Legendary Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki’s new film, The Boy and The Heron (Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka), is officially released in Japanese theaters on July 14th, 2023. In the two days since its release, The Boy and The Heron has earned around $13.2 million (1.83 billion yen), breaking Studio Ghibli’s opening records, previously held by Howl’s Moving Castle.
The Boy and The Heron manage to achieve such a positive result despite using no marketing whatsoever. The studio doesn’t release any trailers or key visuals for the movie. There's also no digital or printed ads to promote it. The only resemblance of marketing that they put out is a piece of poster featuring a close up illustration of a white heron.
The decision behind this unconventional approach comes from Studio Ghibli’s co-founder and producer, Toshio Suzuki. During a live interview with the Bungeishunjū magazine, he mentioned that this unique approach comes from the fact that movies these days requires an excessive amount of marketing efforts, which can be quite tedious for people who have been in the industry for so long like him and the director, Hayao Miyazaki.
"You get tired of doing the same thing over and over”, he said, “we wanted to try something new this time.” As it turns out, Suzuki is correct. The Boy and The Heron is on the path to become the most successful Ghibli movies ever, with fans showing their love in droves and the critics showering the movie with praises.
The Boy and The Heron is dubbed to be the last feature film from Hayao Miyazaki. The acclaimed director has decided that the time has come for him to retire and enjoy his twilight years. He has actually talked about his intention to retire back in 2013, right after the release of the movie The Wind Rises. But then he stumbled upon a 1937 novel by Genzaburo Yoshino called Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, which inspired Miyazaki to create a new feature film by the same name.
It’s important to note, however, that other than the title, the movie and the novel have little to nothing in common. Unlike the original novel that focus more on family dynamic and a reflection of the complex socio-economic situation at the time, Miyazaki’s The Boy and The Heron tells the fantastical coming-of-age story of a boy named Mahito Maki who stumbles upon an abandoned building and accidentally enter a world of wonders and fantasy, which marks the beginning of his journey of self-discovery, with a talking gray heron by his side.
The movie is only available in Japan at this time. But for fans of Studio Ghibli in the U.S., GKids has acquired the rights to North American distribution of the movie The Boy and The Heron. There is no official release date yet, but the company plans to release the movie before the end of 2023.
Studio Ghibli’s movies are available to stream on HBOMax in the U.S. And on Netflix for the rest of the world.
Source: Crunchyroll News