Hayao Miyazaki's super-mysterious final film is coming to the U.S.
Miyazaki's last film, The Boy And The Heron, opened in Japan today with a deliberate lack of marketing or hubbub
It’s been ten years since Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazki released a new film, 2013's animated historical drama The Wind Rises. (Which, in turn, arrived fully five years after his previous feature, Ponyo.) Since then, Miyazaki has technically been retired, having devoted most of his attention to the Studio Ghibli Museum, including creating an exclusive short, Boro The Caterpillar, which can only be viewed in-person at the Japanese locale.
For a few years now, though, Miyazaki has been working on something, a film carrying the title Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka—which, although it shares a title with a 1937 Japanese novel, is apparently an original story. We say “apparently” because Studio Ghibli took an unorthodox approach to marketing the movie, which came out today in Japan. Which is to say that they didn’t market it at all: No trailers, no interviews, no press releases or plot synopses. Just one poster, and the movie in theaters today. (Take it as read that a plot synopsis has already cropped online, though; the internet is the internet.)
The bigger news for Miyazaki’s Stateside fans came earlier this afternoon, though, when it was reported that the film will officially be coming to the United States courtesy of distributor GKIDS—and with a new title, The Boy And the Heron. Per THR, GKIDS is apparently sticking with Studio Ghibli’s plan and refusing to do any extensive marketing for the film; that includes not saying, at least just yet, when the movie might reach theaters or home video. Written and directed by Miyazaki—in what he’s said will really, truly, be his final film—the film was produced by his long-time partner Toshio Suzuki, and features a score from Joe Hisaishi, who’s written the music for all but one of Miyazaki’s films. And while we could go look up what the movie is about, we’d just as soon preserve the mystery, both for us, and ourselves; there’s only so many Miyazaki films to watch, after all.