Boy and the Heron, The

Story

After the mother of 12-year-old Mahito (Luca Padovan) is killed in a fire in a Tokyo hospital, Mahito’s father Soichi (Christian Bale) remarries his mother’s younger sister Natsuko (Gemma Chan). The pair go to live at her country estate where Soichi runs the local ammunitions factory. Still grieving the loss of his mother, Mahito struggles to get used to his new life, with his pregnant stepmother who is also his aunt, and his new house full of old maids and a mysterious grey heron (Robert Pattinson) who won’t leave him alone.

At one point, Mahito follows the heron who leads him to the ruins of a deserted tower in the woods near his home. With the help of Kiriko (Florence Pugh), one of the old maids, Mahito learns that the tower was built by his granduncle, who disappeared many years before.

As Mahito is recovering from an injury, he sees Natsuko walking towards the tower and soon learns that she has disappeared. The heron really begins to pester Mahito, trying to lure him to the tower by saying that his mother is still alive and that he must enter the tower to save her.

Mahito and Kiriko enter the tower and are led, by a little man inside the grey heron, through a floor that leads to another world. As Mahito searches this magical realm for his mother, he meets Himi (Karen Fukuhara), a young woman with magical powers; a younger version of Kiriko; gigantic, human-eating parakeets and pelicans; as well as Natsuko’s granduncle (Mark Hamill) who rules the world with sorcerer-like powers. Mahito is offered a choice between returning to the world he knows or staying to rule the world he has discovered. As part of his choice he is also offered the chance to know his mother in a way that he could never have imagined, or to have the chance for a new mother. Mahito’s honesty and integrity guide his decisions. Will they lead to a reunion or will they result in the destruction of a world.

Themes

Death of a parent: disappearance of family members; war; bullying; greed and power

Violence

The Boy and the Heron has some violence. For example:

There’s an air raid siren in the night and Mahito is woken suddenly to learn that his mother’s hospital is on fire.
Bullies grab Mahito and wrestle him to the ground. He is clearly beaten up but, on the way home, he grabs a rock and bashes it against the side of his head leaving a gaping wound. He arrives home at the point of collapse, with blood gushing down the side of his head.
Mahito tries to smash the heron with a stick. The heron breaks the stick into pieces instead.
Mahito stands, as if paralysed, while countless toads and frogs cover him, apparently at the orders of the heron. Natsuko shoots an arrow at the heron and Mahito falls backwards into the lake, as if unconscious.
A character says, ‘I will bite your heart out’.
Mahito shoots the heron with his arrow and a creepy, vicious-looking man is revealed to be living inside the heron.
There is a sign that says, ‘those who seek my knowledge shall die’.
A character says, ‘skewer that turkey’.
There’s a screaming flurry as thousands of pelicans ambush Mahito. Some of the birds say, ‘Let’s go eat!’ as they attack him.
A character comments that, ‘In this world, the dead are the majority’.
A large fish is caught and sliced all the way down its body. Mahito takes a turn to cut the fish and is soon soaked with blood as a whole pile of guts and organs bubble out of the carcass.
The pelicans eat baby souls at they try to fly up to the other world.
Himi attacks the pelicans with fire.
A pelican, coughing up blood, lays down and dies.
A bird man kicks Mahito and he falls backwards.
A story is told about how a rock fell out of the sky and most people were scared of it but not Mahito’s great uncle – he was entranced by it. He built a great tower around the rock but many people got killed. Even Mahito’s own mother disappeared into the tower for a year, only to return as if nothing had happened.
Parakeets chase Mahito and nearly cut and eat him.
Himi chases the parakeets away with fire, grabs Mahito’s hand and leads him through a blaze.
Parakeets sharpen their carving knives while Mahito is chained up.
Mahito kicks a giant parakeet in the face.
A character knocks the parakeets unconscious as they are about to eat Mahito.
Himi has also been captured and is shown lying unconscious.
Mahito smashes through a window.
A parakeet king destroys a bridge trying to prevent others from following him.
Mahito and the heron fall to the bottom of the tower staircase destroyed by the king.
Rocks explode and chaos abounds as a planet begins to split and a world is torn apart.

Sexual references

The Boy and the Heron has some sexual references. For example, after Mahito asks a character if she has seen a woman, the characters asks Mahito if he has romantic feelings towards the woman he is searching for.

Alcohol, drugs and other substances

The Boy and the Heron has some substance use. For example:

Many of the old maids living in Natsuko’s house smoke and one specifically asks for cigarettes.
There is mention of smoking knotweed leaves as characters mention how scarce tobacco is.
An old man with a cigarette tucked behind his ear is seen smoking.
An old woman tries to get Mahito to give her cigarettes in exchange for a bow and arrow.

Nudity and sexual activity

The Boy and the Heron has some nudity and sexual activity. For example, Mahito watches his father and stepmother kiss.

Product placement

The Boy and the Heron has some product placement. For example, the Hikari brand of cigarettes is mentioned repeatedly.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including ‘dang it’, ‘damn’, ‘damn it’ and ‘darn you’. Name-calling and insults include ‘wily, old, flim-flam man’, ‘arrogant little turd’, ‘stupid’ and ‘brat’ and ‘shut up’.

Ideas to discuss with your children

The Boy and the Heron is a Japanese, animated, fantasy movie. The movie features a plot that twists and turns in typical anime style. Best suited to older teens and adults as well as fans of Studio Ghibli.

These are the main messages from The Boy and the Heron:

Time will heal all wounds.
We must live each day as it comes.
No world is perfect – we must make the best of where we chose to be.

Values in The Boy and the Heron that you could reinforce with your children include courage, helpfulness, integrity, peace and honesty.

The Boy and the Heron could also give you the chance to talk with your children about real-life consequences of issues like these:

Disappearing without telling anyone where you are going
Bullying others
Searching for ultimate power
Keeping your grief to yourself
Treating others in a cold or dismissive way.