Hayao Miyazaki’s new film, “How Do You Live?”, is to be released this week

Hayao Miyazaki is often regarded as one of the greatest filmmakers of the modern age of cinema. Focused entirely on traditional hand-drawn animation, he’s the mind behind Most of Studio Ghibli’s classics. From Spirited Away to My Neighbor Totoro, to Lupin the III’s Castle of Cagliostro and his latest film, 2013′s The Wind Rises. After that last one, he was supposed to retire. But he didn’t.

Ever since 2016, Miyazaki has been working (seemingly tirelessly) on one final movie. Titled “How Do You Live?”, the movie has been almost a complete mystery. It started production in 2016, and we heard nothing about the project until 2020 when producer Toshio Suzuki revealed that only 36 minutes of the film had been completed at that point.

For years, no news has been released about the film. Then, on May 30 of this very year the studio revealed an official poster (seen below), confirming that no other images would be shared before release. And now they have announced that the film will be released this Friday, July 14, 2023, on Japanese theaters, with no additional marketing whatsoever. It will also be the studio’s first simultaneous release on IMAX screens.

What do you mean, How Do You Live?

The only thing that we know about How Do You Live? Is that it’s been described as a “grand fantasy” loosely inspired by a novel of the same name written by Genzaburo Yoshino in 1937. That story tells the tale of a young boy coming to terms with his father’s passing, and making his way through life now under the care of his uncle, struggling through the hardships of reality such as poverty and violence, and many other aspects of human nature.

The most striking thing about the entire project is the fact that Miyazaki himself is responsible for the lack of promotion. According to lead producer Toshio Suzuki, the studio is following the orders of Miyazaki himself when they choose to release no trailers or images of the movie. In this way they are “asking fans to instead see the film with no preconceptions.”

Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live? Still has no release window for the rest of the world, so we’ll have to wait until they officially announce one.

Source | Polygon