It’s been a long time coming, but Studio Ghibli’s Hayao Miyazaki is finally ready to spirit us away with one last film, ten years after his previous release, The Wind Rises, quite literally blew us away.
Titled Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, or How Do You Live? in English, Miyazaki’s 11th feature film has been in production since 2016, three years after the Japanese legend announced his second retirement in 2013. Luckily for us and anime fans worldwide, retirement doesn’t sit well with Miyazaki, so we’ll have to wait and see if How Do You Live? turns out to be his final project.
What we do know though is that How Do You Live? will be released in its native Japan on July 14, 2023, and it will be the first Studio Ghibli film to come out on IMAX too.
How Do You Live? is based on the 1937 novel of the same name by Yoshino Genzaburō. The original story followed a 15 year old boy named Copper who struggles to figure out life in the wake of his father’s death.
It’s been said that the film, both written and directed by Miyazaki, won’t be a direct adaptation, so expect some big deviations from the source material, just like in Hayao’s earlier film, Howl’s Moving Castle.
This is usually the point where we’d share the trailer for How Do You Live?, except, there isn’t one. In fact, there’s no promotional material at all aside from this rather ambiguous poster that was released by Studio Ghibli across social media.
We don’t even know all the cast and crew involved with this project, but there’s a very good reason for this unprecedented level of secrecy.
Speaking with Japanese magazine Bungei Shunju (via the Hollywood Reporter), producer Toshio Suzuki said How Do You Live? will be released with “no trailers or TV commercials at all… no newspaper ads either” because “deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire”.
“If you watch all [the trailers],” Suzuki continues, “You know everything that’s going to happen in that movie. So how do moviegoers feel about that? There must be people, who, after watching all the trailers, don’t want to actually go see the movie. So, I wanted to do the opposite of that.”
It’s a bold move, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Studio Ghibli.
Previous Miyazaki films such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Ponyo all number among the highest-grossing films ever released in Japan. And if anything, all the intrigue surrounding How Do You Live? will help it perform perhaps even better, or at least on par with these other modern classics.
When will How Do You Live? be available to watch in the UK and US?
Disney handled the release of Miyazaki’s last film, The Wind Rises, in 2013, and GKIDS has a prolific history of exporting anime releases worldwide too, but as it stands, there are no official details on how or when How Do You Live? will come to the West.
That’s hardly surprising given how little we know about the film in general, but don’t despair. Like every other Studio Ghibli film released to date, How Do You Live? will absolutely make it overseas at some point. The question is not if, it’s when.
Looking at previous titles, there tends to be around a year between the Japanese release and subsequent releases in the UK and US. When the film does arrive, expect a star-studded English cast to take on the voice acting duties.
Earlier Studio Ghibli releases included the likes of Kirsten Dunst, Uma Thurman, Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson, Mark Hamill, along with plenty more, so we wouldn’t expect anything less than this level of A-list calibre to join How Do You Live? as well.
News on the English cast won’t arrive for some time, but once How Do You Live? does arrive in Japan, expect plot details to come thick and fast online.
If you want to replicate the secretive experience that Japanese filmgoers will enjoy, your best bet is to fly off Kiki-style and hide out in some random spiritual bathhouse until it’s finally safe to emerge and watch the movie for yourself.
How Do You Live? is set for release in Japan on July 14, 2023, with US and UK releases yet to be confirmed. Nearly all of Studio Ghibli’s movies are available to stream now on Netflix.