Maybe ‘boy and heron‘turned out to be The last movie in his filmography Hayao Miyazaki But it may not be so, despite what was said about him when he was promoted. After all, the Japanese master announced his retirement several times over the years; the last one after the premiere of the movie ‘The Wind Blows’ in 2013. But regardless, this new feature is the first film he’s directed in a decade. It has the form of an inventory, even a testament, as Miyazaki appears to use it to reflect on the impact of his cinema, his artistic legacy, and his future.
Selected by San Sebastián Festival Opening title of the 71st edition and as an excuse to give him a pass Donostia Award in honor of a forty-year career During this period, he proved to be one of the most important writers of both animation cinema and cinema history, thanks to fictions such as ‘My Neighbor Totoro’ (1988) and ‘Porco Rosso’ (1992), as well as those mentioned above. New film tells the story of cinema MahitoHis mother II. A boy who died in a fire during World War II discovers a child after moving to the countryside with his father. portal to a hidden dimension attracts the attention of a strange creature whose humanoid head peeks out from the open beak of a heron. From that moment on, the adventure the child will experience in the parallel world The living mingle with the deadThis film, which is nothing more than a metaphor for his mourning process for his mother, will take him to meet a pirate sailing in the sea of dreams, to meet cute creatures that inflate like balloons, and to escape from giant lovebirds with fascist tendencies. and meet a time lord who controls the universe and is of course a copy of Miyazaki.
So ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is mostly An alternate reality that is both fascinating and frighteningand the film’s plot premise – which the director uses as a medium to give new uses to elements and themes he has already dealt with in his previous work – is, without going any further, closely linked to the film ‘Spirited Away’; and by the way, as always in his cinema, gives our vision images that appear to come alive not by the pen of an artist, but by a higher power. The plot adventures they feature can be a bit confusing at times, and the film occasionally shows signs of the narrative losing steam before entering its lively third act, but none of this prevents it from functioning as a story. A reflection that is strangely comforting yet melancholic. by its author about the impermanence of things, the people we love, and also himself.
Miyazaki has already turned 82, and at least judging by what he said in ‘The Boy and the Heron’ He assumed that he would leave this world without reaching the utopian ideals he defended through his work. movies – for example, the end of wars and harmony between man and nature – are no longer simply that, and it is up to new generations to continue fighting for their realization; Studio Ghibli, the elite anime production company he founded and of which he has been the apparent president all this time, will need to find a new leader; While his films are destined to be the subject of study and admiration for centuries to come, life will go on even if he is no longer here. AND If ‘The Boy and the Heron’ is indeed the last work he completes before this happens, we will be able to say out loud that his farewell is triumphant..