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RETURN FLIGHT
THE BOY AND THE HERON Animation legend Hayao Miyazaki finally takes wing once more…
‘For the first time, Miyazaki is telling his own story’
JUNICHI NISHIOKA
Shortly after the release of 2013’s The Wind Rises, Hayao Miyazaki announced he was calling it quits. ‘I actually believed that was going to be his last film,’ says producer Toshio Suzuki. ‘That he wasn’t coming back, that he would retire…’ Happily, Miyazaki U-turned in 2016, starting work on a new feature film that formally entered production the following year under the banner of Studio Ghibli, the anime colossus he and Suzuki co-founded.
Centred on a young lad’s odyssey through a fantastical land filled with peril, heart-piercing beauty and militant parakeets, The Boy and the Heron occupies a unique perch in the writer/director’s canon. ‘For the first time [Miyazaki] is telling his own story,’ reveals Studio Ghibli executive Junichi Nishioka. ‘So although there are fictional elements, more than half the story is based on his actual experiences.’
Teasers presumes that Miyazaki was never harassed by a talking grey heron with a startling secret, but the character isn’t entirely make-believe… ‘He confessed that the heron is based on me,’ smiles Suzuki. ‘Miyazaki knows me so well…’
Meanwhile, the film’s original Japanese title – which translates as How Do You Live? – is a nod to the 1937 book of the same name, which Miyazaki read as a child. ‘It had a big impact on him, especially the title,’ says Nishioka. As well as pivoting to a ‘more accessible’ title for its global roll-out, The Boy and the Heron will also gain more marketing fanfare than in Japan, where its release was heralded by only a poster. ‘In recent years, a lot of big films have been promoted to excess,’ says Suzuki. ‘Sometimes they reveal the entire plot! So this was almost a critique of that trend.’ Ironically, the lack of publicity generated a huge buzz. ‘Nobody had done it before,’ says Nishioka. ‘The media were very intrigued.’
Punters were, too: the film surpassed the opening four-day domestic boxoffice take of Studio Ghibli’s signature hit, Spirited Away. A decade on from The Wind Rises, Miyazaki remains a huge draw, and not just among audiences. ‘He has a lot of fans in the industry, among actors,’ says Suzuki, in reference to TBatH’s all-star English-language dub, which includes Ghibli veterans Christian Bale and Mark Hamill alongside Dave Bautista, Gemma Chan, Robert Pattinson and Florence Pugh.
Throughout the film’s lifespan there have been rumours that this would be Miyazaki’s curtain call. But there are also reports that he’s back at the drawing board. So… how does he live? ‘While the film is still in theatres, he’s nervous,’ says Suzuki. ‘I guess we have to wait until after that, when he can clear his mind and come up with new ideas. However, he has said this: “I would never speak of retirement.”’
THE BOY AND THE HERON IS IN CINEMAS FROM 26 DECEMBER.