Movielogr

Rating: 7.5 stars

Tags

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All movies seen on 12/10/2023

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The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Animation | Adventure | Drama

Most recently watched by lordofthemovies, sleestakk

Overview

While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother’s tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy’s mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the “long-awaited one.”

Rated G | Length 124 minutes

Actors

Soma Santoki | Masaki Suda | Kou Shibasaki | Aimyon | Yoshino Kimura | Takuya Kimura | Keiko Takeshita | Jun Fubuki | Sawako Agawa | Karen Takizawa | Shinobu Ōtake | Jun Kunimura | Kaoru Kobayashi | Shôhei Hino

Viewing History (seen 1 time)

Viewing Notes

As expected, the animation in this is gorgeous. My impression of the story is that it’s very self-reflective of a man at the end of his career handing the torch over to the next generation; with observations about war, militarism, denial and, finally, acceptance. Not my favorite Miyazaki personally, but certainly it’s up there with all of his other famous works.

It does feel like it takes a little too long to move from the real world to the fantastic, but once it does the screen starts to burst with fantastical creatures and surroundings.

I’d be interested to see this again with the English dubbing given everything I’ve heard about how good the voice acting is, but I really enjoyed it in its native Japanese. Great to see that Jun Kunimura voiced the Parakeet King!

Now I’ve got an itch to revisit more of his films.

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