Yahoo News Hayao Miyazaki's new movie changes its American title — but won't reveal anything else
Ten years after The Wind Rises, master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki has returned from retirement. His latest (and possibly last) film hit Japanese theaters Friday under the title Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka. In English, that translates to How Do You Live?, but the title will be different in North America. GKids, the American distributor of animated films like those of Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, announced that it will be releasing the title to North American audiences as The Boy and the Heron.
The Boy and the Heron is written and directed by Miyazaki, and will be hand-drawn like all his other films — and unlike Earwig and the Witch, the most recent Studio Ghibli release, which was directed by his son Gorō Miyazaki using 3D animation. The new film will also feature an original score from Miyazaki's longtime collaborator Joe Hisaishi. It will be released in North America by GKids later this year.
Other than that, we don't know much.
Jason Merritt/WireImage; Studio Ghibli Hayao Miyazaki and poster for his new film 'Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka (How Do You Live)'
In an unprecedented move from Studio Ghibli, virtually no images, trailers, synopses, advertisements, or other information have been made available to the public about the film ahead of its release. GKids has confirmed that it will be keeping with this policy, and has no plans to release further details or marketing materials at this time.
Only one image from the film has been released, and you can see it above. It looks like a bird (maybe a heron?), or perhaps a human wearing some kind of bird costume. Based on the titles, we could guess that the film might address classic Miyazaki themes like the relationship between humans and nature, and possibly contain a talking animal.
The movie is apparently adapted from Genzaburo Yoshino's 1937 novel How Do You Live?, which is set in pre-World War II Japan and told through diary entries from a 15-year-old boy and his uncle, pondering life's big questions. However, per an announcement from GKids, the film is "an original story" written and directed by Miyazaki. The film's producer Toshio Suzuki told EW in 2020 that it was a "big, fantastical story." He also detailed the strenuous effort that went into making it, which equated to one minute of animation per month from a team of 60 animators. No wonder it's taken several years to complete.
Anyone who wants to know what Miyazaki's new film entails will to have to watch it for themselves when it becomes available.
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