Hayao! Let’s go! After 10 long years away from our screens, legendary filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki is making a comeback with a brand new movie. And whilst The Boy & The Heron – formerly known as How Do You Live? – was infamously released with no marketing and no trailer in Miyazaki’s native Japan, over here the promo hype train has been slowly building for a while now. With that being said, here is the brand spanking new trailer that just dropped for Ghibli’s latest fantasy epic.
Opening with dramatic shots of The Boy & The Heron’s young hero Mahito running through a Tokyo ablaze with fire, calling for his mother, this minute-long teaser swiftly then sees him relocated to an old country house (big My Neighbour Totoro vibes) before stumbling upon what looks like a woodland tunnel to another world (big Totoro-meets-Spirited Away vibes). There, we glimpse strange encounters with schools of fish and frogs, get our first proper look at the warawara, a woman who melts into a puddle when Mahito touches her (as you do), and see a great flaming sprite-lady (big Totoro-meets-Spirited Away-meets-Howl’s Moving Castle vibes), as enigmatic titles announce “Where death comes to an end, life finds a new beginning.” It’s all very mysterious! A new UK poster for the film has also been release, see below.
Described in its official synopsis as “a semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship,” the plot for Miyazaki’s latest film has been largely kept under wraps thus far. Taking its original title from a Genzaburō Yoshino novel the filmmaker was given by his mother as a child, however, we can presume that this story – which sees Mahito dealing with the loss of his own mother, and embarking on a fantastical journey into a world where the living and dead co-exist with a Pazuzu-sounding Grey Heron – will be as emotionally poignant as it is utterly weird.
With The Boy And The Heron’s stacked English-language voice cast only just recently announced, and the film’s release date inching ever closer, we don’t have long left before we get to enter Miyazaki’s kingdom of dreams and madness once again and find out its secrets for ourselves. “About time you came.” Indeed Mr. Grey Heron, it is!
The Boy And The Heron is in UK cinemas from 26 December.