The first visual for Director Hayao Miyazaki’s next movie How Do You Live? (Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka) was revealed on Tuesday. How Do You Live? will release in theaters across Japan on July 14, 2023. Miyazaki came out of retirement in 2016 to work on How Do You Live? And now, seven years later, the film will finally be released.
Miyazaki intended to release the film in 2019 before the Tokyo Olympics but admitted that the film needed more time to complete. Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki even mentioned in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the film’s progression wasn’t halted whatsoever by the Coronavirus.
“We are still hand-drawing everything, but it takes us more time to complete a film because we’re drawing more frames,” said Suzki. “So, there are more drawings to draw than before. Back when we were making [1988’s] My Neighbor Totoro, we only had eight animators. Totoro we made in eight months. [For] the current film that Hayao Miyazaki is working on, we have 60 animators, but we are only able to come up with one minute of animation in a month. That means 12 months a year, you get 12 minutes worth of movie. Actually, we’ve been working on this film for three years, so that means we have 36 minutes completed so far. We’re hoping it will finish in the next three years.”
The film is an adaptation of the original novel from 1937 written by Yoshino Genzaburō. The novel went on to be republished under Mira-sha Publishers following World War II in 1945. Exactly 80 years after How Do You Lvie? was published, the first manga adaptation by Shoichi Haga was released in 2017 with the title How Do You Live? Cartoon Stories.
Hayao Miyazaki Background
For starters, Hayao Miyazaki’s critically acclaimed film “Spirited Away” is the only anime film in human history to ever win an Oscar. Legendary director Steven Spielberg even said the movie was “better than any Disney films.” And for anime fans, Miyazaki is the most coveted anime director in the medium’s history winning more awards than you can count on your hands almost five times over (no, seriously, Miyazaki has won that many awards for his films over the last four decades). How To Live? will be Miyaki’s first film since The Wind Rises was released in 2013, which made the 5th most of any Miyazaki films at the worldwide box office, grossing $136.7 million.
Other films of Miyazaki’s include the following:
- The Castle of Cagliostro (1979)
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
- Castle in the Sky (1986)
- My Neighbor Totoro (1988)
- Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)
- Porco Rosso (1992)
- Princess Mononoke (1997)
- Spirited Away (2001)
- Howl’s Moving Castle (2004)
- Ponyo (2008)
- The Wind Rises (2013)
How Do You Live? is narrated in two voices. The first belongs to Copper, fifteen, who after the death of his father must confront inevitable and enormous change, including his own betrayal of his best friend. In between episodes of Copper’s emerging story, his uncle writes to him in a journal, sharing knowledge and offering advice on life’s big questions as Copper begins to encounter them. Over the course of the story, Copper, like his namesake Copernicus, looks to the stars, and uses his discoveries about the heavens, earth, and human nature to answer the question of how he will live. (Barnes and Noble synopsis)
Source: Official Studio Ghibli Twitter
