The Boy and the Heron [2023 film]
by Hayao Miyazaki (Director, Screenwriter)
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Description
A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.Tags
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Member Reviews
B (Good).
A boy enters a fantasy world looking for his missing aunt.
It's often beautiful or weird or delightful, but it's also scatter-brained and incoherent. Every sequence in this movie could have been its own movie; I don't know what possessed Miyazaki to attempt mashing them all into one story. It's almost like a writing exercise where a new writer has to take over periodically without knowing what their predecessor was doing.
(Jan. 2026)
A boy enters a fantasy world looking for his missing aunt.
It's often beautiful or weird or delightful, but it's also scatter-brained and incoherent. Every sequence in this movie could have been its own movie; I don't know what possessed Miyazaki to attempt mashing them all into one story. It's almost like a writing exercise where a new writer has to take over periodically without knowing what their predecessor was doing.
(Jan. 2026)
Visually pretty and the voice acting is spectacular, but felt like one of the weaker Ghibli films. Felt like the fever dream of a traumatized kid. Not bad by any means, but not a particularly engrossing narrative.
A fantasy with incredibly beautiful artwork.
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Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Boy and the Heron [2023 film]
- Original title
- 君たちはどう生きるか; Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka
- Alternate titles
- How Do You Live?
- Original publication date
- 2023-07-14
- People/Characters
- Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki | Luca Padovan); Gray Heron (Masaki Suda | Robert Pattinson); Lady Himi (Aimyon | Karen Fukuhara); Natsuko (Yoshino Kimuro | Gemma Chan); Shoichi Maki (Takuya Kimura | Christian Bale); Granduncle (Shō | hei Hino | Mark Hamill) (show all 9); Kiriko (Ko Shibasaki | Florence Pugh); Noble Pelican (Kaoru Kobayashi | Willem Dafoe); Parakeet King (Jun Kunimura | Dave Bautista)
- Related movies
- The Boy and the Heron (2023 | IMDb)
- Original language
- Japanese
Classifications
- Genres
- Fantasy, Fiction and Literature, Teen
Statistics
- Members
- 64
- Popularity
- 485,333
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (3.25)
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- ISBNs
- 2
- ASINs
- 7
