Mirai, a Japanese animated film that isn’t from Hiyao Miyazaki but is very much in the tradition of his films and those of his Studio Ghibli, snagged the fifth Golden Globe nomination for Best Animated Feature, along with the four obvious nominees this year (including Isle of Dogs). Directed by Mamoru Hosoda, Mirai tells the story of a young Japanese family from the perspective of the son, Kun, who seems to be about four years old, and how his life changes when his baby sister Mirai arrives, upending Kun’s world, especially as his father decides to work from home and take care of the kids.
The plot itself is very simple and sweet: Kun is fascinated at first by the baby, but quickly realizes she isn’t going to be a playmate (at least not yet), and that her presence means he’s getting less time and attention from his parents, so he starts to say she’s boring and he hates her and the usual stuff. The family lives in a curiously-shaped house that has a small enclosed yard, and when Kun goes there in the middle of one of his tantrums or otherwise storms off, he has these … experiences, never specifically identified as dreams or even explained as real or imagined, but where the family dog is a tall young man with shaggy hair, or Mirai appears as a teenager and asks Kun for help with something. (The name Mirai means “future,” so there’s some wordplay involved here that doesn’t quite translate; the Japanese title is Mirai no Mirai, meaning “Mirai from the future.”)
Mirai is whimsical the way most Miyazaki and similar Japanese animated films are, with some genuinely funny sequences like when Kun, teenaged Mirai, and the human version of the dog are trying to creep into the house to put something away and then must creep up on Kun’s father to retrieve a little bamboo piece stuck to his pants. It’s entirely a visual gag, one of several strong ones that dot the film. And the handful of landscape shots are stunning, whether out in a field or forest or, at one point, on a rainy city street, as well as shots of trains and within Kun & Mirai’s family “tree” that evoked a sense of motion like you’re speeding through a tunnel or on a roller coaster. If we don’t quite have a cat bus or parents turning into hogs, we do still get the blending of reality and fantasy that characterize the genre and allow Hosoda to tell us Kun’s story from the child’s perspective without it becoming a tired mess.
The story drifts along through Kun’s various fits over trivial stuff either directly around Mirai or around how his parents are different now that he has a sibling, until he has the worst tantrum of all because he wants to wear his yellow pants (they’re in the dryer) on a family trip. This leads to Kun running away, or at least imagining it, the longest of these dream sequences and by far the darkest – probably not appropriate for young kids, even though everything before that would be fine for little ones. This is also what separates Mirai from so many other cute but ultimately forgettable animated films; Hosoda doesn’t pull up short, showing viewers a graphic depiction of what it’s like to be a child who’s lost and terrified, calling back an image we saw at the start of the film in one of Kun’s board books.
Writing as a parent who still remembers how difficult the first few months were after my daughter was born, when her mom was still recovering from a difficult delivery and neither of us was getting enough quality sleep, I thought the whole air of this story felt very authentic. I have memories of sitting at the kitchen table, trying to write or even think through my fatigue, while also trying to do my part around the house (cooking and some cleaning) and feeling like doing little more than going back to sleep. I can’t imagine how much harder it is when you have an infant and another little one around.
The English dub has voice-overs from John Cho and Rebecca Hall as Kun’s parents and Daniel Dae Kim in a smaller role as Kun’s great-grandfather – a war hero who built motorcycles, just generally an all-around badass – who appears in one of Kun’s escapades, all of whom are excellent if perhaps a little too easy to recognize (especially Cho, who is so damn good in everything he does). GKids is doing a limited theatrical release, showing the movie exactly once in my local multiplex over the weekend, so if you get the chance to see it near you on the big screen, it’s worth seeking out.