Thoughts: The Boy & The Heron

Hello! This'll be a (hopefully) short Blog about my personal feelings and thoughts on Miyazaki's newest film, The Boy And The Heron. I will talk from a perspective of my own creative writing process which, whilst nothing necessarily special, manages to make sense in light of this movie.

THERE ARE NO SPOILERS! Themes and experience only.

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Symbolism & Scenes

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⇲ Watching this movie, there were so many thematic elements clashing together. It was a confluence of different symphonies pouring together, each orchestra playing their own classical masterpiece. The final product is cacophony, but separate them and you have the building blocks. Peace, harmony and light over all that is chaos.

⇲ In my experience, this film was exactly like that. In every 'scene' there is Art. A carved marble piece. It's like an Artist showing you different pieces of their Art, each with their own flavour and meaning, then sticking each next to one another to create a slideshow. A movie. The Boy and Heron feels less like a 'story' and more of an exhibit of Miyazaki's creativity flooding out in what is an esoteric collection of Art, pieced together to create a narrative. Hence the unambiguous call-backs to other Miyazaki movies. Unlike conventional stories, this felt very loose and wildly interpretive. Where some people complain of the lack of character development, I see simply the thought that this was not meant to be a typical 'movie'. It's just, expression. And there's a very personal, powerful force behind the drive to express.

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Expression & Creativity

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⇲ Oftentimes, my writing feels like this movie. I pack it so full of 'flowery language' – so full of pretty expressions and metaphors.. it falls apart. It becomes so uniquely vague that it is barely understandable. I feel like when I write, the words have to sing to the soul, to the eyes, to perfection, purely for the sake of expression that resonates. In an interview about Miyazaki on the creation of this movie, he often recalls that this movie was meant for Isao Takahata, who he constantly strived to impress. Each movie that Miyazaki made, was for Takahata. And this movie was his final farewell to that endless circle – a burst of all that is Miyazaki's weird and wonderful self. An explosion of art. But here, have a look at some of my pieces —

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The cadence of flowers – swaying, to a bright summer's breeze. Rolling meadows beneath a pastel-coloured sky; an ethereal light-blue, beyond the vast clouds. A rejuvinating fragrance of cerulean hyacinths waft through a dewy morning atmosphere. Fluffy sheep pour over the grassy fields, herded by a man flourishing with youth; his skin radiant with a serene glow as if mirroring the sun, his face shrouded covetously by curls of onyx hair. Accostumed to his lonesome chores,

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Or, alternatively!

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A tender, assuasive warmth suspired life to each quiescent nerve, muscle, vein and artery. The once frigid, anaesthetized foot yielded to the featherweight, ethereal touch - Cassiel, confined to an immutable euthymia, coaxed to a befuddled state. An imable haze occluded Cassiel's yearning, hagard orbs, which were soon liberated from the all-consuming void. The radient warmth, a sun-kiss, unfurling from the sole of Cassiel's foot, awakening the boy through it's age, until it dissipating within his serene heart, and Cassiel beheld the dazzling azure heavens. Enthralled, spirited blood gushed to each sense, inspiring a liberating reinvigoration of his soul, whilst the translucent, frothing waves lapped at Cassiel, effervescing along his willowy, sylphlike contours.

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⇲ As you can see, the writing barely makes sense. It uses all these uneccessary but pretty words. Why? Why does it not flow like any other text? Because the mind hops – it prances, and wanders afar - to scenes, to pieces of individual art. And my writing tries desperately to mimic this 'hopping mind', to fly right next to it in unison. The mind is a powerful creative tool afterall, and fleeting moments always catch it reflexively. The writing is unashamedly Me, trying to show all of my fantasy, to lure you in. To satisfy. By matching how I perceive the mind to function at times. It is also a burst of 'prettiness', almost comically and dramatically so, as the writing becomes, in itself, a journey to read and try to understand. And it's slow, painful but it all makes sense. It's entirely deliberate. I realised, my writing style and Miyazaki's creative expression in this movie, kind of matched up in many ways. As I try to connect several worlds, so does this movie, in a fairly bold way. Things just.. happen. Mahito (the main focus) is dropped into this journey, and it changes, and changes, and makes him accept the world as it is without holding his hand. So, that sums up. That's how I see this movie, strangely enough.

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Conclusions

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⇲ The end, simply. You'll understand why, when you see it. And if this random blog happens to peak your initial interest, perhaps think of it after you finish the movie. The end of a journey, a fleeting moment. Or several fleeting moments, keeping you captured in a whirlwind. It just ends and offers no explanation, except the journey it gives you. A testament to life in every way.

Venture Forth, Mahito.

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*Written after my first viewing, and at 6:30am as I wake up thinking about the movie. I don't take time to make a beautiful blog with a lot of content. I just ramble and hope it makes sense. Here, a very personal take, as d