GKIDS
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 13:44
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Anoma van der Veere
Correspondent Japan
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Anoma van der Veere
Correspondent Japan
Bombers rage over Tokyo, a boy runs through a sea of fire towards his home, but he is too late: the cinema screen is engulfed in flames while the viewer is drawn into the loss of his mother, his move from Tokyo and the introduction of a stepmother. It is a story of childhood trauma and grief, in a fantasy world that develops into a spectacle.
Today goes The Boy and the Heron by Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki premiered in the Netherlands, without flashy promotional campaigns or commercials. The film was also released in Japan without much promotion, and yet it achieved record revenues there.
Watch the trailer for the English version of The Boy and the Heron:
“Miyazaki’s characters always have a warm, beating heart,” says Tom Mes, Japanese film expert at Keio University in Tokyo. “That’s what makes it so attractive to the viewer.” The famous animator from Japan was born in 1941, during the Second World War. He saw the destruction of war and grew up during the years when his country had to be rebuilt.
It is his childhood trauma that often returns as a theme in his films, including in the latest production. “He builds a whole world, a story with its own culture that shapes the characters,” says Mes. “That is so characteristic of the productions of Ghibli, Miyazaki’s animation studio.”
Ghibli (pronounced djì-blie), is the company that Miyazaki built with his mentor Isao Takahata and colleague Toshio Suzuki, in response to the trio’s dissatisfaction with the state of the animation industry.
Huge successes
The studio has managed to create its own genre, a genre that has achieved enormous success both at home and abroad. With the movie Spirited Away Ghibli even managed to win an Oscar. “It’s a combination of Miyazaki’s creativity and Suzuki’s brilliant marketing,” Mes explains. “Reaching a wide audience and ensuring that people aged 5 and 50 can enjoy the same films.”
Running in Japan The Boy and the Heron in cinemas for months, after only a promotional poster with the sketch of a bird. It was a brilliant move: “Everywhere in the news it was about the new Ghibli film that was released after 6 years of silence,” said Mes. “After just four days, record revenues were already coming in. Only after a month did the marketing start and Ghibli also won over older viewers.”
Now the film is ready to premiere abroad. The reviews are positive, although the audience in the home country is still divided. Among Japanese, there are people who call the 82-year-old director a genius, while others complain about the unclear story.
“Yet it is a masterpiece. A culmination of all his work, his influences and experience,” says Mes. The film is seen as a possible final chapter in the career of the animator, who dominated the Japanese film industry for almost forty years.
Miyazaki has announced his retirement several times, but then returns to work. That’s partly why visitors stood in line for hours for his latest work.
Due to his age, there are questions about Ghibli’s future. The company has been looking for a successor for twenty years. Among the potential heirs to the throne were Miyazaki’s own son and Dutch animator Michaël Dudok de Wit. It is a theme that also returns in the new film: an old man looking for a successor. Just like in reality, it doesn’t seem to work.
“Miyazaki’s resounding success cannot be matched,” Mes explains. Ghibli is trying to expand it with a museum and a theme park. “These gross more in a year than all the films Ghibli released that are not by Miyazaki.” The studio therefore hopes that this film will again be a hit worldwide, especially if it were to be Miyazaki’s last film.
2023-12-27 12:44:05
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