January 4, 2024
During World War II, the hospital where Mahito's mother Hisako was confined caught on fire and collapsed, killing everyone inside. Not long after, Mahito's father Shoichi got engaged with Hisako's younger sister Natsuko, and she was expecting a child. They picked Mahito up and brought him to the countryside to live in Natsuko's big house built by his architect grand-uncle who went missing under mysterious circumstances years back.
There, a graceful grey heron spoke to Mahito, claiming that that his mother was not really dead, but was living inside an odd-looking old tower in the estate. One day, Natsuko suddenly disappeared in the forest. A wizard caused Mahito, an old servant Kiriko and the heron (who became an ugly big-nosed Bird-man who cannot fly after Mahito injured his beak) magically sank through the tower floor into a fantastic world underneath to go look for her.
The venerable Japanese animator - filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki had already announced his retirement back in 2013. However, after that, he still came up with a short film "Boro the Caterpillar" in 2018, and now this one, another feature-length film he both wrote and directed. Released in Japan last year when he was 82 years old, the master has proven then again that he had certainly not lost his magic touch in profound storytelling.
Movie fans surely know at least one of Miyazaki's works, likely "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988) and "Spirited Away" (2001). If not, most of them are on Netflix to enjoy and cherish, from his earlier works "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" (1984) or "The Castle in the Sky" (1986) to his more recent works "Ponyo" (2008) and "The Wind Rises" (2013). It would be advisable to familiarize yourself with his older works, to be able to fully appreciate this newest one.
Like Miyazaki films before, the young protagonist gets drawn into a wonderland of unusual creatures, who may be cute (like the pre-birth warawara), or insidious, (like the giant parakeets). Miyazaki's stories are never clear-cut, but this one felt more deeper and complex than usual. As the granduncle was talking to Mahito, we could not help but hear that the great director's valedictory speech, exhorting us to build a better world. 8/10
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