Overview
There's nothing quite like getting spirited away by a Hayao Miyazaki movie. Studio Ghibli isn't short on enchanting on-screen wonders hailing from a range of filmmakers, but the Japanese animation house's best-known co-founder truly does make films like no one else. Since 2013, however, fans have had a Miyazaki-shaped gap in their lives, ever since the director's last feature The Wind Rises reached screens. In fact, the movie maestro even announced his retirement, but thankfully changed his mind quickly.
Since news that director wasn't farewelling filmmaking came to light, no new Miyazaki-directed features have hit screens as yet — but that's finally changing in 2023. After gifting the world a short trailer for the now-open Studio Ghibli theme park, the filmmaker will release his latest full-length effort midyear in Japan. Fingers crossed that it arrives Down Under around the same time.
That film? How Do You Live, which has been in the works ever since it was announced that Miyazaki was returning from his short-lived retirement. Few details have been unveiled since, but Ghibli has just locked in that July 14 Japanese release date, and dropped a poster.
The new feature film from director Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli has been announced! HOW DO YOU LIVE (tentative title) opens in theaters in Japan on July 14, 2023. https://t.co/fHnLM6epTS
— Studio Ghibli (@GhibliUSA) December 13, 2022
As reported by Variety, How Do You Live is believed to be based on a YA book from 1937 by Genzaburo Yoshino, and to focus on a 15-year-old boy. Ghibli films are always about journeys of some sort, and this one is expected to hone in on its central teen's efforts to understand the meaning of life, and cope with poverty, via advice from his uncle in a journal.
How Do You Live will mark Ghibli's fifth film since Miyazaki's last feature, following Isao Takahata's The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, page-to-screen treat When Marnie Was There, gorgeous French co-production The Red Turtle and the CGI-animated Earwig and the Witch.
おはようございます。 pic.twitter.com/ayRkppbmT1
— スタジオジブリ STUDIO GHIBLI (@JP_GHIBLI) December 12, 2022
The movie gods are clearly shining upon 2023, and every film lover's must-watch list now has a couple of spectacular entries for the new year — with My Neighbour Totoro, Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle icon Miyazaki's new flick set to drop around the same time as Wes Anderson's latest Asteroid City.
Like that film, it's easy to predict that How Do You Live might premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May ahead of its Japanese release — and ideally hit the midyear film festival circuit Down Under (aka the Sydney Film Festival, Melbourne International Film Festival and New Zealand International Film Festival).
There's no trailer for How Do You Live yet, but you can get excited by revisiting the trailer for Miyazaki's The Wind Rises:
How Do You Live will release in Japan on July 14, 2023. The film doesn't yet have a release date Down Under — we'll update you when one is announced.
Top image: How Do You Live poster, Studio Ghibli.