Culture Chat: ‘The Boy and the Heron’, and Miyazaki’s legacy

Life and Art from FT Weekend

Forhecz Topher

Tv & Film, Arts, Society & Culture

4.6 • 601 Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2024

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This Friday, for our first episode of 2024, we discuss The Boy and The Heron, the latest film from legendary filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and his team at Studio Ghibli. It is the most expensive Japanese film ever made, and has received widespread critical acclaim. But what, exactly, is it about? Lilah chats through it with political columnist Stephen Bush and Leo Lewis, the FT’s Asia Business editor, who has co-written a book on anime. Is it about his past, or the future of animation? Where does it sit in the Studio Ghibli canon? And is Miyazaki ever really done?

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We love hearing from you. Lilah is on Instagram @lilahrap. You can email her at [email protected].

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Links (all FT links get you past the paywall):

– The FT’s review of The Boy and the Heron is here: https://on.ft.com/3S47ZNS

– Leo’s book on anime, co-authored with Roland Kelts, is called Japanamerica. His exclusive FT interview with Studio Ghibli’s Toshio Suzuki is here: https://on.ft.com/3TPuVBQ

– Here’s a recent FT interview with Miyazaki’s closest collaborators: https://on.ft.com/47oXc56

– The other films we mentioned are Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle and Castle in the Sky

– Stephen wants less expensive video games. He recommends the indie game I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

– Lilah recommends the docuseries 10 years with Miyazaki, which is available for free on NHK World Japan, and Italianamerican, which is available on Max

– Leo is on X @Urbandirt. Stephen Bush is @stephenkb

– You can get a free trial to Stephen’s political newsletter Inside Politics – which includes a daily cultural recommendation – by clicking here

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Special FT subscription offers for Life and Art podcast listeners, from 50% off a digital subscription to a $1/£1/€1 trial, are here: http://ft.com/lifeandart

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Original music by Metaphor Music. Mixing and sound design by Breen Turner, Sam Giovinco and Simon Panayi.

Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend.
0:04.1	I am Lila Raptopoulos and this, our first show of 2024, is our Friday chat show.
0:10.7	This is a very special one.
0:12.2	Today we are talking about the Japanese master of animation, Hayao Miyazaki, and his new film The Boy and the Heron.
0:19.1	It came out in Japan this past summer and has just in the past month made its way to the U.S. and the U.K.
0:25.1	The Boy in the Heron is Miyazaki's latest film with his animation company, Studio Ghibli.
0:30.3	He is debatably the world's most famous living animator, and he's known for creating vibrant, fantastical worlds in films like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.
0:41.3	Miyazaki is 82 years old and announced his retirement back in 2013, but here he is with a new feature-length
0:48.8	animation that's set during World War II about a boy named Mahito who enters an enchanted castle looking for his
0:55.4	mother who's died. Before we start, I'll say that we do get pretty detailed about plot in this
1:00.3	conversation, so if you're worried about spoilers, you might want to come back. Joining me today,
1:05.5	despite our 14-hour time difference is the Financial Times' Asia Business Editor Leo Lewis.
1:12.4	Not only does Leo know Japan firsthand, he also co-wrote a book about Japanese animation or anime. Hi Leo. Welcome to the show.
1:19.4	Hello there. Hi. And in London, we have Stephen Bush, a dear friend of the podcast, a resident
1:25.7	film buff, and a political columnist at the FT. His newsletter
1:30.1	is called Inside Politics. Stephen, welcome. Thanks so much for having me back. Thanks for being back.
1:36.8	Okay, so I'd love to talk about what we thought of the film. Leo, I'd love to start with you.
1:41.3	I'm pretty sure you were the first of all of us to see the boy in
1:45.3	the heron. You saw it in Japan. And one great quirk of Miyazaki is that he released absolutely
1:51.2	no trailers or no ads for the movie. So you would have been going in blind. Can you tell us
1:57.0	about watching it? Like big picture, what were your first impressions when you came out?
2:03.3	Yeah.
	...

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