It’s hard to deny the sheer mastery of Studio Ghibli’s The Boy And The Heron. Animator and director Hayao Miyazaki’s final film is one of the best films of the year.
Miyazaki’s long list of fantastical films often includes transformation, teleportation, and more. The Boy and the Heron is no exception. In fact, it may be a little difficult to follow for some viewers. To help you, let’s take a closer look at the end of the film. Spoilers ahead.
What happens throughout the film?
The film starts with young Mahito losing his mother in a fire. His father remarries his late wife’s sister, Natsuko. Mahito and his father move to Natsuko’s family estate. A grey heron greets Mahito dramatically.
Mahito finds a mysterious tower built by Natsuko’s grand-uncle. When Mahito starts school, he gets into a fight. In order to avoid returning, Mahito pierces his head with a rock.
The heron coaxes Mahito towards the tower, telling him his mother is still alive. Mahito sees Natsuko disappear into the woods and goes after her. This leads him into the tower with the maid, Kiriko. After watching a fake version of his mother melt before his eyes, Mahito shoots the heron with an arrow. This transforms the heron into a little man, who serves as his guide through this strange new world.
The world Mahito discovers is one full of wonder and beauty, but not free from violence. An army of parakeets tries to eat him. A flock of pelicans then eat dozens of adorable “warawara,” little souls on their way to be born as people. Mahito is saved and often guided by a young girl named Himi. It turns out that the world is controlled by a wizard who intended the place to be a paradise.
How does the film end?
After a strange and winding odyssey, the wizard attempts to leave the world in the hands of Mahito. The organization of the world is set by stacking white blocks of various shapes into a tower. The balance of the little tower relates to the balance of the world. Mahito, however, refuses to take the wizard’s place. All of this makes the Parakeet King angry. Failing to stack the blocks himself, the Parakeet King slices the blocks in half. As a result, the world starts to collapse.
Mahito, Natsuko, and Kiriko are barely able to escape. Himi must escape through a different door, to her own timeline. The army of parakeets flees from the tower as actual birds as the tower collapses. Now resolved about his prospects for the future, Mahito embraces Natsuko as his new mother. Two years later, Mahito, his father, Natsuko, and a new child move back to Tokyo.
What does it all mean?
The Boy and the Heron has a level of complexity that borders on something like Interstellar. The magical world is essentially the world of the dead, and it exists eternally, outside of time. As such, Mahito is able to meet a younger version of his mother (Himi) despite her having visited decades before him. This is the same for the housemaid, Kiriko. There exists a time-travel logic that is solidified when Himi explains that she must exit the world through her own door in order for Mahito to be born.
The themes explored in the film are rather advanced. It helps to remember that not all animation is strictly for children. This is a common mistake, especially regarding anime viewed in the West. A child might struggle to understand the weight of an action like Mahito piercing his own head with a rock. Beyond just the desire not to return to school, it comes from a sense of powerlessness and anger at his inability to escape the violence of the world. This idea is fully realized when Mahito refuses to take leadership of the world of the dead.
The wizard purports that Mahito is free of malice, but Mahito explains that his self-inflicted injury is proof of the malice within him. It’s like the pelican explaining the necessity of eating the warawara. Ultimately, there is no escape from violence or malice. It has a way of creeping into life the same way tragedy has a way of striking: unexpectedly. The visual metaphor of the block tower, perhaps, lends to the idea that our attempts to control things are as arbitrary and flimsy as building a tower of blocks. Mahito explains that he’s ready to stop running and embrace those still in his life that he loves, and that love him.
What did you think of the film?
The film is absolutely loaded with hidden meanings and clever visual metaphors. As the film is still in theaters, it feels there remains a lot to unpack.
This film, over time, will likely only grow in popularity and appreciation. Ultimately, The Boy and the Heron is about a boy embarking on a spiritual journey to learn that death and tragedy are an inescapable part of life, but that makes it all the more important to seek out and embrace the love and beauty of the everyday.
As one of the most singularly beautiful animated films in years, The Boy and the Heron is likely to continue teaching new lessons for years to come.
What do you think of the ending? Were the themes throughout exemplified in the final, climactic moments? Let us know what you think in the comments below!
Read More: The Boy And The Heron Movie Review