Japan, World War II. During the bombing of Tokyo, a hospital is caught on fire and Mahito's (13) mother dies there. Mahito's father remarries Natsuko and moves to a safe village. From the house, Mahito observes a strange heron in the lake. The heron turns out to be a mythical man in costume, and he tricks him into entering a different parallel world. Mahito enouncters strange creatures in that world, such as floating Warawara that ascend to be born in the real world, as well as fisherwoman Kiriko and firewoman Himi who protects the Warawara from being eaten by hundreds of pelicans. Mahito encounters an old man who creates worlds using 13 small stone blocks, and who invites him to be his heir and create better worlds. Mahito refuses, takes Natsuko back to the real world and settles with living there.
Hayao Miyazaki's 12th and final feature length anime film, "The Boy and the Heron" is a cryptic allegorical tale imbibed a little bit too much in Japanese historical-cultural references and Miyazaki's own cocooned autobiographical mindset. While the bizarre, surreal creatures in the parallel world tend to get a bit too 'autistic' and 'gibberish', the underlining storyline still has some clear messages—Mahito is traumatized by the "broken" real world, damaged by World War II and mindless violence and suffering, which took away his mother. Yet by entering the parallel fantasy world, he also finds imperfections and omissions, such as the tragic sequence where a wounded pelican begs Mahito to kill him, explaining that the pelicans must eat the fantasy creatures Warawaras since the oceans contain no fish for their food. Mahito then encounters the old man, a sort of god of this world, who lives in the perfect palace on top, selfishly holding this paradise for himself while all the imperfect creatures around him suffer due to his negligence. The old man asks Mahito to be his heir and continue his work, to creatue "more harmonious worlds" using 13 small stone blocks. Is the old man a symbol for Miyazaki himself, asking for someone to continue his (now flawed) work, or else Studio Ghibli will fall apart? Or is it a dark commentary on religion and power, where the people on top only think about themselves and are numb to the plight of millions around them? Through this symbolism, Miyazaki gives a meditation on each new generation which was victim of human errors from the past, and advocates that they reject this past mindset and create a new, better world, with new thinking and more justice. There are several problems in this abstract film, including that the Heron is an incomplete character—yet even though it is not among Miyazaki's best films, it still features traces of his best work, which will hereby invite the viewers to check these out.
Grade:++
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