Hayao Miyazakis Oscar-nominated Studio Ghibli film is a nightmarish fantasy about…what, exactly?
Warning: contains plot spoilers forThe Boy and the Heron.
The film itself has nothing like the clarity of a fable.
The Japanese title, which translates asHow Do You Live?
One reading is that the 83-year-old director is asking himself that very question through this fantastical story.
How do you live?
And approaching its end, what does an artists life amount to?
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Thats one reading of many into this inventive, kaleidoscopic film.
What Does It Have to Do With the Book How Do You Live?
Between the actual book and the film though, there is very little crossover.
How Autobiographical Is the Film?
But in what way?
So then… is 83-year-old Miyazaki instead to be found in the character of the grand-uncle?
Speaking toEntertainment Weeklythrough an interpreter, Suzuki explained that Mahitos character mirrors how Miyazaki is.
Its very autobiographical in that sense.
He says that when he was a boy, he was a super introvert.
The relationship between the Granduncle and the Parakeet King is Takahata and Miyazaki.
So I asked him why.
He said [Takahata] discovered his talent and added him to the staff.
I think Takahata san was the one who helped him develop his ability.
It is better to leave it to somebody else.
Goro Miyazaki is a landscape architect and animation director who heads up the studios museum and Ghibli Park projects.
I think that will end up being a much happier experience.
The Boy and the Heron is out in cinemas now.
