Studio Ghibli has announced the Japanese release date for the next film from director Hayao Miyazaki. The movie, titled “How do you live?”, will open in theaters in Japan on July 14, 2023.
Along with the release date, the Studio Ghibli Japanese account on Twitter also unveiled a new art in a beautiful pencil style, which paired with the previous teaser poster might suggest that the upcoming movie will look very different from previous Miyazaki movies.
Miyazaki had originally retired after the release of his 2013 historical drama The Wind Rises, but returned to work in 2016 to work on “How Do You Live?”, a film inspired by — but not a direct adaptation of — a 1937 children’s novel by Yoshino Genzaburo.
Miyazaki has long said the book is important to him and his films, and is apparently central to the life of the new film’s protagonist. But whereas the book follows a 15-year-old pondering life’s big questions in prewar Japan, the film has been described as a “big, fantastical story” and is an original work by Miyazaki, who wrote the screenplay.
Miyazaki is working on “How Do You Live?” at a deliberately slow pace; the first 36 minutes of hand-drawn animation took three years to make.
Producer Toshio Suzuki has said that Miyazaki decided to come out of retirement so he could dedicate one last film to his grandson.
