On "The Boy and the Heron"
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Preetham Gunalan (@preethamdraws) Spoilers for the film "the Boy and the Heron" follow: Miyazaki's phantasmagorical worlds have always had an edge of the sinister to them, hidden by layers of beauty and magic, none of his worlds have felt truly uninviting until The Boy and the Heron , or as it's known by its Japanese title, How Do You Live. It's an odd film by Miyazaki standards, shorn of much whimsy or rousing sequences, it is something of a blunt instrument of a film, a song sung in a somber key. After a tremendous sequence set during the great fire of Tokyo, the mirage-like shimmer of heat depicted through flowing figures a la Kaguya-Hime , the action shifts to an estate in the countryside. Here, young Mahito, reeling from the loss of his mother in the fire, is introduced to Natsuko, his step-mother, his mother's younger sister. While he doesn't voice his displeasure, it is manifest in...
