The Boy and the Heron
The Boy and the Heron
While the Second World War rages, the teenage Mahito, haunted by his mother's tragic death, is relocated from Tokyo to the serene rural home of his new stepmother Natsuko, a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the boy's mother. As he tries to adjust, this strange new world grows even stranger following the appearance of a persistent gray heron, who perplexes and bedevils Mahito, dubbing him the "long-awaited one."
neuroparadox reviewedJuly 29, 2025
I dunno, I didn't really connect with this one. Probably because I haven't experienced that sort of grief before.🤷♂️
So this isn't a rating for the movie itself so much as my experience with it, because on a technical level it's still Miyazaki so it's fucking gorgeous.
It was hard not to set my expectations high too, since I consider Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke to be perfect 5 star movies and I've seen them both multiple times. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐