The 2024 cinema year begins with a very special film. Fantasy master Hayao Miyazaki returns to the big screen after more than ten years with a new adventure.
Hayao Miyazaki actually wanted to say goodbye to cinema with 2013’s How the Wind Rises. The Japanese director is known for anime masterpieces such as My Neighbor Totoro and Chihiro’s Journey to Magic Land. Over a decade later, we can say: Fortunately, he didn’t keep his word.
New fantasy adventure in theaters: The Boy and the Heron by anime legend Hayao Miyazaki
Miyazaki’s new film opens in cinemas on Thursday. The Boy and the Heron tells an imaginative story set in a bygone era. The story is set in Japan in 1943, while the Pacific War is causing fear and terror. Fire and flames dominate the first images of the film.
However, Tokyo, hit by aerial bombs, is only the beginning of a long journey that takes us to completely different places. Several years after young Mahito loses his mother in an air raid on Tokyo, he finds himself in the presence of a talking gray heron who whisks him away to a parallel world.
Here you can watch the trailer for The Boy and the Heron:
As is so often the case with Miyazaki, his latest directorial work blends historical facts with fantastic elements. The Boy and the Heron is a fantasy adventure whose emotional core is closely linked to the traumatic events of the war. Miyazaki also draws on his own biography.
A talking heron and carnivorous parakeets make for the first fantasy highlight of 2024
The Boy and the Heron therefore has many levels that can be interpreted in different ways. What is particularly impressive is how often and elegantly Miyazaki changes the tone of voice in his narration. One minute we are watching a playful film full of bright colors, the next we are suddenly moving through a feverish nightmare.
The talking heron is just one of many unruly fantasy creatures that Mahito encounters on his odyssey. A particular highlight is a horde of friendly-looking parakeets that conceal a sinister truth: they are carnivorous monsters. They hide knives and hatchets in their fluffy plumage.
The Boy and the Heron contains the calm and wisdom of a master. At the same time, the movie seems fresh and curious. The animations amaze in individual moments as wonderful paintings and transform into a dance of movements. This movie feels incredibly alive from the first to the last second.
Get it now: The great Hayao Miyazaki Collection on Blu-ray and DVD
Yes, luckily Miyazaki has changed his mind about retiring. Otherwise we would have been deprived of one of the best fantasy films of recent years. After The Boy and the Heron celebrated its premiere in Japan in July 2023 and was shown at various festivals, it will be released in German cinemas on January 4, 2024
