“Let us raise our glasses to The Boy and the Heron becoming part of the unrivaled legacy of the Japanese filmmaker, a true reference for the power of imagination on the big screen,” read the Fotogramas review last October, when Hayao Miyazaki presented his film at the San Sebastián Festival.
And Miyazaki's film with Studio Ghibli is, without a doubt, part of his legacy. In the recent edition of the Golden Globe, Japanese animation made history by winning the award for best animated film, a recognition that has been awarded since 2006 and which for the first time has seen a Japanese work win this honor.
The film, in Peruvian cinemas today, is written and directed by Miyazaki himself, who in 2003 marked a milestone at the Oscars with Spirited Away, considered “an enormous triumph of Japanese animation that has been dominating the world of animation in movie theaters for decades. A triumph of enormous importance for everything it entails, and that once again puts The Boy and the Heron in the spotlight for the Oscars,” reads as.com.
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The plot takes place during World War II. Mahito Maki, the protagonist, lost his mother in a hospital fire, so he and his father move from Tokyo to a house in the countryside, his mother's hometown. There, the widower remarries his wife's pregnant sister. Thus, Mahito, struggling with the mixed feelings of this situation, will be guided by a creepy heron to another world with the promise of reuniting with his mother.
Miyazaki has said that the film is dedicated to his grandson and has described it as a “semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death and creation, in tribute to friendship.”
Turning 81 on January 5, the filmmaker is considered “the most famous, influential and admired wizard king in Japan.” He still remembers his absence from the 2003 Oscars as a protest against the Iraq war. “It is unfortunate that I cannot rejoice wholeheartedly at this award because of the deeply sad events that are happening in the world,” he said at the time.
Today it's time to celebrate the Golden Globe for The Girl and the Heron and wait for some surprise at the Oscars.
#boy #heron #tribute #friendship
