Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki’s upcoming film, tentatively titled How Do You Live? Announced on its official Twitter account that the film is coming to theatres in Japan on July 14, 2023.
Miyazaki is credited with the film in addition to being the director and scriptwriter, and Studio Ghibli will be revealing more information on the film’s staff and cast at a later date. The film is based off of Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel How Do You Live, where a 15-year-old Copper recently lost his father and started questioning the meaning of life and how people live. The story follows Copper and his uncle as they explore these questions, set in Japan just before the events of World War II.
The film had been in production since early 2016 when Miyazaki himself stated that he had been working on the storyboard for the project since July, and even came out of retirement after The Wind Rises to work on the film.
▍About How Do You Live
How Do You Live is a novel about spiritual growth and philosophy, as it follows a young boy named Junichi Honda, or nicknamed Copper after the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus. Copper is a gifted young man who excels at everything and is even popular, but his father passes away when he is young. Left without a father figure, his uncle visits frequently and shares his life experiences which he keeps a record of in his diary.
The story is told with the diary entries mixed into the narrative as the two discuss life, with eventually Copper finding his own meaning and plans for the future.
