MOVIE · 2023

The Boy and the Heron

ActionAdventureAnimationAnimeDramaFamilyFantasy124 min

During World War II, teenage Mahito is sent from Tokyo to the countryside after his mother’s death, where his father’s new wife, Natsuko, bears an unsettling resemblance to the woman he lost. Mahito, voiced by Soma Santoki in Japanese, struggles to settle into the estate until a persistent gray heron begins following and provoking him, calling him the “long-awaited one.” Hayao Miyazaki’s film moves from wartime grief into a stranger realm as Mahito is drawn toward an abandoned tower near the house; the English-language cast includes Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson.