Today is the last day of the Toronto International Film Festival, which opened with the international premiere of The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature-length animated movie in ten years. This is that other TIFF, not to be confused with the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival, which will close with the new live-action Godzilla movie from Toho Studios, Godzilla Minus One.
Produced by Studio Ghibli (who else) and distributed by Toho, The Boy and the Heron already hit theaters in Japan back in July. Here, it was released under the title of the Genzaburo Yoshino book it’s adapted from, Kimitachi wa Do Ikiru ka, or How Do You Live? The film initially eschewed any kind of trailers or promo images, but now it has made its North American debut with English subtitles.
In this respect, the Toronto screenings of The Boy and the Heron were geared toward a different audience than the ongoing “Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition” at Warehouse Terrada, located on Tennozu Isle in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The Japanese-language exhibition features movie-inspired photo ops, the Ghibli’s Phantom Lighthouse installation, and a “World of Ohm” room with life-sized sculptures based on Miyazaki’s second animated film, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
Friday Road Show and Ghibli Exhibition
“Friday Road Show” is a family-oriented movie-of-the-week segment that airs on NTV. It’s been showing Ghibli films for decades, and the first part of the exhibition walks you through some of that history, showcasing storyboards and a timeline of the studio’s animated films. It also explains things like how Miyazaki developed his “Really Big Clock” sculpture for Nittele Tower in Shiodome and how Ghibli developed its relationship with the convenience store chain Lawson (where you can buy tickets for the Ghibli Museum). Again, everything is in Japanese, and it’s the kind of event where you might look around and realize you’re the only foreigner there.
After visiting and writing about Ghibli Park earlier this year and comparing the Ghibli Museum to it in another post, I thought I had seen everything there was to see outside the movie theater with Ghibli. However, there’s another upstairs part of the exhibition where you can enjoy photo ops of the parents-turned-pigs from Spirited Away, the white wolf Moro from Princess Mononoke, and the bakery and black cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service.
It wouldn’t surprise me if those photo ops showed up later in the special exhibition space in Ghibli’s Grand Warehouse at Ghibli Park. After you’re done with them, you can check out the stained-glass designs on Ghibli’s Phantom Lighthouse (some English sources call it “Ghibli’s Magic Lantern”) and watch it cast projections on the wall.
The exhibition culminates in the immersive “World of Ohm” room, where you walk among the toadstools and a massive sculpture of one of the sandworm-like creatures by Takayuki Takeya (who also worked in the art department on Shin Godzilla). When it gets “angry,” the Ohm’s eyes change from blue to red.
Public Art, T.Y. Harbor, and ‘The Boy and the Heron’ Trailer
Outside Warehouse Terrada, there’s more public art to see, from statues and houseboats to street furniture and mosaics. You can do a whole art walk on Tennozu Isle without paying a dime.
Highlights include ARYZ’s “‘The Shamisen’ Shinagawa 2019,” a mural that takes up one whole side of a building, and Kimiyo Mishima’s “Work 2012,” a trash can that’s taller than a person and full of brand-name box labels. Even art stores like Pigment, with its colorful wall of paint powders, are photogenic.
When it’s all over, grab a bite to eat at the T.Y. Harbor brewery restaurant. A few years ago, we had a turkey dinner there for Thanksgiving. In addition to their flagship pale ale, the weekend and holiday menu also serves up a nice presentation of American food like chili, Caesar salad, bacon avocado cheeseburgers, and macaroni and cheese.
Below, you can see the trailer for The Boy and the Heron, which opens nationwide in the U.S. on Friday, December 8, 2023. Reviews out of Toronto have been universally positive; the film currently holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The synopsis via GKIDS Films is as follows:
“A young boy named Mahito, yearning for his mother, ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.”