‘The Boy and the Heron’ Composer Joe Hisaishi on Why the Piano Was Key to Unlocking Film’s Signature Theme

Composer Joe Hisaishi is the mastermind behind every film Hayao Miyazaki has directed at Studio Ghibli. So it was only natural the director would turn to his most trusted collaborator for his latest project, “The Boy and the Heron.”

Except this time, the duo did things differently. “I’m usually shown storyboards and memos, and we often discuss the film as the production is continuing,” Hisaishi says, speaking via a translator. Miyazaki showed him a film that was 95% complete, trusting Hisaishi to his process and leaving little to no notes.

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What struck the composer was the film’s storyline. Mahito, a young 12-year-old boy is struggling to come to terms with his mother’s death. Shortly after, his father re-marries and is told his new stepmother is expecting a baby. When the family moves to a town, Mahito is forced to reckon with his new family and confront the anger and grief he feels. There he also encounters a talking heron who tells him his mother is still alive, but he has to enter an abandoned tower to find her. Hisaishi says, “The first half was about a boy who was lonely and had a kind of darkness. The second was a fantasy world.” He decided to approach the music in a minimalist way with little music — a piano and few instruments in the real world, and slightly more music when Mahito is in the fantasy realm.

Hisaishi was conscious of the themes, but when it came to scoring, he didn’t want to emphasize the sadness or emotion, nor did he want to explain what was being shown on screen through music. “I tried to keep a distance,” he says.

The heron moves between both worlds and eventually is revealed to be the “Heron Man.” Hisaishi explained that when the heron first appeared in Mahito’s window, Miyazaki didn’t think any music was needed for that scene. “He didn’t want to over-emphasize the appearance of the heron. But when I saw it, I thought it was a special scene and that there should be some indication of that with music,” he said. So, he composed some musical notes and played it for the filmmaker. He says, “it was too much and too overblown, but I thought we needed it. I kept subtracting parts from the music, and finally, we ended up with just one note, that became the signature note for the Heron and then the next time I built it up with a few more notes. The next time he heard that sequence, he agreed it was better to have music.”

When it came to the film’s main theme, “Ask Me Why,” the song is heard three times throughout the film. He wrote the tune in one day. Rather than use different orchestrations, in keeping with his simple approach, he kept it small. “I use muted instrumentation and just play the piano.” He adds, “I threw away the concept of using variations of a theme throughout the film.”

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