After losing his mother in a fire in Tokyo, 11-year-old Mahito moves to the countryside with his father Shoichi to take up residence at the Gray Heron Mansion, a fusion of Japanese and Western architecture on a sprawling estate. Mahito struggles with his complex feelings toward his bold and forceful father, as well as his new stepmother Natsuko, who also happens to be his late mother’s younger sister. Isolation and alienation drive Mahito to self-harm and shut himself off inside his new home. Everything changes when he is visited by a gray heron, who eventually reveals himself to be the avian guise of a shapeshifting “heron man.” Led by the gray heron, Mahito ventures further into the dark corners of the estate, where time and space begin to warp, dreams and reality blend into one another, and a world far beyond exerts an inescapable pull.
Possibly the last film of animation giant Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron is a semi-autobiographical masterpiece that recently won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature and has been heralded by critics and audiences alike ever since it hit theaters last year. Read more about the film with Vulture’s review as well as their fun guide to Miyazaki’s “weird little guys,” David Ehrlich’s fascinating article about how the English-language version — starring the likes of Robert Pattinson, Florence Pugh, Christian Bale, Gemma Chan, and Willem Dafoe — came together, and IndieWire’s interview with Studio Ghibli co-founder/producer Toshio Suzuki about how Miyazaki came out of retirement to create the film and his personal connections to it. See the original Japanese-language version (subtitled in English) at IU Cinema on January 19 and the English dubbed version on January 20!
“To see Hayao Miyazaki’s feature on a big screen is to experience a world of wonder unlike any other.” — Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
The Boy and the Heron will be screened at IU Cinema on January 19 and January 20 as part of the International Art House Series.