Stanisland Magazine

The director’s new and final film is absent of any significant marketing asking viewers to be curious of its story.

The legendary director known for his ethereally wild and spiritually entrapping animated features revealed his new movie will also be his last.

Not much is known regarding the film except that it is titled How Do You Live? and its synopsis according to iMDB is: “The psychological growth of a teenage boy through interactions with his friends and uncle.”

When will How Do You Live? be released in the UK?

The lack of promotion appears to be deliberate and no trailer has been revealed either.

Speaking to the film’s producer Toshio Suzuki, she was quoted in The Hollywood Reporter: “If you watch all (the trailers),” she said before continuing…”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.”

“…no trailers or TV commercials at all… no newspaper ads either”…”deep down, I think this is what moviegoers latently desire”.

What is the film about?

The film centres around a boy named Mahito, who loses his mother in a fire during World War II. His father later marries his mother’s sister, Natsuko, and moves the family to their ancestral home.

On the property is a tower Mahito is told not to enter, though he subsequently meets a talking heron (featured on the film’s promotional poster) which tells him that his mother is alive inside of it. At first he chooses not to believe him, but later enters, finding himself on a quest full of magic and enchanting beings.

The only promotional material released are the following images: