Take 2: The Boy And The Heron (2023) NYFF 2023

I  have seen THE BOY AND THE HERON a second time. I went to the first public screening. 

Actually I took my niece to the film. It was her first film festival screening and her first Ghibli film on the big screen.

For me the film the second time the film was much deeper. It plays very much like a novel. There is a complexity there that you only realize on a repeated viewing. Yes I know in my original review that it was dense, but there is even more there than I thought.

What amazed me was that on this second time through how much the film was now part of my DNA. I watched it the way I watch films I've seen dozens of times.

May god is it good.

But what I think doesn't matter. The real question is what did my 13 year old niece think?

Her one word review " AWESOME"

She would gladly go back if I could score tickets(assuming the Parakeets don't stop me.)

My brother said that she was leaning forward, eyes wide and staring. 

You all need to see this.

Thoughts on THE BOY AND THE HERON (2023) NYFF 2023

When THE BOY AND THE HERON was opening in Japan no images other than a single one of the heron was release and there was no effort to explain the plot. Everyone thought it was a brilliant marketing move, but having seen the film I completely understand why it was done- the plot is ever changing and the fantastical images from the second half  are misleading as to what the film is. Ultimately you have to just see the film to really know what the film is.

That is not hyperbole, that is the truth. Nothing I can tell you is going to prepare you for what you see and until you see it it’s kind of pointless to discuss the plot.

If you what to know what the film is, it’s the story of a young boy, who moves with his father to the country after his mother is killed when the hospital she is in is bombed. However the film is so much more than that.

It is not hyperbole to say this is the greatest film that Hayao Miyazaki has ever made. It is the work of a master animator operating at the highest level, making a film about life and death and kicking the ass of the audience.

And when I say the film will kick your ass I wasn’t kidding. It’s a heady and emotional roller-coaster that starts in one place and ends somewhere else. It’s a film that is full of wonder that over whelms you with ideas and images that leave you emotional moved at the end. Indeed, about a minute into the end credits I suddenly began to sob uncontrollably. I can not tell you what did it or why, I just know that I suddenly needed a box of tissues I did not have with me.

When you see the film you have to go with it. The construction is something special. It begins as a conventional narrative, slips into dream logic, then abandons that for pure emotional ramblings. I can’t discuss what happens because until you pass through it you won’t understand it.

Visually it is largely unlike anything Miyazaki has done. Yes, we have his images, but he goes outside of that into the realm of the surreal. He is operating in the realm of his friend and partner Isao Takahata who created images to match his story, hence POM POKO  doesn’t look like GRAVE OF FIREFLIES nor like the TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA. Indeed this film seems to be the next film Takahata would have made if he were alive. It is in a way it’s a huge tribute to the late master.

I really need to see this film again to truly discuss it. I knew that twenty minutes in. There is so much to contemplate from the place herons hold in Japanese culture, to seeming riffs on things like the work of Kenji Miyazawa and NIGHT ON THE GALACTIC RAILWAY, Michael Moorcock's Eternal Hero, to the films notions of life and life after death, of what makes a family and several dozen other things. I need to see the film again because the denseness of the narrative has me certain things that I missed things. What I mean by this is that events early in the film that you would think should lead to something, don’t seem to for a good while, until an hour or more of screen time passes and a line or an action that we thought was a lost thread back snaps into sharp context., 

Yes, I’m being vague- but I have to because for any points I want to make require a context you can only get from seeing the film so I need to wait until everyone sees the film when it releases to fully discuss my thoughts. I will be writing more after by second pass through, but for now this should get you going. Until then know that this is one of the best and most thought provoking films of the year and quite possibly the best film that Studio Ghibli has ever made.

This film will rock your world.

And try to see it knowing as little as possible.

Princess Mononoke (1997) Plays the Japan Society Friday

 

Hiyao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke is a masterpiece. It’s a glorious fantasy about the fight against a monster that is devouring the forest and the people who fight to protect it.

Yes I know this an over simplification on what the film is, but it’s enough to get you started.

This is the film that got me hooked on Studio Ghibli. Seeing the film in a wonderfully subtitled version I was in awe of the epic scope of the film and the depth of the emotion. It was a hell of an experience. If you can you need to see the film subtitled.

I say this because when the film played the New York Film Festival in a dubbed version “written by” Neil Gaiman, it was a version that no one was happy. Miramax who paid for the dub tinkered with a script that Gaiman wasn’t happy with since what was said in Japanese simply couldn’t be said simply in English. Yes the film has a great voice cast but the script is a pale reflection of the original. (Even the Ghibli dub, they always did their own English dubs never surfaced in the US)

As the final film in their summer Anime series the Japan Society is running MONOKE in the right subtitled version. If you’ve never seen the film  or you’ve only seen it dubbed (or in a subtitled version based on the Gaiman dub) you need to see this. It will move you. It's visually over powering  emotionally moving story that is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made (full stop).

Go see it.

Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (2014) DOC NYC 2014

A look at Studio Ghibli, it's staff and creators, as they prepare a couple of their most recent films THE WIND RISES and THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA and promote them. Its  loot at how their films are put together and sent off into the world.

How you react to the film will depend upon how much you know about Studio Ghibli and their films
- If you don't know a great deal about either but love them then odds are you'll enjoy this a great deal. - If you know nothing about the studio and their films you may feel a little lost since the references come fast and furious.
- If you are a huge fan of Ghibli and know the studio and the films you'll enjoy it but you'll wonder why is this two hour long.

I'm in the last group. I've seen all the films they've produced (except KAGUYA), I've also  seen several documentaries, tons of clips, read interviews and books. I'm reasonably well versed in things Ghibli, though I'm not obsessive compulsive. I like the film, but I'm still wondering why the film runs just under two hours.

You have to forgive me but the details of running the studio and promoting the films only held  my interest to a point. I did  enjoy watching Miyazaki drawing and being cranky. I love his discussion of what he does and how he puts his films together-there is no script it seems he simply draws and lets the stories flow.

This isn't a bad film, but I'm not sure who the audience for this is. You really have to have a certain love of Ghibli for this film to work.

I can neither recommend nor dismiss this film since this is one of those films you'll have to decide for yourself if you want to see it.

The film is being released in the US by GKIDS and opens November 28th

Mr Dough and the Egg Princess (2010)

Latest Miyazaki short film is a small gem. As I ask after every Miyazaki short film I see- why doesn’t he give up features and just do this little trifles?

The plot of the film has an ugly witch returning home with a basket of eggs. When one of them doesn’t crack she gives it legs and arms and turns it into a helper. A short time later after the witch as gone to bed the egg gives a living batch of bread dough some eyes and the pair then make their escape from the castle. In the morning the witch gives chase.

A lovely smart wonderful story of friendship it’s a distillation and riff of all of many of various Ghibli moments. If you've seen the earlier films you'll recognize bits of it with characters out of Spirited Away, flying sequences that echo any number of other films,  castles and a village out of Howl's Moving Castle and on and on.

One thing that I loved from a visual stand point were the rabbits. What an absolute joy it was to see a bunch of characters in a Miyazaki film that don't look like every other Miyazaki character. (That's the one thing I hate about Miyazaki's films you can interchange all his characters)

For me this is the best film since his previous short film (Mon Mon the Water Spider- which may very well be his best film.

A joy

Mei and the Kittenbus (2002)

Why is it that the short films that Hayao Miyazaki has been turning out over the last few years so much better than the full length films? I’ve seen a good number of them and to be perfectly honest that they are so much more satisfying than the more heralded and better seen films.

When Mei and the Kittenbus was announced as existing I went nuts. The thought of a catbus film was almost too good to believe. I mean the damn catbus is one of the cooler moments in My Neighbor Totoro, how much cooler could a whole film about a baby catbus be? A great deal.

The short finds Mei from Totoro noticing a whirl wind going after one of her candies. She manages to grab it and bring it insde her home where its revealed to be a baby catbus. A piece of candy and the pair are fast friends. Later that night the catbus returns to take – on a ride and it’s a pip that includes more catbuses and Totoros.

Seeing it put a huge smile on my face. It made me feel good.

I love it when Miyazaki makes short little nothings like this. I love when he throws himself into these trifles, the small moments that kind of aren’t the deep meaning of it all, but just are incredibly cool. This short is incredibly cool. Its just two kids bonding and finding each other and a place to be friends. It’s a small slice of what it means to be a kid. It’s the sort thing that can very easily remind a very jaded adult what they used to be like.

A pure joy

The Wind Rises (aka The Wind is Rising) (2013) New York Film Festival 2013

Said to be the final feature film from Hiyao Miyazaki  this is the story of Jiro Horikosh the designer of the Japanese Zero. It is a visual treat, that is over full of ideas and images but ultimately it's really two separate stories that probably should have been kept that way.

Beginning when Jiro was a boy the film traces his life from his first inclining about being a plane designer on through the end of the Second World War. The first half of the film focuses on Jiro growing up and his love of flight. The second is the romance as Jiro romances a young lady who he helped during the time of the 1925 earthquake that scared Japan both physically and psychically.

Where to begin?

This is a visual treat. Mixing reality with fantasy (via dream sequences) this film indulges Miyazaki with a chance to animate planes, trains, boats and cars. There are so many contraptions in this film that there are times when the story seems to exist just so Miyazaki could animate say a ferry or a sailing ship. Having read interviews with Miyazaki I got the sense watching the film that he was smiling broadly was he prepared the various flying and sailing sequences.

While the film largely looks like a Ghibli film (the colors and the character design are all pure Ghibli- which as you know boys and girls means all the women look alike) there are times when the film doesn't, I'm not talking about the use of computer imagery, rather the use of what look like delicate drawings to show Tokyo in ruins or the train wreck or some of the wrecked planes. There is a fine artist at work with in several sequences and I wish that if the film is truly the last from the master animator that he had gone all out and done a whole film in that fine style.

What I love about the film is that it is much darker than almost any other Ghibli film with it's talk of war, scenes of war, death, and destruction. Sure there is fantasy but in no Miyazaki Ghibli film, except Princess Mononoke and the end of Howl's Moving Castle is there this much darkness. Even the romance has the spectre of death hanging over it. Its wonderful that Miyzaki finally moved toward more complex and dark subjects, but why the hell did he wait for the end of his career?

The film's almost devil may care first half gets grounded in the second as Jiro tries to make the great war plane, while falling in love with Noako Its a weird shift in the film that kind of unbalances the film. its not bad, its just so radically different from the first half to the point the momentum kind of stops because the film now has a central narrative thrust that pushes everything aside. Yea the dream sequences are still there- but at the same time they seem out of place with a realistic story. The shift in tone and the various plot threads made for a film that seems to be thematically a jumble despite trying desperately to be about something meaningful.

Also out of place are some weird side threads that go nowhere such as Jiro being hunted by the secret police. We can assume why, but its never spelled out and it ends up dropped almost as soon as it begins. Noako's illness takes some weird turns, especially in the final reel.

Watching the film I was at first confused by talk about how dark the film was, then as things went on I understood why people said it was. I also understood why the cultural references that are in the film- such as the earthquake and what it means to the country were keeping some studios from considering releasing it in the US. (Disney has it and frankly its going to be a hard sell- it ain't Totoro).

I like the film and to be honest I really would like to see it again. I'm also at a loss as to how people will react to the film since it's not typically Disney. I know the Miyazaki fans will love it unconditionally because he did it, but how this is going to play in Peoria where anything not Shrek or Ice Age is a tough sell is beyond me. A difficult challenging animated film that is not the light and airy romance of the images is going to confuse the hell out of most people. Better they are confused by films like this, but at the same time with Miyazaki stepping away will this be adult animations last gasp in the US?