Coming out of his announced retirement after The wind picks up in 2013 (available on Blu-ray from €14.99 on Amazon.com), Hayao Miyazaki returns to service this year with The Boy and the Heron, released this summer without any trailer and with very little promotion in Japan. The film by the legendary Japanese animated film director will not be shrouded in as much mystery for its release in France on November 1, but that will in no way diminish its qualities. Especially since the synopsis does not really need to be kept secret, unless you want to reserve yourself entirely for the day of your viewing: in this case, as with any other review, we advise you to pass your way on ours.
Probably one of the most inaccessible works of its director, due to its maturity and the difficulty in appreciating his speech.
History leads us Mahito Maki, a young boy who lost his mother following an airstrike that caused the fire in a hospital where his mother was staying during World War II. 3 years later, his father is now in love with the younger sister of his late wife, decides to leave Tokyo to move to the countryside with his new partner, taking his offspring with him. Our young protagonist, still grieving, will cross paths witha very vindictive heron, who will tell him that his mother is still alive. The starting point for an adventure between hope and torment, inevitably with the dose of magic that we can expect from Hayao Miyazaki.
This basic premise occupies us during the first third of this long animated film of more than 2 hours, where the slow narration sometimes leaves room for boredom. Once the journey really begins, things inevitably accelerate, and move by, without any real jolt. The few quirks and cutesies of principle are there, for doses of humor and shifts that are almost too rare as they hit the mark when they are successful. But the wanderings of our saddened teenager, hollow secondary characters as well asa small but surprising dose of hemoglobinwhich makes viewing clearly not recommended for young people, gives off a predominantly gloomy tone.
Above all, if there was a metaphor, an analogy or any other figure of speech allowing us to weave a link between the surreal adventures of Mahito and his sorrows as a young boy, we have visibly missed them, as have the emotions that are supposed to go with them. From this story, although inspired by a philosophical novel (And you, how will you live? by Genzaburô Yoshino), we will thus leave only with the beautiful final moral on inheritancelate and which does not explain the entire journey which precedes it, where the director already seems to lay the foundations of the edifice of his posterity.
So all that remained for us to worry about was the plastic. In terms of atmosphere, Studio Ghibli knows how to do it, with perfectly designed environments, scenes with exhilarating visual effects transcending the scent of fire or wind, and such beautiful musical compositions that they would almost be out of step with the monotony of the narration. There would, however, be things to say about the animation, the very classic pencil strokes of the characters sometimes seeming dated or even failed, and the visually stunning moments are ultimately rare. Likewise, the artistic direction lacks scope, the journey between rurality and the supernatural which lends itself to it nevertheless offering few memorable settings.
All the director’s codes are there, from the fascinating settings to the traditional and almost old-fashioned characters, from the music that melts our hearts to the cute and scary beings who directly bring fantastic universes to life. But it takes a long time to get started and often leaves us waiting for a metaphysical meaning which only arrives very late, The Boy and the Heron does not have the attractions that allow its stories to be sublimated, and to give them charm and depth. Probably one of the most inaccessible works of its director, due to its maturity and the difficulty in appreciating his speech, which is much more of the beginning of a testament for regular moviegoers than of wonder intended for the youngest.
Note : 2.5 stars out of 5
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