Hayao Miyazaki's latest film "The Boy and the Bird" brought the brilliant director his first "Golden Globe" in his career in the nomination "Best Animated Film 2023", leaving behind Suzume Closing the Doors from another Japanese talent, Makoto Shinkai. It is noteworthy that the previous work of the genius “The Wind Rises” in 2013 also competed for this award, but lost. Hayao Miyazaki is the first anime director in history to win an Oscar.
The Boy and the Bird has become one of the most anticipated feature-length anime in recent memory, despite Studio Ghibli's rather unconventional advertising policies. Before the premiere in Japanese cinemas, viewers were not shown any trailer, no footage, no full synopsis, limited to a poster with an old-school style bird and the title.
The cartoon takes place during the Second World War, when a twelve-year-old boy, Mahito, loses his mother during the bombing of Tokyo and, together with his father and his new wife, is evacuated to the countryside. The hero does not have a good relationship with his stepmother and those around him, but a meeting with a mysterious talking heron triggers a chain of mysterious events that completely change his life.
It is noteworthy that Hayao Miyazaki introduced several autobiographical facts into the feature film. For example, during World War II, his family was also evacuated from Tokyo to the countryside, and the professions of the director's father and the protagonist's father are the same.
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