Hayao Miyazaki Says His Next Film, HOW DO YOU LIVE?, is "Fantasy on a Grand Scale"

Hayao Miyazaki is still hard at work on his next Studio Ghibli animated film How Do You Live? and in a recent interview with New York Times T Magazine, he offered a little bit more insight on the movie.

The film is an adaptation of Yoshino Genzaburo’s story from 1937 and the story centers on a 15-year-old boy named Honda Junichi, who is “small for his age and fond of mischief, whose father has recently died." He moves in with his uncle after the death of his father and “undergoes a spiritual change.”

The boy lives “a quiet life and comes to learn more about adolescence as he exchanges letters with his uncle. The pair grow and learn from one another as Honda grows bored of his pristine life. However, the uncle’s wise words manage to challenge Honda into doing more with his life than what has come to be expected.”

When talking about the film, Miyazaki said, "I am making this movie because I do not have the answer." It’s also explained that the movie is a gift for Miyazaki's grandson. Studio Ghibli co-founder and producer Toshio Suzuki said, "It's his way of saying 'Grandpa is moving on to the next world, but he's leaving behind this film.'"

Miyazaki is known for the powerful and thought-provoking stories he tells in the films he makes, and this one seems like its going to bring all the emotions!

Studio Ghibli has been developing this film since 2017 and there’s no word on when it will actually be released. Producer Toshio Suzuki previously talked about the project, saying, "The film that Hayao Miyazaki's working on at the moment is a big, fantastical story.” He also shared at the time that Miyazaki was completing 1-minute of animation per month.

"We are still hand-drawing everything, but it takes us more time to complete a film because we're drawing more frames. So, there are more drawings to draw than before. Back when we were making [1988's] My Neighbor Totoro, we only had eight animators. Totoro we made in eight months. [For] the current film that Hayao Miyazaki is working on, we have 60 animators, but we are only able to come up with one minute of animation in a month.”

There’s no doubt that this is going to be a beautiful movie and I can’t wait to see it!