Evan D.Grief has long been one of the most well trodden roads traversed by filmmakers. Cinema loves to look at broken people piecing themselves back together or filling in some loss like the final piece of a healing jigsaw puzzle. Many of the great characters of film history are wounded birds desperate to fly again. Forged in the fire of loss and pain, great heroes emerge stronger for what they have endured.
Hayao Miyazaki’s filmography has explored the deep thematic well of grief, but has often opted to mine deeper. My Neighbor Totoro is a film that leaves the pain on the periphery and focuses on the ability of children to shield themselves from forces that might hurt them. With The Boy and the Heron, Studio Ghibli’s great auteur asks not how a broken child might repair himself, but whether a shattered life is worth resurrecting at all.
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