Miyazaki movies have always been a mixed bag for me. Throughout the years I have admired his ability to capture the wonder and exuberance of life through a child's eyes, to celebrate the beauty in stillness and nature, to pay reverence to ritual and the small details that give his animated characters so much life and believability. In Ghibli films characters don't talk like Gen Z brats on the subway, constantly quipping and making cynical pop culture references; they behave in a way that feels timeless and humour is something which tends to be incidental and not prompted with ironic gags, which is refreshing.
However, on the other hand, his stories can have a pointless, meandering direction with random moments that, whilst symbolic in a grander subtextual theme, don't appear to have a narrative sense or serve any purpose in the character arc. This can lead to a confused, rambling experience where the audience doesn't know why anything is happening. Also sometimes the indulgence in details like characters dressing and eating can really slow the pace and become boring. Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Kaguya are painful examples of this.
Spirited Away managed to hit that sweet spot between a traditional Western hero journey and ancient Japanese folktale, which made it compelling as all of Chihiro's actions were grounded in pursuit of a clear goal: to win her freedom from Yubaba and bring her parents back home. For the first 40 minutes it seemed as though The Boy and the Heron would do the same.
Mahito is adjusting to life in a strange house with a new stepmother, after his own mother tragically died in a fire. Miyazaki employs a live action sophistication in the way he uses the camera to keep things from Mahito's perpective. We really feel the strangeness of his new environment and the sudden intense flashbacks of the fire give a stark realness to his trauma. The film slowly builds intrigue as Mahito is pestered by a sinister talking Heron who entices Mahito to follow him to a mysterious tower beyond the trees where he insists that his mother is still alive. Initially skeptical, Mahito is forced to act when his pregnant stepmother, Natsuko -for some unexplained reason- disappears into the tower alone. Mahito must journey in to save her.
It's at this point where the film crosses into full fantasy adventure that the narrative wheels fall off. Not to say I didn't enjoy aspects of this insane rabbit hole world which, in typical Ghibli style, has some truly fantastic imagery, but with each progressively crazy thing that happens we lose sight of Mahito and his ultimate goal.
New characters keep popping up and we don't have time to really absorb who they are or their importance, so it's impossible to develop an emotional connection with any of them, the stakes just aren't set up clearly. The dialog only serves to give lazy exposition for some of the randomness. I watched it in Japanese with English subs, but honestly the subs could have been removed and it wouldn't have made it any harder to understand.
It's a deranged mushroom trip where nothing makes sense and the rules of the fantasy world constantly change. All you can do is buckle in and laugh at the absurdity.
Inevitably there will be people sifting through the debris trying to piece together a symbolic breadcrumb trail as to what Miyazaki was really trying to say with this film, but I just thought it was an incoherent mess. I'm not impressed with symbolism if it doesn't come together in a meaningful way with a character who actually learns something about their world and grows. TBATH doesn't provide satisfying answers for any of the setup in the first half of the film. What's more, the ending is so laughably abrupt that Miyazaki could have just tied it up with:
"And it was all just a dream. The end".
However, on the other hand, his stories can have a pointless, meandering direction with random moments that, whilst symbolic in a grander subtextual theme, don't appear to have a narrative sense or serve any purpose in the character arc. This can lead to a confused, rambling experience where the audience doesn't know why anything is happening. Also sometimes the indulgence in details like characters dressing and eating can really slow the pace and become boring. Howl's Moving Castle and Princess Kaguya are painful examples of this.
Spirited Away managed to hit that sweet spot between a traditional Western hero journey and ancient Japanese folktale, which made it compelling as all of Chihiro's actions were grounded in pursuit of a clear goal: to win her freedom from Yubaba and bring her parents back home. For the first 40 minutes it seemed as though The Boy and the Heron would do the same.
Mahito is adjusting to life in a strange house with a new stepmother, after his own mother tragically died in a fire. Miyazaki employs a live action sophistication in the way he uses the camera to keep things from Mahito's perpective. We really feel the strangeness of his new environment and the sudden intense flashbacks of the fire give a stark realness to his trauma. The film slowly builds intrigue as Mahito is pestered by a sinister talking Heron who entices Mahito to follow him to a mysterious tower beyond the trees where he insists that his mother is still alive. Initially skeptical, Mahito is forced to act when his pregnant stepmother, Natsuko -for some unexplained reason- disappears into the tower alone. Mahito must journey in to save her.
It's at this point where the film crosses into full fantasy adventure that the narrative wheels fall off. Not to say I didn't enjoy aspects of this insane rabbit hole world which, in typical Ghibli style, has some truly fantastic imagery, but with each progressively crazy thing that happens we lose sight of Mahito and his ultimate goal.
New characters keep popping up and we don't have time to really absorb who they are or their importance, so it's impossible to develop an emotional connection with any of them, the stakes just aren't set up clearly. The dialog only serves to give lazy exposition for some of the randomness. I watched it in Japanese with English subs, but honestly the subs could have been removed and it wouldn't have made it any harder to understand.
It's a deranged mushroom trip where nothing makes sense and the rules of the fantasy world constantly change. All you can do is buckle in and laugh at the absurdity.
Inevitably there will be people sifting through the debris trying to piece together a symbolic breadcrumb trail as to what Miyazaki was really trying to say with this film, but I just thought it was an incoherent mess. I'm not impressed with symbolism if it doesn't come together in a meaningful way with a character who actually learns something about their world and grows. TBATH doesn't provide satisfying answers for any of the setup in the first half of the film. What's more, the ending is so laughably abrupt that Miyazaki could have just tied it up with:
"And it was all just a dream. The end".
Tell Your Friends