‘Boy and the Heron’ Composer Joe Hisaishi On His Acclaimed Partnership with Director Hayao Miyazaki

Joe Hisaishi is the long-time composer for Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki. Hisaishi’s 40-year collaboration with Miyazaki resulted in some of the most beautiful animation scores ever created, yet the Academy Awards have yet to take notice. Perhaps that changes with Hisaishi’s scoring of Miyazaki’s latest (and possibly last) film The Boy and the Heron. Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Hisaishi details the minimalist score for this work and how it differs from many of the previous work. He also talks about their long-term collaboration. Finally, if Hayao Miyazaki does make a new film, then Hisaishi reveals he would be definitely on board.

Awards Daily: You have worked with Hayao Miyazaki for nearly three decades now. What is it about this creative relationship that endures over time?

Joe Hisaishi: Actually I think it’s about 40 years I have worked with him. Perhaps it’s because we don’t really have any private socializing outside of work. We do not do dinners together or drink together. For both of us work is the most important thing in our lives and we are able to work together on work. I think that’s one reason our collaboration has continued so long.

Awards Daily: Many lovers of Miyazaki’s work point to The Boy and the Heron having direct influence from across his decades of filmmaking. Does your score for the film follow similar inspiration from previous scores?

Joe Hisaishi: So, I think it’s in contrast to using things from the past. In the past the films that I scored were melody centric. But in this one I used a minimal style in classical music, just repeated themes several times over. I think it was a very different approach from previous scores, and Mr. Miyazaki was very pleased and happy with what turned out.

Awards Daily: Speaking of the minimalist sound, the first note I recall hearing is just one piano key with a close up to heron’s eye. Where did that creative decision come from?

Joe Hisaishi: Initially I was thinking of having several instruments be part of the music for that scene. But Mr Miyazaki said he would want maybe no music at all for the scene where the heron comes. But we did have a discussion about it and we kept taking away different instruments from the music and then ended with the piano. I told Mr Miyazaki if you don’t have any music at all then people will be kind of taken aback and shocked at seeing the heron. So he agreed when we finally arrived at that one note from the piano that that would be all right. That was about the only time that we really discussed anything regarding the music. So I am very impressed that you noticed that scene and that music.

Awards Daily: There has been much conversation about if this is Miyazaki’s last film. But now it sounds like he is working on another film. Do you have any sense if you will be involved in that?

Joe Hisaishi: I really don’t know whether he is going to be making another film. But if he makes a new film and he would want me to work on it, then that would please me and that would make me very happy.

Awards Daily: How does your score evolve to reflect Mahito’s journey through the film?

Joe Hisaishi: So I think what we can get from the main character Mahito’s journey is what we see on the screen. I thought there was no need to explain through music what the character is going through. So I really don’t take the method of explaining what’s going on with the character in the music. I think what Mr Miyazaki wanted to portray also is what the character’s going through but not have the music be the explanatory factor.

Awards Daily: I wondered in general what it is about the art of anime that has inspired so much of your music going all the way back to Gyatoruzu in 1974?

Joe Hisaishi: I did a few animation scores when I was very young but since I started working with Mr Miyazaki I haven’t really been doing that many animated projects. It seems like I have because his work is so brilliant that people notice it much more. But when you count the kinds of films that I have scored, live action films are much more numerous than animation films. So basically I don’t do other animation films so I don’t really know that much about animation in terms of other directors’ animation films.

Awards Daily: If this is Miyazaki’s last film, what can you say overall about all the work you have done together?

Joe Hisaishi- With Mr Miyazaki’s films in the past, they’ve been once every four years like the Olympics. I have had to rise to the challenge of his films, which are all quite different and do completely new things as well. I think one of the reasons that I am now able to be a composer is that I had such a brilliant person that I worked with and the impact of that collaboration is still felt for me. I would like to express my gratitude from the bottom of my heart for that opportunity that he allowed me to have, and if he makes a new film I would like to continue to grow so that I would be able to rise to the challenge of composing for his new film.