We live in a world everyone wants the latest news on their favourite entertainment. Whether that’s a dozen trailers for a summer blockbuster or insider information teasing narrative details. What this all ends up doing is spoiling most of the content, with no surprises left. Japanese animation house Studio Ghibli is very well aware of all this, bucking the trend accordingly. This means you won’t see any promotional materials for Studio Ghibli’s upcoming film How Do You Live?
How Do You Live? is the final film from legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, the co-founder of Studio Ghibli. Reportedly in production since 2016, what is known of the film is typically brief. Described by the studio as “a grand fantasy”, it has been inspired by Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name. The only other detail released is the poster below, which hardly gives much away.
How Do You Live?
When it comes to the lack of details, Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki told Japanese magazine Bungei Shunju – translated by The Hollywood Reporter – that: “I decided ‘Let’s go with just this one poster for the marketing.’ So, no trailers or TV commercials at all … No newspaper ads either. Deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire.”
Suzuki explained the reason for this was because of Hollywood and the deluge of marketing that’s released. Using a film arriving this summer – which he didn’t name – as an example, he notes: “They’ve made three trailers for it, and released them one at a time. If you watch all three, you know everything that’s going to happen in that movie. So how do moviegoers feel about that? There must be people, who, after watching all the trailers, don’t want to actually go see the movie. So, I wanted to do the opposite of that.”
How Do You Live? is scheduled for release in Japan on 14th July 2023. An international release date has yet to be set.
In the meantime, why not take a look at these excellent Studio Ghibli movies like Howl’s Moving Castle or Kiki’s Delivery Service?
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