After a long wait since it became known in 2016 that Hayao Miyazaki was preparing his farewell film, this fall Spanish viewers have finally been able to see The boy and the heron. Its original title in Japan, How do you live?is that of a 1937 novel that greatly influenced the creator of such important animated films as My neighbor Totoro or the Oscar winner Spirited Away. But Genzaburō Yoshino’s book is barely related to this latest Miyazaki film, although the protagonist child finds it in his room in the house to which he has moved after the death of his mother. The classic, which all Japanese children read in the mid-20th century, tells of a boy’s life learning about the true meaning of bravery, the injustices of the world or the essence of his own being. All issues that permanently run through the Studio Ghibli universe that Miyazaki founded. Next, let’s look at some of the themes from his filmography that can help us in the difficult art of living:
The magic is hidden in the everyday. Sometimes it occurs through chance or synchronization, as happens to the teenage protagonist of Whispers of the heart. Shizuku discovers that the same books she chooses in the library are previously read by someone named Seiji Amasawa, which will have consequences on her life. How many significant coincidences do we overlook because we are not paying enough attention to what is happening to us?
Your power is beyond your comfort zone. Ghibli characters find their true dimension when they leave the familiar world and venture into the unknown. In the case of The boy and the heronthe recklessness of the protagonist, who decides to enter a cursed family building, will allow him to mourn the death of his mother and make peace with his stepmother.
We need nature for our emotional balance. At the bottom of the ecoansiedad There is the divorce of the human being with the natural home that gives him life. Many people seek healing by returning to the countryside, like the father of Satsuki, one of the girls in My neighbor Totoro, to whom his father confesses: “Trees and people used to be good friends. “I saw that tree and that’s why I decided to buy the house.”
Each person sets their own limits. Before reality puts a ceiling on us, we often decide in our minds what we can or cannot achieve. The breadth of one’s own life horizon, therefore, is conditioned by beliefs. There is a moment in which Chihiro asks the dragon Haku what the limits are, and he answers: “There are three limits: the sky, the imagination and yourself.”
The small contains the greatest. Miyazaki’s films are distinguished by their attention to detail. We follow the walk of a cat through a residential neighborhood, or the flight of a speck of dust. William Blake summed it up in a famous poem: “To see the world in a grain of sand and the sky in a wild flower, embrace infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour.” We can only witness the wonders of life if we open our senses to what is seemingly insignificant.
We carry our history with us. Spirited Away reminds us: “Nothing that happens is forgotten. Even if you don’t remember it anymore.” Everything counts and has its value. We are the product of everything we have done, seen and felt, although much of it is found in the deep waters of the unconscious.
“Reality is for people with a lack of imagination.” The phrase is from Miyazaki himself, who has dedicated his life to creating extraordinary worlds in which to rest from the prose of the world. When we are weighed down by bad news or aggressiveness around us, fantasy inspires us and can even reveal unknown aspects of our personality. The psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim, author of Psychoanalysis of fairy talesstated that every fantastic narrative “is a magic mirror that reflects aspects of our internal world and the stages necessary to go from immaturity to total maturity.”
Watching films by this great storyteller will help us embark on that journey to release worldly tensions, while nurturing our imagination and self-knowledge.
‘This is how children think’
— This is the title of a compilation of articles by Miyazaki that includes reflections like this: “Children have the same problems as adults. [Algunos padres] They have had children so that they do what they should have done, and they are only happy when the children are studying.”
— In Japan, the pressure to make a place for themselves in society makes them compete from school and prevents them from enjoying their childhood. “We should give back to children the energy that once gave them strength to face small adversities,” she writes. A force that is in your imagination and that adults also need.
Francesc Miralles is a writer and journalist who is an expert in psychology.
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2023-12-07 06:11:29
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