This article contains plots and details of the film.
The Boy and the Heron, the latest work from 82-year-old Hayao Miyazaki, is unique in its adaptation tactic and worldview building.
In Japan, The Boy and the Heron was released under the name 君たちはどう生きるか, which means ‘How Do You Live?’. This name comes from Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name. It is one of the children’s classics in Japan and was a gift to Mahito from his mother in the film. It follows the life of a fifteen-year-old Copper (Koperu), whose name is inspired by the great Copernicus, as he begins to ask the question: how do you live? Although the film isn’t considered to be a direct adaptation, Yoshino’s novel still holds an essential role.
According to the producer Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki also takes inspiration from The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly. Connolly’s book follows the Alice-in-Wonderland-like journey of David, a small boy who lives with his father and new-born stepbrother. Grieving over his mother’s death, David enters another realm full of characters from books and fairytales, such as the loups, Snow White and her dwarves, harpies etc. It inspires Miyazaki to narrate Mahito’s adventure in his underworld with fragments of encounters with different creatures.
In The Boy and the Heron, we meet numerous elements that bear familiarities from his previous work. The lovely Warawaras resemble the spiritual creatures we saw in Princess Mononoke. Mahito goes through a tunnel into the tower that contains the entry to another world that reminds me of the beginning of ‘Spirited Away’. Just like The Wind Rises, The Boy and the Heron also takes inspiration from his childhood memories, which may be why it is set during World War II (WWII) and Mahito’s father owns a fighter plane factory. Seeing these familiar faces from his previous works makes me feel nostalgic.
For a book such as The Book of Lost Things, spending time telling each story in detail may not be very controversial. But, for a two-hour film which spares only half of its time exploring an underworld, this strategy can be worrying. In his previous work, Miyazaki usually takes great patience in explaining how his mysterious world works. In Spirited Away, Haku, Lin and Kamaji are all knowledgeable about what are the rules within the bathhouse. They guide both Chihiro and the audience along their journey to the unfamiliar so that we won’t be overwhelmed by this crazy big world. Yet in The Boy and the Heron, Miyazaki’s tactic is different. Mahito has the chance to meet the residents of this world but their encounters never last long. He keeps rushing to different parts of the story without a break. Some criticise it for being overplotted and stumbling in its pacing.
However, after watching it for the second time, I think this time Miyazaki does not need guides this time. Before entering the underworld, Miyazaki spends half of the film depicting Mahito’s life in the real world. After losing his mother to a hospital fire, Mahito’s father remarries his late wife’s sister Natsuko, who is pregnant with Mahito’s stepbrother. The family moves to Natsuko’s estate in the countryside. Mahito, being educated in Japanese imperialism, is cold and distant to his stepmother, calling her by her first name. Unable to deal with the dramatic life changes, he fights with kids at school and hits himself with a stone to avoid school. He was in the middle of reading Yoshino’s book before falling into the underworld.
As its title suggests, the film is about the question Copper asks in Yoshino’s book: how do you live? Copper’s story and his encounters in the underworld gradually change Mahito. He starts to see the complexity of humanity from other’s point of view. He also realises the brutality of war and imperialism when Himi’s fire could not choose who to kill but also hurt the innocent Warawara. In the end, he is able to accept Natsuko as his mother, refuse his great-uncle’s proposal and let go of his mother. When he returns to the real world, his coming-of-age transformation brings him to a new beginning.
Just like his name, Mahito, the man of truth, Mahito chooses how to live his life. In the end, Miyazaki’s message is rather simple: how do you live?
“Director Hayao Miyazaki” by worldchaos81 is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0.