A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.

Around 10 years ago, Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary Japanese filmmaker and founder of Studio Ghibli created ‘The Wind Rises’, at the time believed to be his swansong. Whether that was intended to be the case or not, Miyazaki is back with a new animation at the age of 82 called ‘The Boy and the Heron’, about, well the title kind of tells you that. Whether this is his genuine swansong or not, it is a movie that is stylistically similar to his previous works while touching on many of the same themes.

Set towards the tail end of World War II, it begins with a young boy called Mahito losing his mother and finding himself moved from Tokyo to the country to stay with his aunt, who his father has now married. Unable to connect with his aunt, Mahito encounters a strange grey heron that leads him towards an abandoned tower that has been locked up and sealed after the man who built it (Mahito’s granduncle) went missing many years earlier. The heron promises Mahito that he can find his mother, prompting Mahito to follow the heron into the tower and into a fantastical realm that is every bit as weird as we’ve come to expect from Miyazaki.

‘The Boy and the Heron’s closest resemblance in Studio Ghibli’s previous output would probably be ‘Princess Mononoke’ in terms of the complex and deep narrative, and ‘Grave of the Fireflies’ in terms of its darker tone (albeit it is nowhere near as grounded as that movie). The imagery is striking but I found the narrative to be quite impenetrable, and it didn’t resonate as strongly with me as the best Ghibli movies have. I did like the ultimate denouement and how it tied back to the wartime theme and the challenges of losing a parent at a young age that are touched on in many Ghibli films, but I never fully followed or felt swept up in the journey to get there.

‘The Boy and the Heron’ is perhaps Hayao Miyazaki’s most complex film yet, and for many that will be music to their ears, but I never found myself as invested in this story and for all the ingenuity of the imagery and the fantastical setting, it didn’t connect with me as much as I’d hoped.

Rating: 3/5

Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki

Starring: Soma Santoki, Masaki Suda, Aimyon, Yoshino Kimura, Takuya Kimura, Shohei Hino, Ko Shibasaki, Kaoru Kobayashi, Jun Kunimura, Keiko Takeshita, Jun Fubuki, Sawako Agawa, Shinobu Otake and Karen Takizawa

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt6587046/