I watched Boy and the Heron for a second time. I did not enjoy the first watch.
It is good, but it is very Miyazaki "meta". I'm convinced that to enjoy it, you have to understand his visual language, his philosophic contradictions, his past, and his fraught relationship with Ghibli and letting it be its own thing, out from under his shadow.
I don't really know if that makes it a good movie, but it makes it one of my favorite Miyazaki movies.
Need to watch this still 👀
Honestly, if you want to save some money on a second watch, YouTube some of the non-spoiler thinkboi videos. My biggest problems with the movie is that, at key junctures in the plot, the motivations of the characters' actions are sometimes barely explainable.
Really wanna watch it. I tried to convince my youngest to go see it, because he’s legit seen Princess Mononoke in Japanese about a dozen times, but Wonka won the day. Also heard it might be tedious for kids.
This is one of his more complex, frustrating plots. This is mostly a metaphorical movie about Miyazaki's relationship with creativity and all the perils and stresses of following it. There is a basic "child enters into a fantasy realm" scaffolding to the story, but the lessons and reflections are very mature.
