteries, and a talking heron who leads the boy to a strange tower, from which one of his stepmother’s descendants disappeared long ago… 

The animation is frequently beautiful, evoking storybook landscapes in the classic Studio Ghibli style, reminiscent of back when Disney was still putting effort into its animated features. Like a lot of the best fantasy stories, The Boy and the Heron utilises folklore in connection with strong characters, whose emotional lives are symbolised in the fairy tale adventures they have. I saw the subtitled print and the performances felt authentic, as they inevitably would when coming from their original Japanese actors. 

The fairy tale creatures that populate the world beyond the tower are one of the film’s most entertaining features. My favourites are the ghosts who represent the souls of the unborn, cutely plump little widgets, although they’re given a run for their money by the human-sized parakeets, who straddle a line between comic foils and Lovecraftian monstrosities. 

Writer/director Hayao Miyazaki is responsible for any number of animated masterpieces and The Boy and the Heron continues favourite themes, such as children and families and how the young overcome trauma. The fantasy world created in this film is exciting and original, working both literally and subtextually. Although the story takes place within the shadow of WWII this isn’t a war film, viewing the conflict more as many a child would, as a strange and terrible thing in the background of their life. 

There’s an Alice in Wonderland quality to some of the adventures, and the relationship between the titular characters is delightfully odd. The plot and characters in general are heartwarming too. It’s always a pleasure to see a wistful and emotionally intelligent fairy tale on the big screen; these days it seems as if only the Japanese are still making them. As time goes by it seems less and less likely that Hollywood would ever take a gamble on anything as truly romantic and individual as this. They’d feel the need to add a cardboard villain, simpler stakes, and an obnoxious comic relief character. Putting The Boy and the Heron up against new Disney releases like Wish is just humiliating to the latter. 

Soma Santoki brings a nuanced vocal performance to the boy and Masaki Suda a great comedic energy to the heron. The mysterious tower and its origins deserve to linger in cinematic memory as a Wonderland-esque landscape. Some of the physics of the other world might be a little confusing but since the film leans into its fairy-tale nature anyway, I never struggled too hard to suspend my disbelief. The Boy and the Heron has the iconic power of great fantasy literature. 

Rating: 3.5/4