What is the cinema of the maestro of Hayao Miyazaki? To mark the release of The Boy and the Heron, we offer you a video dive into the world of the famous director of Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away!
Ten years after The Wind Rises, the master of Japanese animation, Hayao Miyazaki, returns to cinema with The Boy and the Heron. At 82 years old, the Japanese maestro returns to us in better shape than ever with a story of which he alone has the secret. The story introduces us to Mahito, a young boy of 11 years old.
After his mother disappears in a fire, he must leave Tokyo to live in the countryside in the village where she grew up. He settles with his father in an old manor located on a huge estate where he meets a gray heron who little by little becomes his guide and helps him through his discoveries and questions to understand the world around him and break through. the mysteries of life.
To understand Miyazaki’s questions about this feature film, it was necessary to go back and analyze the other films of his career. Everything that the Japanese artist has accomplished has led him to The Boy and the Heron, a twilight work which melancholy evokes transmission.
Now 82 years old, Miyazaki is in the twilight of his long life; he thus wishes to question us about the values conveyed since his first film in 1968: Horus, prince of the sun and about our relationship to the transmission of these.
In the video above, we discuss the work of the filmmaker, an extreme perfectionist, and the themes that are dear to his heart. Before going to see The Boy and the Heron, this report will help audiences who are a little less familiar with the director’s world to form a solid opinion in order to better understand his cinema.
Note that The Boy and the Heron is inspired by the novel And you, how will you live? by Genzaburo Yoshino, dating from 1937, a book once given to Hayao Miyazaki by his mother. A scene from the film shows the young hero discovering this book with a note from his mother which says “To raise Mahito”. The work tells a coming-of-age story about a young boy’s emotional and philosophical development after the death of his father.
The video was directed, written and edited by Constance Mathews
The Boy and the Heron was released in cinemas on November 1st.