First Look Photos at Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli Film HOW DO YOU LIVE?
The very first photos have surfaced for Hayao Miyazaki’s long-awaited film How Do You Live? also known in the States as The Boy and the Heron. The images come from the booklet for the film that was released recently in Japan. This is the only real marketing that Studio Ghibli has done for the film.
The official synopsis reads: “Through encounters with his friends and uncle, follows a teenage boy’s psychological development. He enters a magical world with a talking grey heron after finding an abandoned tower in his new town.”
The story for the film is described as follows:
The film is set in Japan during World War Two and centres around a young boy named Mahito whose mother is killed in a fire. Shortly thereafter his father, who works in a factory producing fighter planes, marries his late wife's younger sister Natsuko, and moves the family to her large ancestral home in the countryside.
Mahito, who is resentful of Natsuko for taking his mother's place, begins to explore the area around the house and discovers a mysterious tower which he is told not to enter. He also encounters a grey heron that can speak (as seen on the film's poster) who claims Mahito's mother is in fact alive and in the tower waiting to be rescued. Mahito dismisses this claim, but when his new stepmother disappears into the tower he decides to rescue her.
Once he enters, he is transported into an alternate world full of magic where his quest brings him into contact with new friends and enemies alike.
Gkids has picked up the North American rights to the film and it will be released in the U.S. under the title The Boy and the Heron.
