The Boy and the Heron

Synopsis: Hayao Miyazaki spins a tale of a boy’s life during wartime and the bizarre fantasy land he enters to cope with the loss of his mother.

Set for a heartwarming tale of a boy overcoming his depression thanks to his friendship with a beautiful heron who is full of grace? Well, you won’t find it in The Boy and the Heron. The Boy Plagued by a Goblin Wearing a Heron Body is more like it. This strange film is like a thought experiment carried out with engrossing animation.

Mahito Maki is a boy living in Tokyo during WWII. Terrifying conflagrations envelop the city, including one that consumes the hospital where his mother is a patient. War and childhood trauma aren’t your typical subjects for animated films. But The Boy and the Heron is the latest film from the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, and he can do what he wants. Afterall, he never promised that he was making entertainment for children.

In a bid for survival, the boy’s father, Shoichi leaves the city for the countryside.  Their new house is fronted by a large pond and surrounded by forest. In the distance is the military plane factory that his father runs. Mahito is surprised to see his Aunt Natsuko who is now- surprise –his stepmother. Natsuko is friendly to him, but he’s speechless. Understandable, especially since he sees that she is heavily pregnant. What follows sort of makes sense in the wake of his trauma– and if you’ve seen any of Miyazaki’s previous films–especially Spirited Away.

The countryside household has several elderly maids who attend to the little family. When Natsuko directs them to a suitcase, they swarm over it like bees to blossoms. Inside are war-scarce canned foods. They want to offer grandmotherly comfort to Mahito, but he is numb with grief.

By night, Mahito is plagued with dreams of fiery Tokyo where he tries in vain to save his mother. By day, he wanders the grounds, intrigued by a large Grey Heron who seems to take an interest in him. His perambulations lead him to a nearby abandoned tower. The boy sees the heron go into the building. He follows, but has trouble getting inside. Back at home, one of the maids tells Mahito that an ancestor built the tower; a man who had read too many books and lost his mind. That’ll do it.

I was all ready for the noble heron to be a wise emotional support animal for the kid. But then, Miyazaki freaks out viewers by showing that, inside the heron’s mouth, is a goblin head with hideous features and clackety teeth. He speaks to Mahito and insists that the boy’s mother is alive. Whatever you do, don’t bring your kid to this movie. No Disney villain is this creepy.

Fortunately, Mahito has to leave the compound to attend school. Well, maybe not so fortunate because the kid is bullied for not being a vicious bully like the other kids. He has a plan… on the walk home from school, he finds a rock and smashes himself in the head. Back at home, the maids care for the boy until dad gets home from work and gets apoplectic. The boy sneakily says he just tripped, but his dad suspects bullies and swears vengeance. But he’s busy at work, so instead of following up, he just lets the kid stop going to school.

I can’t say I blame the boy for fashioning truancy because now he’s free of the bullies. And with a war going on, you need to have the YOLO attitude. No longer encumbered by long school days or homework, he pursues his own interests.

Unfortunately, Mahito focuses on crafting weaponry. He gets a real gangster attitude too. He starts pilfering his dad’s ciggies to give to servants and gets thoroughly salty. At dinner one night, the usually quiet boy offers commentary on the food: It sucks.

And things get trippier. The talking bird won’t stop pestering him. And his aunt/stepmom Natsuko goes missing. Up until this point, she’s spent most of the movie in bed with the world’s worst morning sickness. The boy feels guilty because he avoided visiting with her and just shrugged it off when he saw Natsuko traipse into the forest. Well, not really traipse, more like drift along like she was under a spell. The dad goes nuts, of course, and has all of his factory workers scour the woods, thrashing around until every creature within twenty miles has taken flight. No wife…

Out of nowhere–but making sense in Miyazaki Land– the boy divines that he must enter another realm where he can rescue his stepmom and also, possibly, see his mother again. Can you imagine taking a child to see this?! “That’s right, sometimes mommies die. Then daddies marry aunties who disappear. You’ll have to make a bow and arrows to rescue them from another land.”  Ye gads!

The other world is relentlessly bizarre with menacing creatures and –recurring theme–fire. The boy is accompanied by the heron, at the direction of the Tower God. Don’t ask. Mahito thinks he sees his mom on a sofa. Pelicans are starving because the seas have been overfished by humans. A gender fluid sailor has to provide food for marshmallow creatures called warawara. A protection-offering Fire Maiden is also a girl who looks like Kiki from another movie. Just when you think that things can’t get any stranger, a race of human-sized carnivorous parakeets appear. Their Parakeet King pontificates and parades about like WWII Italian dictator Benito Mussolini.

The Boy and the Heron follows a sort of nightmare non-logic. There are assorted messages: boys should stay out of delivery rooms, jam and bread is the best, war is hell, save the pelicans and some stones are stained with malice.

Ultimately, I’m averse to Miyazaki’s bad dream work*, and into his dreamy movies like Ponyo, Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro.

* Such as Spirited Away, but shout out to the film’s girl, Chihiro and the supernatural No Face. They’re pretty awesome.

P.S. The voice talents in the original Japanese and the English-language version… Mahito: Soma Santoki & Luca Padovan    Grey Heron: Masaki Suda & Robert Pattinson   Natsuko (the stepmom): Yoshino Kimura & Gemma Chan   Shoichi (the dad): Takuya Kimura & Christian Bale

Movie Loon’s Movie Review Shortcut:

Grade:  B-

Cut to the Chase: Not my cup of tea, but an important part of Hayao Miyazaki’s oeuvre, as he reflects on his boyhood in Japan during WWII.

Humor Highlight:  Mahito’s interactions with a tobacco-seeking maid; his 12-year-old badassery is a comic contrast to her fretfulness.