I have watched a new animation movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki, “The Boy and the Heron”. This is a story of matters that are not explicitly stated. With simple abstraction, the story would be jacked up into a short fairy tale suitable for a picture book. Beautiful drawings would be also regarded as the same. However, there are bunch of matters that appear in the drawings or background pictures that are not at all explicitly stated.
In the story, a mysterious tower appears as the space that can connect different worlds. Similar to this symbolization, a lot of different cultures are connected explicitly or inexplicitly in the drawings or backgrounds. Such drawings and backgrounds are so fine that one can watch the animation eternally.
For example, quite a lot of points appear in the drawings/backgrounds with new idea for expression. The expressions are very real throughout the drama with notable exceptions. First of all, the fire in the city is accompanied with limped and deformed structure of humans. This is not realistic but it facilitates the impression of the incidents to the main character, Mahito Maki (牧眞人). It seems to be similar as “Сказка” by Сокуров. Grey heron, which is a common species all over Asia, Europe and Africa, appears in reality at the first shot. However, it became more and more deformed during the progression of the story and it finally melts down. At first these matters seem like magic realism, but at last everything becomes the world of fantasy, except the final scene. Besides the grey heron, great white pelicans and budgerigars are the common bird species appear in the story with deep implementations.
The king of the tower recalls Hayao Miyazaki himself, and also the fact that this story is a story during the World War II. Windshields of Japanese fighters appear in the story with huge numbers but they are never mentioned explicitly. There are many parodies of other tales, including “Castle in the Sky” by Hayao Miyazaki. Mahito speaks in short words, however, he clearly has a lot to say in his mind. Thus, this story is for matters that are not explicitly stated. If we can obtain repeatable media of the animation, we can see quite a lot of information is accumulated in the drawings/pictures. What is notable is there is no propaganda activities and public pamphlets are still not in sale.
In his “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” and “Philosophisch Untersuchungen”, Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein sought the philosophy from the situation of “What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence” and “the matters that cannot be spoken themselves”. The adventure of Mahito is closely related with the philosophical journey of Wittgenstein.
