Hayao Miyazaki, one of the greatest creative geniuses of all time, is known primarily for two things: directing, writing, and animating brilliant films that often use fanciful ideas to explore deeply human emotions and subvert the traditionally limited view that some of us have. He will retire from making films and then not retire because he can never stop working.
It has made his home life difficult and he will be the first to admit that he has never been the best father. After the release of The Wind Rises, which was a heartbreaking anti-war movie, the studio was effectively shut down, though co-founder Toshio Suzuki insisted at the time that it was more of a business decision.
He decided to make a film in the year of 2017, and then in the year of 2020 he said he would direct a film based on a book by a Japanese writer. The Earwig And The Witch was directed by the long-suffering son of the studio's founder, Hayao Miyazaki.
Thanks to an excellent New York Times T Magazine profile, we now have some more information about the film and confirmation that he has come out retirement again to direct it. The movie will be about a boy in Tokyo who is small for his age and fond of messing around, and his father who died recently. The style of most Studio Ghibli movies that are supposedly based on books is off from there.
Suzuki said in T Magazine that there is a character that hecognizes himself in, but that it is not a human. Does that mean it is a pet cat? Or something supernatural? It could be anything since The Wind Rises had a whole thing about a dream ghost giving advice, and it was very similar to a real guy.
We don't know what How Do You Live? will be about, but Miyazaki earned the benefit of the doubt decades ago. He has come out of retirement again to make a new film, which is really good and worth reading, and he is still as much of a genius as ever.
