Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live? is a delightfully insane farewell

This first impression of Hayao Miyazaki How do you live? comes from the premiere of the film in Japan. American release plans for the film have not yet been announced.

10 years have passed since then The wind is getting strongerthe film that fans of the famous Japanese Studio Ghibli assumed at the time would be the last project for Hayao Miyazaki, director of classics like My neighbor Totoro And Magically gone. But Miyazaki – who is known to have retired several times without significantly stopping his work – has returned at the age of 82 with another cartoon: How do you live?, Internationally known as The boy and the heron. And while the very long development time has stretched Studio Ghibli’s resources, the budget is quickly recouped as the same people keep looking back and watching it again and again until they finally get what it’s all about.

After just one look, it seems the only question Miyazaki would want to answer for sure is why How do you live? was not marketed at all. Until the premiere There were no followers or ad campaigns promoting the new Ghibli production…because if taken out of context, any scene or shot from that film would only confuse the audience. The cute, human-sized, man-eating parakeets and a bevy of gummy grannies who seem to take custard for bones are just some of the things that probably made Ghibli’s marketing department cry.

Let’s start from the beginning. In World War II Japan, a young boy named Mahito moves to the countryside after his mother dies and his father marries his late wife’s sister, Natsuko. Suddenly, a gray heron starts harassing Mahito, eventually speaking in a human voice and telling him that his mother is alive. Following the bird to a strange tower built by his great-uncle, Mahito enters another world where he searches for his birth mother, tries to save his stepmother, and generally grapples with fantasy challenges while reaching a new maturity finds.

On the surface, this is all self-evident for a Miyazaki film with trace elements of magic way, My neighbor Totoro, or kiki’s delivery service. The confusion begins as viewers try to reconcile this with the parakeets, characters escaping causality, and the heron, who turns out to be a small, gnome-like man wearing a live bird like a suit. Could all of these elements be deliberate trolling from a director known for his, to say the least, scathing personality? Maybe, but behind the madness there seems to be a statement: It’s as if Miyazaki is declaring, “This is my life’s work.” I don’t care if you liked it. Good bye.”

How do you live? seems to refer to a number of previous Ghibli films. Mahito moves away from town for his mother, similar to Satsuki and Mei My neighbor Totoro. The tower that takes Mahito to another world seems alive and impossible in its architecture, and with the added scenes of magical fire, it’s more than a little reminiscent of that Howl’s Moving Castle. But the most important echo is from the wind is getting stronger The previous “last Miyazaki film” also centers around WWII and deals with the theme of creation and how it so often accompanies destruction. How do you live? returns to that idea, but it feels more like Miyazaki is talking about himself and his own creative process.

A few things point to Mahito playing Miyazaki himself. In a profile about the author and director wrote the BBC that Miyazaki also had a strong bond with his mother; and that he evacuated to the countryside during World War II with his father, who, like Mahito’s father, made parts for fighter planes.

What’s more, Mahito is deeply angry for most of the film, as is Miyazaki. Miyazaki is more than a curmudgeon: In numerous interviews, he seems cynical and even deeply nihilistic. He is a lifelong environmentalist who often gives the impression that he does not believe in the long-term survival of our species in the face of technological and industrial advances. This theme is particularly evident in his film Princess Mononoke, where humans (in an ironic metaphor) murder a forest god in the name of progress. Mahito shows no hatred for modernity or technology, but he clings to the comforting world of the past.

The title How do you live? refers to the 1937 novel of the same name by Genzaburō Yoshino – Miyazaki’s favorite childhood novel – which Mahito finds and reads in the film. The book tells the story of a 15-year-old boy in pre-war Japan (essentially a different world compared to the chaos of WWII and post-war) who shows courage and bravery and wants to learn more about the world around him. It’s an old-fashioned story from another time that may not have a place in today’s world.

Then there is the connection between Mahito and the world of Japanese mythology. For example, the numerous references to Mahito’s stepmother Natsuko looking exactly like his dead mother seem to foreshadow a later tragedy: her disappearance into the fantasy world. It could be a clue Myth of Ame-no-Wakahiko and Ajisukitakahikone

, which teaches us that it is bad luck to comment on the similarities between living and dead people. Ame-no-Wakahiko also died under circumstances involving a bow, an arrow, and a bird, reflected in Mahito’s weapon of choice in the film and his heron companion. There’s also a scene where Mahito is led behind a curtain to his pregnant stepmother and he breaks the rules by peering around him, almost leading to disaster. This scene bears some superficial resemblance to the myth of Princess Toyotama and Hoori.

Just like Yoshino’s novel, these myths represent a bygone era, an idea that seems relevant given the fantasy world How do you live? ages, crumbles and decays. It’s tempting to view these themes as Miyazaki contemplating his own mortality and the fading of his own era.

The film’s fantasy elements look absolutely gorgeous and of course includes shots of the classic, incredibly tasty looking Ghibli food. But they come with a kind of nostalgia for days gone by, coupled with a full, unsentimental realization that there is no turning back. It all feels like a director taking one last look at his career before saying goodbye. How do you live? has all the prerequisites for a perfect swan song. Whether that’s really the case – whether Miyazaki’s resignation stands this time – we won’t know for a while. Meanwhile, his fans can watch this film over and over again and always discover something new and exciting in it. Definitive film or not, it’s still a work by Hayao Miyazaki, and they have near-endless re-watching value.

How do you live? is now playing in Japan, in regular release and on IMAX screens. No US release date has been announced, but GKIDS has acquired the film and plans to release it under the title to American theaters later this year The boy and the heron. Polygon will update this story when the film’s US theatrical schedule is announced.