Released in Japan on July 14, The Boy & the Heron will arrive in France on November 1, 2023. The announcement just fell a few minutes ago and comes as a relief to all fans of Hayao Miyazaki and the studio’s productions Ghibli. This is all the more important because this is the latest film from the master of 2D animation, now 82 years old and which comes 10 years after The Wind Rises. Known as Kimi-Tachi Wa Do Ikiru Ka, or literally “How do you live?” during its creative process, Le Garçon & Le Héros will tell us the story of Mahito, an 11-year-old boy who has to leave Tokyo to go and live in the countryside in the village where his mother grew up. This one perished in a fire and Mahito settles with his father in an old manor located on a huge estate where he meets a gray heron who gradually becomes his guide. Over the course of his discoveries and questions to understand the world around him and unravel the mysteries of life, the heron will become a friend. The film has been seen in Japan by nearly 5 million viewers since its theatrical release on July 14.
We remember that in 2020, three years after the start of the creation of the film, Hayao Miyazaki was making one minute of film per month. While computer animation has become the norm today, the Japanese filmmaker continues to work with ancient techniques, all drawn by hand. We remember that his great friend Isao Takahata, with whom he founded the Ghibbli studio, took eight years to make his last film, The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2014). The Boy and the Heron will be presented at the opening of the Toronto International Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival. The French premiere will take place during the Lumière Festival on Tuesday 17 October.
