Hayao Miyazaki’s How Do You Live? is a gloriously demented goodbye

This first impression of Hayao Miyazaki’s How do you live? comes from the movie’s opening in Japan. There are no plans to release the movie in America.

It’s been 10 years since The Wind Rises, the movie that fans of Japan’s famed Studio Ghibli assumed at the time would be the final project for Hayao Miyazaki, director of classics like My Neighbor TotoroYou can also find out more about the following: Spirited Away. But Miyazaki — who has famously retired multiple times without noticeably stopping work — has returned, at age 82, with another animated feature: How Do You Live? Known internationally as The Boy And the Heron And while its very long development time strained Studio Ghibli’s resources, it’ll make back its budget quickly, just from the same people going back to rewatch it over and over again until they finally get what it’s all about.

It seems that after just one viewing Miyazaki’s only answer is “why”. How do you live? wasn’t marketed at all. Up until the premiere, there were no trailers or advertising campaigns promoting the new Ghibli production… because when taken out of context, any scene or shot from this movie would only confuse audiences. The cutesy, human-sized, man-eating parakeets and a gaggle of rubbery grandmas who seem to have pudding for bones are just some of the things that probably made Ghibli’s marketing department cry.

Let’s take it from the beginning. In World War II-era Japan, a young boy named Mahito moves to the countryside after his mother dies and his father marries his late wife’s sister, Natsuko. A gray heron suddenly starts to harass Mahito. It finally speaks with a voice of a person and tells him his mother’s alive. Mahito, following the bird, enters an alternate world in which he searches to find his birth mother, attempts to save his stepsister, and faces fantasy challenges.

Photo: Catarina/Vandeville/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The film is a Miyazaki, so it has traces of elements that are not typical. Spirited away My Neighbor Totoro, You can also find out more about Kiki’s Delivery Service.When viewers attempt to reconcile the parrots with out-of time characters who break causalities, or the small man dressed in a bird suit, they are confused. Was this deliberate trolling, by a director renowned for his, how shall we put it, “acerbic” personality? Maybe, but there seems to be a statement behind the madness: It’s as if Miyazaki is declaring, “This is my life’s work. I don’t care if you’ve enjoyed it. Goodbye.”

How do you live? It seems like the movie is referencing some previous Ghibli films. Mahito leaves the city for his mother’s sake, just like Satsuki in My Neighbor Totoro The tower that leads Mahito to another world seems to be alive and impossible in its architecture, and with the added scenes of magical fire, it’s more than a little reminiscent of Howl’s Moving Castle. It is important to note that the main echo in this song is Wind Rises the previous “final Miyazaki film,” also set around WWII and dealing with the theme of creation, and how it so often goes hand in hand with destruction. How do you live?Returning to this idea, it seems more that Miyazaki speaks about himself and the creative process he uses.

Mahito may be meant to represent Miyazaki. In a profile about the writer-director, the BBC wrote that Miyazaki also had a strong bond with his mother, and that during WWII, he evacuated to the countryside with his father, who made parts for fighter planes, just like Mahito’s dad.

There’s also the fact that Mahito is deeply angry for most of the movie, in the same ways Miyazaki is. Miyazaki, more than being a curmudgeon, has shown himself to be deeply cynical in numerous interviews. He’s 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 advancement. His film is a great example of this theme. Princess Mononoke, In a literal metaphor, humans kill a forest deity in the name progress. Mahito doesn’t exhibit any hatred for modernity or technology, but he does hold on to the comforting world of the past.

The title How do you live? refers to Genzaburō Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name — Miyazaki’s favorite childhood novel — which Mahito finds and reads in the movie. This book is about a boy who was 15 years old in pre-war Japan, which, when compared with the chaos and turmoil of WWII, seems like a different world. He shows courage and pluck, and he wants to know more. It’s an old-fashioned kind of story from a different time, one that may not have a place in today’s world.

Then there’s the connection between Mahito and the world of Japanese mythology. For example, the numerous references to how Mahito’s stepmom Natsuko looks just like his dead mother seems to be foreshadowing a later tragedy: Her disappearance into the fantasy world. It could be a reference to the myth of Ame-no-Wakahiko and Ajisukitakahikone, which teaches us that it’s bad luck to comment on the similarities between living and dead people. Ame-no-Wakahiko also died in circumstances involving a bow, an arrow, and a bird, which are reflected in Mahito’s weapon of choice in the movie and his heron companion. There’s also a scene where Mahito is led to his pregnant stepmom behind a curtain, and he breaks the rules by peeking around it, which almost leads to disaster. The scene is superficially similar to Princess Toyotama’s and Hoori’s myth.

Just like Yoshino’s novel, these myths represent a bygone era, an idea that seems significant, given how the fantasy world of How do you live? It is crumbling and decaying. It’s tempting to look at these themes as Miyazaki reflecting on his own mortality, and the disappearance of his own era.

The film’s fantasy elements look absolutely beautiful, and they naturally include shots of the classic impossibly delicious-looking Ghibli food. But they come with a kind of wistfulness for days gone by, paired with a full, unsentimental realization that there’s no getting them back. This all makes it feel like a filmmaker taking one final look back at his career, before he bows out. What is your way of living? This has all of the ingredients to be a great swansong. Whether it really is that — whether Miyazaki’s retirement sticks this time — is something we won’t know for a while. His fans will be able to watch the movie again and again, and always find something exciting and new. Final movie or not, it’s still a Hayao Miyazaki joint, and those have nearly endless rewatch value.

How do you live?Now playing in Japan in a regular release on IMAX screens. The U.S. has not yet announced a release date, but GKIDS acquired the film with plans to show it in American cinemas this year. The Boy and the Heron. Polygon will update this story when the movie’s American theatrical plans are revealed.