Cinema in Review

Boy and the Heron

PG-13 2023 ‧ Fantasy/Adventure ‧ 2h 4m

“The Boy and the Heron” or “How Do You Live” is a dazzling display of what it means to see an art film in modern cinema. The story follows the life of a young boy, Mahito Maki, who struggles with the reality of his life without his mother during the Pacific War. When his father decides to remarry his late wife’s sister and move Mahito to her country estate in pursuit of his career building aircrafts for the war, his son becomes despondent in the face of his new world and mother. Seeking time away from his aunt/mother, Mahito explores the grounds and discovers an old boarded-up tower and a speaking heron keenly interested in bringing Mahito into his world with the promise that he knows where Mahito’s mother is, implying that she is not actually dead.   

Like most Studio Ghibli films directed by the famous Hayao Miyazaki, this film demands attention to each little detail finely wrought by Miyazaki himself and the team of animators he has working under him. Yet unlike much of his other work (“Howl’s Moving Castle,” “Spirited Away”) Miyazaki utilizes the skill of other animators and their styles for much more of this film. “Animator Takeshi Honda couldn't say no when Miyazaki asked him to supervise his most personal film” (Desowitz). Honda, most known for his work on “Neon Genesis Evangelion” has a more realistic style to his animation that he brought in on designs like the look of the parakeets and pelicans found in the fantasy world Mahito is brought through. 

We also see this departure from Miyazaki’s traditional one-man style with probably one of the most impactful scenes in the movie: the opening sequence where Mahito faces the death of his mother in a brutal fire. Shinya Ohira (Bui), who has also worked with Miyazaki on movies such as “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle,” and “The Wind Rises,” meticulously hand draws each frame for this sequence, bringing in blurred lines, shaky focuses, and melded colors to capture the frantic nature of Mahito pushing through the crowd of people as flames erupt around him.

Though Miyazaki is no stranger to challenging his audience with scenes of an ill-at-ease nature like for instance the parents that gorge themselves into pigs in “Spirited Away,” “The Boy and the Heron” moves this serious narrative in many ways away from the silly and whimsical of his movies in the past like “Ponyo.” There are several scenes of swarming and pulsating animals seeking to overwhelm Mahito that push the viewer to the line of what beautiful and “cute” animation can achieve in feeling. Mahito even discovers where human souls are made, their charming and bouncing forms akin to the cheerful designs of the soot sprites from “Spirited Away” and “My Neighbor Totoro,” show them bloodily gobbled up by hungry birds and then also burned away by another character seeking to save them.

The themes throughout the film are a slow boil with many directions to be seen depending on the audience’s willingness to wonder. Most notable though are the ties Miyazaki makes to his own life where his father also specialized in the creation of aircrafts for the war and like Mahito he was also moved to the country during the war and after the death of his mother. What do we do after a core person has passed? How are we able to reconcile what was with what comes after? This film is certainly one that requires multiple watches to find all the delights and sorrows brought out in succession.

Many have suggested that the ambiguity of what Mahito and his journey end up meaning is a negative strike for the movie, that it lacks direction as the fantasy world unfolds as cruel and confusing. But the space between Mahito’s choices isn’t filled with empty air unless the viewer wants it to be, and that idea is really what holds together any strings of art or life: what of yourself are you willing to create inside of held open spaces?

Bui, Hoai-Tran. “The Boy and the Heron’s Best Scene Moves the Entire Industry Forward.” The Inverse Interview, Inverse, 8 Dec. 2023, www.inverse.com/entertainment/the-boy-the-heron-opening-scene-animators-interview. 

Desowitz, Bill. "‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ Animator Became Miyazaki’s Secret Weapon on ‘Boy and the Heron’." IndieWire, 28 Dec. 2023, www.indiewire.com/features/animation/boy-and-the-heron-movie-animation-style-interview-1234938606/. Accessed 18 Jan. 2024.