Now that Miyazaki's new film (fka How Do You Live?) has been out for a couple of months in Japan and is about to start having international screenings, here's a thread for people who have watched it (or don't mind seeing spoilers)!

I'm still avoiding spoilers myself, but as of today, there is finally a trailer, so you can take a look at it here if you want:
https://twitter.com/GhibliTavern/status/1699453011582484691

EDIT: also the North American distributors have unveiled a website (https://gkids.com/films/the-boy-and-the-heron/) and I somehow neglected to mention that they announced a 8 December release date for the US and Canada!

__________________

quote:

---

Originally posted by arren18
Now that Miyazaki's new film (fka How Do You Live?) has been out for a couple of months in Japan and is about to start having international screenings, here's a thread for people who have watched it (or don't mind seeing spoilers)!

I'm still avoiding spoilers myself, but as of today, there is finally a trailer, so you can take a look at it here if you want:
https://twitter.com/GhibliTavern/status/1699453011582484691

EDIT: also the North American distributors have unveiled a website (https://gkids.com/films/the-boy-and-the-heron/) and I somehow neglected to mention that they announced a 8 December release date for the US and Canada!

---

Thanks arren and qoumsel, for the updates...

qoumsel, Welcome to the Tavern...

__________________

There's a new French trailer that apparently has new footage in it: https://twitter.com/catsuka/status/1708778058889494798

New French and Taiwanese posters have also been released!

__________________

One of my sons sent me a FB notification "The Boy and the Heron" is supposed to be opening 'nationwide' on Dec 8 thru IMAX... We'll see how close to me it comes...

Had to edit 'One of my sins sent me', lol

__________________

I just checked the coming listings at a local (4 miles away) Theater and it will be showing this movie this weekend... I will try to attend...

__________________

I hope you can! I'll see it at the end of next week.

__________________

Went to the thrater, but too many people, young and old... I'l try again during the week when the kids are still in school...

The turn out was $12.8 million in sales for the boy and the heron over the weekend, took the number one slot ...

__________________

Missed it completely... because of circumstances, unable to be idle in a seat for the 2 hrs necessary, I wasn't able to see the movie... Ah, well, it will circle back around sometime...

__________________

I got to see this last Friday! Now I know I put "SPOILERS" in the thread title, but for the avoidance of doubt I just want to reiterate that this thread is meant especially for people who HAVE seen the film to discuss it in as much detail as they want.


So stop reading now if you don't want to hear any details! SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!



First of all, I really liked it! It reminded me at times of some other Ghibli films, but not necessarily as obviously as I was expecting. Some people had talked about it being very on-the-nose about callbacks to Miyazaki's previous work, but at least on this first watch I didn't find that to be the case. The more grounded parts reminded me of The Wind Rises (even Grave of the Fireflies at times) and the fantastical parts reminded me of Spirited Away quite a bit. There were also some story elements that were a bit like When Marnie Was There.

Another thing I'd heard was that the first and second halves are very different. Supposedly this was because Miyazaki had a clear idea for half of the film and then wasn't sure of how to continue it from that point. Now, it IS true that the film shifts from being quite realistic and serious to dreamlike and magical, but I didn't find it as jarring as some others seemed to. I was actually struggling to figure out where that supposed midpoint was, because to me it moved over pretty seemlessly from one style to the other.

Related to that, I'd heard that some people found the film disjointed because of the many different places Mahito visits in the fantasy portions and the lack of explanation for them. I also saw somebody say more recently that this dreamlike style was something people didn't mind in Spirited Away. I wanted to reserve judgement because it was still very possible that Miyazaki just didn't do a good job of it this time, but having now seen it, I sympathise much more with that more recent opinion. In fact, I think it would've been detrimental to bog it down with exposition instead of letting it just flow between all these different strange scenes.

A criticism I would make (at least for now) is that some elements only emerge late in the film, and there are maybe a few too many of them. It made it a bit hard to figure out what to make of it all. I might warm up to those parts on a second viewing though, and honestly, I'd really like to watch it again to help collect all my thoughts better.

So yeah, that's what I thought! Very good, but might need a second go to fully appreciate. I'm looking forward to hearing what other people think once they've had a chance to see it!

__________________

I thought it was great, took a while to get going imo but once it did, it did not stop. Very glad I saw it in theaters.

I was about to welcome you to the forum, until I realised this isn't your first time here! So welcome back!!

I'm pleased to hear you enjoyed it too. Since my earlier post, I've had the chance to see it again, and I'm glad I did! A lot of different ideas and themes go on at the same time, and I wasn't quite sure what to make of it all the first time around. Having seen it once already, it was a lot easier to take everything in, knowing what was coming later, and figure out my thoughts on it. The later parts DO make more sense to me now, and I can see how it all works on a few different levels at once.

__________________