Studio Ghibli’s new movie, The Boy and the Heron, was released last month in Japan, and information on the film is starting to make its way overseas.
Warning: This article contains minor spoilers for the plot of the film.
The Boy and the Heron
Reportedly, the final film from the legendary writer and director Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron, released as How Do You Live (Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka) in Japan, has been a critical and commercial success in its home country.
Released on July 14 following almost no traditional marketing, the film has grossed over 6.2 billion yen (over 42 million USD) so far. No trailer was released in advance of the film, and no cast, plot synopsis, or theme song was announced before the movie hit theaters, with an official poster being the only marketing. First images of the film are beginning to appear on Twitter, one month after the film was initially released.
The film is scored by long-time Studio Ghibli collaborator Joe Hisaishi, with the theme song “Spinning Globe” composed and performed by Kenshi Yonezu.
Hayao Miyazaki is a familiar name to many, both in Japan and overseas, as one of the co-founders of Studio Ghibli and the creative force behind many of its most iconic works. His 2001 film Spirited Away became the first (and so far only) non-English language movie to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Spirited Away held the title of Japan’s highest grossing film in history until being surpassed in 2020 by Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train. Miyazaki is also the director and writer of several other successful films from the studio, including Princess Mononoke, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro. While he had previously announced his retirement from feature-length filmmaking after the release of The Wind Rises in 2013, he returned for this one, which is now widely believed to be his last.
Like many of Miyazaki’s movies, The Boy and the Heron has some autobiographical features and is a coming of age story. The film follows a young boy who relocates from Tokyo to the Japanese countryside following the death of his mother during World War II. As he struggles to deal with his grief, he finds a strange abandoned tower and embarks on an adventure in a fantastical spirit world, along with a talking gray heron. So far the film has received positive reviews in Japan for its hand-drawn animation, mature tone, and complex storytelling, as well as acting as a personal and emotional farewell from the director if it does end up being his final film.
The Boy and the Heron will make its international premiere as the opening film of the 2023 Toronto Film Festival on September 7, making it the first animated film in history to open the festival. American film distributor GKIDS has acquired the North American rights for the film and will release it later in 2023, although no official date has been announced yet.
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