I’ve been saving watching this, Hayao Miyazaki films are special and so I wanted the perfect moment to indulge. We start with WW2 raging, a common theme with Miyazaki. Bombs are hitting Tokyo. Young Mahito is in a panic as the city burns at night. Losing his mother, he and father leave Tokyo for the countryside, another common theme. His father has a new factory there, building airplanes and it’s here that Mahito meets Natsuku, his new sweet step-mother who looks eerily like his real mother. To make things even harder for Mahito, there’s a baby in the way. This may seem sudden, but Japan tried to rebuild quickly after the war. At the new house, there’s another resident, a large grey heron that’s clearly taken an interest in the boys arrival. It’s a film about dealing with loss, getting over the trauma of war, but all with the dreamlike Studio Ghibli escapism. Following the heron’s insistence, Mahito finds himself lead into a hidden world, secreted in mysterious tower buried in the forest behind the house. It’s certainly a trippy place as he sets upon a quest to rescue Naksuto in a world laced with symbology and where the dead and the living coexist. It’s often scary, but there’s plenty of light along with the darkness. Fantastical creatures called the wararara rival the cuteness of the dust bunnies in My Neighbor Totoro, go alongside machete wielding parrots. On the surface the story is odd visually but quite simple at its core. It’s what’s underwritten in the narrative where Studio Ghibli films flourish though and this is no different. Metaphors melt into one another, as characters reveal their true identity and Mahito forges unlikely but rewarding relationships. It looks beautiful of course, although I do rather enjoy the films that are city based, getting lost in the intricate detail. That’s not here, but it’s still stunning. It’s not surprising that it has such a stellar voice cast for the dubbed version. Cristian Bale and Willem Dafoe particularly stand out. It’s a rich retina pleasing journey. Magical and poignant. Just as you’d expect.
8/10
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