This has probably never happened before: Hayao Miyazaki, who actually retired at the age of 80, is now celebrating a comeback to classics like “Princess Mononoke” (see news photo), “My Neighbor Totoro” or “The Castle in the Sky “ to have one last film follow. But the founder of cult animation studio Ghibli settled for “How do you live?“Come up with something special.
Only one hand-drawn teaser poster has been released – there are no trailers, no TV spots. What the film is about has not been revealed. He is rumored to have been influenced by a 1937 coming-of-age novel, one of the filmmaker’s favorite works.
Full cinemas for “How Do You Live?”
“How Do You Live?” premiered in Japan on July 14, 2023 – as Studio Ghibli’s first IMAX film, it will be shown in the country’s top theaters and biggest screens. In Japan, therefore, “Mission: Impossible 7 – Dead Reckoning Part One” will not run until a week later (on July 21) than in the rest of the world. Tom Cruise evades competition from Hayao Miyazaki – and rightly so.
Reports from Japan report partially sold out venues for “How Do You Live?”. Queues would have formed in front of some cinemas. There is already talk of a hit – although the first figures now only promise a good start, but not a record start.
But what is Hayao Miyazaki’s new film about?
That’s the story of “How Do You Live?”
One final warning: if you want to experience the film as Hayao Miyazaki envisioned it, read no further. After all, the director wanted people without any prior knowledge to experience the film. And maybe you can to a German theatrical release at some point (no date yet) survive without getting any information – although we suspect trailers and/or photos will circulate beforehand.
But now really to the story of “How Do You Live?”, which is probably not really an adaptation of the novel of the same name. On the contrary, the celebrated master director also incorporated parts of his own biography, but changed them for the story. There are also numerous motifs known from his earlier works.
Set in Japan during World War II, the story revolves around a young boy whose mother dies in a fire. The father then marries his late wife’s younger sister and moves the family from the city to the countryside. There the boy, who rejects his new mother, encounters a mysterious tower where access is forbidden. But a talking heron claims that his mother is alive and held captive in the tower. But only when his stepmother disappears inside, does the boy dare to enter the tower and ends up in a magical world full of adventures and dangers.