The conversation about Miyazaki’s last film has been around for a while. In fact, fans have gone through his “final film” a few times now. However, this time it has a feel of actually being the last one. TitledHow Do You Live?, it promises to put the perfect end to a legendary career. His work has shaped the anime industry beyond any possible recognition, his unique style and powerful message will have one last time to shake things up and, maybe, bring a few more fans to Ghibli’s illustrious catalog.
Hayao Miyazaki made his last film about a decade ago withThe Wind Rises, a historical dramawhich unveils all of his passion for aviationwhile embracing a strong social critique. Technically his last work came on 2018 with the shortBoro the Caterpillarfor the Ghibli Museum, but he wasn’t effectively retired for a long time. Only 3 years after the original announcement in 2013 he was back at the studio. It was in 2017 when, for the first time, word got out about a final masterpiece for the author that will take some time to work on.
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Release Date
At the end of last year it was finally announced thatHow Do You Live?, Miyazaki’s last work will release on July 14 in Japan. As of now, it’s not known it might come to theaters in the rest of the world, mainly because the studio has taken an unorthodox path for this film’s marketing. Perhaps because the director’s name and legacy is enough, or because they don’t want to give away too much about the film, butStudio Ghibli decided to keep a deliberate absenceof images, trailers or any kind of promotion besides a single poster.
Not long before the release and still nothing is known about the film. However, this complete absence of marketing campaign will only work for the spectators in Japan, as it will all be revealed before the talks abouta world-wide releaseeven start. One of the few things they have been able to confirm is that it will be about 125 minutes long. For the rest, fans will have to wait for the Japanese audience to reveal what it’s all about. Rest assured, a project like this with all its meaning and hard work over almost 7 years won’t disappoint. Over 60 animators have been working on the film without any deadlines to stick to and the creative mind of Miyazaki at the lead.
Plot and Inspiration
When it was first announced,How Do You Live?was presentedas an adaptation or rather an homageto the 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburo Yoshino. It was first referred to as an inspiration, but from multiple interviews with the producers from 2018 until now they have been trying to put some distance between the film and the novel. Ghibli’s work has been described as a big fantastical film, which already breaks with Yoshino’s novel. Furthermore, they stated multiple times that the inspiration goes as far as the title as they decided to build a completely different story.
To put into some context, Yoshino’s novel follows the story of Junuichi Honda (top image), nicknamed Koperu, a 15-year-old student. After his father passed away when he was very young, he started to develop a very close relationship with his uncle on his mother’s side who would visit him and his mother very often. Koperu constantly leans on him for advice and the uncle documents everything in a diary with the intent of eventually giving it to Koperu.
If Miyazaki’s film were to take some elements from the novel it would be certainly be the Koperu character, someone who has to experience the issues of finding his place in the world, and the uncle’s diary as a narrative element. Without wanting to spoil the novel, this dairy is a key aspect of the story offering a groundbreaking narrative style at the time which could certainly add to the film. However, it seems clear the Miyazaki’s version ofHow Do You Live?will have a completely different scenery, overall story and style. As they said with their description of a big fantastical film and they very little you can extract from the poster, it will once again portraya vivid fantasy worldas it’s Ghibli’s signature in what might actually be the end of the cycle for arguably the greatest author in anime history.
