#How Do You Live

[ankle-beez]

nimona (film that was saved by netflix after disney canned it along with closing the studio that was making it) and the boy and the heron (2d animated movie, the type that disney doesn't make anymore due to "limitations with the medium") getting animated feature noms at the oscars this year and not wish... bro that's funny

[ciearcab]

how do you live?

[autumn-may]

Mostly spoiler free summary of my viewing experience

[rfskia]

[roydeezed]

One thing for those who have watched The Boy and The Heron or will watch it. The Japanese title for it is How Do You Live? And Miyazaki stated he was leaving it for his grandson, saying, "Grandpa is moving onto the next world soon but he is leaving behind this film".

The deaths of contemporaries and friends such as Satoshi Kon and Isao Takahata and also the expected successor of Yoshifumi Kondo were things that have always weighed heavily on the back of Miyazaki's mind.

He recognizes the industry and the occupation for how soul crushing it was, grinding up either the spirit or the physical body of those who work in it. He loves and hates the industry he stands on the peak of and fully recognizes how it will probably be the death of him. And he knows it'll leave him unable to say a lot of things to his Grandson.

So How Do You Live? is a lesson. For his grandson. For himself. For his two sons. And probably for anyone else willing to pay attention.

Hayao Miyazaki is a flawed man that makes things so important to so many people. And I think more than any other film of his, in this you get to pull back the curtain a bit and see him at work. And what should be this giant unblemished titan can be seen for what he is, a sad old man who had higher hopes for himself and has even higher hopes for the people he makes his work for.

It's a beautiful thing to see another's humanity in their work. To look past the artifice and glam of commercialized art and find humans behind it. And humans willing to show their humanity and mortality is even rarer. And something to be celebrated. So when you watch it. Or if you've watched it already. Understand that this film is Miyazaki kneeling down, weary after years of weaving dreams and making mistakes, reaching out and saying to you that he hopes you can do better. It's an old man who's made all the mistakes of the world passing it on to you, hoping you do better, and making sure you know it's okay if you don't.

How do you Live? By making mistakes. By messing up. But still moving forward. And still reaching out.

[hamable]

I’m thinking about Mahito’s great great uncle maintaining and preserving a peaceful and beautiful thing in a way that to an outside observer looks tedious and unimportant, hoping to pass the duty off to a successor but ultimately he cannot find one and dies with it.

I’m thinking about the specificity of the blocks being made and handled with care, not with malice or ill intent.

I’m thinking about Hayao Miyazaki, a bastion of beautiful 2d hand drawn animation who refuses to retire.

I’m thinking about a world where animation is so rarely made with love over profit and efficiency.

I’m thinking about how, though the old man didn’t see it, the next generation still hangs onto a piece of that beautiful, tedious thing and takes it with them because it feels important.

I’m thinking about Mahito being told he should forget, but no. He shouldn’t.

[saccharinescorpion]

The Boy And The Heron has something for everyone. a hot Ghibli dad, for the girls. a weird wet little goblin man, for the girls. a butch woman who cuts a giant fish open with a big knife and has a little fang when she laughs. for the girls. hm.

[kedilisuvari]

君たちはどう生きるか | THE BOY AND THE HERON / HOW DO YOU LIVE (2023), dir. Hayao Miyazaki

[ecarstairsb]

it’s about grief it’s about letting go it’s about hey this is how my mum used to make it!! it’s about making unlikely friends along the way it’s about little old ladies looking after you even when you can’t look after yourself it’s about mothers and motherhood it’s about holding on tight and accepting the help that is given it’s about seeing the fiery state of the world and choosing to live in it anyway it’s about we will meet again someday!!! it’s about cute round little creatures that make you go awww

[etchif]

I didn't quite get this movie but I do really like this freak

[secretie]

warawara 🤍 insta

[cisikim]

“i’ll be so lucky to have you” is such a beautiful line. himi knowingly returns to a world that is destined to consume her in the fires she holds dear, all because they’re also the very doors that’ll bring mahito into existence.

and that’s the enduring essence of miyazaki’s works: life, through all its suffering and misery, is still worth living. through the people we love and the memories we cherish, we search for and find our reasons to live.

[honeyimissjoo]

the boy and the heron 君たちはどう生きるか (2023)

[navusare]

how do you live? 🪶

[scolop98]

The Hilda finale was excellent, but I could not get this out of my mind while watching it

[hamable]

I do want to talk quick about the pelicans in The Boy and The Heron. While in the theater, I kept my mind open to symbols and metaphors that could slide into a larger narrative about war and grief, and these fit pretty well. The pelicans can no longer find fish to eat and are recruited and told to eat the Warawara. They don’t want to, and they didn’t know that’s what they’d be eating until they got there. There’s nothing else to eat. Their children are growing up different, they hardly know how to fly anymore.

It reminder me of soldiers drafted for war and sent to defeat whoever they’re pointed towards bc they have no choice. I’m glad Mahito buries the Pelican properly.

I looked up what the pelican symbolizes in Japan, and the first result says they represent parents who sacrifice themselves for their children. Sounds about right.

I think this connects largely to Mahito’s shifting perspective on the war and the people who fight it. He loses his mother to a fire caused by an air raid. She dies in a hospital, filled with children and other patients. I wonder if he possibly resents his father throughout the movie, because he builds aircraft, which will inevitably be used for more destruction (just like Miyazaki and his father). And then the pelicans say they have no choice and fear for the future their children will grow in and he starts redirecting his anger away from his father and heal?

Idk, I’ve only seen the movie once, and this is based off my 2+ day old memory. What do other people think?