The Boy and the Heron

How Do You Live?
Kanji	きみたちはどういきるか
Rōmaji	Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka
Directed by	Hayao Miyazaki
Produced by	Toshio Suzuki
Written by	Hayao Miyazaki
Screenplay by	Hayao Miyazaki
Production	Studio Ghibli

How Do You Live? (きみたちはどういきるか , Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka is an upcoming animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film was intended to be released by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but has been pushed back. No official release date has since been announced.

The film is based on the 1937 novel of the same name written by Genzaburo Yoshino, which centers around a boy who moves in with uncle after his father's death. It will not be a direct adaptation of the original and will instead by an adventure drama with fantasy elements.

Behind the Scenes

In 2013, Studio Ghibli president Koji Hoshino announced during the premiere of "The Wind Rises" that Hayao Miyazaki would retire from the producing feature films. Miyazaki commenced animation work in July 2016, later confirmed by studio executive Toshio Suzuki.

On February 24, 2017, Toshio Suzuki made a statement during "Oscar Week 2017" (an event held a week before the Academy Awards), that Miyazaki is withdrawing from his retirement to produce one more feature-length animated film. When a reporter asked about Hayao Miyazaki's next movie, Suzuki smiled and prefaced, "It didn't take a year to say that (Miyazaki) wanted to return to active duty (after announcing his retirement). I will never forget, July 1st (2016). (Miyazaki) brought a proposal to me. A feature film proposal. He said, "I'll write the e-conte (storyboard) for the first 20 minutes, so Mr. Suzuki, please judge whether this is interesting.” At the end of last year, I read it. I was really worried. I was worried. The content was really interesting..."

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Hayao Miyazaki announcing the title of his new film, "How Do You Live?".

By May 19, 2017, Ghibli's production department was reopened and began rehiring many of its past collaborators.

On October 2017, during a commemorative event at Waseda University for the author Natsume Sōseki, Hayao Miyazaki revealed to the thousand attendees that his the new film will be titled "How Do You Live?". The film is expected to take three to four years to complete. Suzuki revealed that Miyazaki is working with his grandson in mind after he (Hayao Miyazaki) passes on.

In August 2018, Suzuki revealed that Miyazaki still needs "about three or four years" to finish the film.

In December 2019, Suzuki, in an NHK interview with actor Takeru Satoh, said, "The film is 15% finished at the end of October 2019 after 3.5 years of production. There was a schedule for directing 5 minutes per month but that was not followed in favor of 1 minute per month. There were plans to finish in 2019, but that schedule was not followed anymore. At this rate, the film would be completed by 2037 at the earliest."

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Toshio Suzuki announcing Ghibli films will be released on HBO Max, as well as the state of Studio Ghibli during the pandemic.

On May 14, 2020, as the world was affected by the Coronavirus, the film's production stayed largely immune to its effects. Suzuki explains in an interview, "We still draw everything by hand. It takes more time to complete a single film because we have to draw more frames and more pictures. At the time of production of "My Neighbor Totoro" (1988), there were only eight animators, and it took eight months to finish with that number of people. The work of director Miyazaki currently working on is sixty. A human animator is involved, but I can only make 1 minute in a month, which means that I can only make 12 minutes a year. Actually, I have already spent three years making this work, so now however, it means that it is completed only in 36 minutes. I hope to complete it in three years."