‘How do you live?’ by Hayao Miyazaki It will be the first Ghibli film to get a simultaneous Imax release

Japan’s Studio Ghibli revealed late last week that Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, How do you live?, will be released in Imax when it opens in Japan on Friday. It will be the first of Miyazaki’s films to be released simultaneously on Imax, as well as other premium formats including Dolby Atmos, Dolby Cinema and DTS:X.

Miyazaki’s first film in a decade, How do you live?, is undoubtedly the most anticipated film to hit Japanese theaters in years. The animation grandmaster, now 82, insists it will be his last feature film—a promise he previously made, and then broke, in the run-up to the release of his most recent film, The wind rises.

Despite the worldwide excitement surrounding the upcoming release of a new Miyazaki and Ghibli film, very little is still known about the film itself. Earlier this month, Ghibli lead producer Toshio Suzuki, considered Miyazaki’s right-hand man, said the studio would not release any trailers or promotional material before release, asking fans to instead view the film without preconceptions. .

“Deep down, I think this is what viewers crave,” Suzuki said, contrasting his approach to Hollywood’s multi-trailer marketing methods, which often reveal much of a film’s plot and surprises.

Ghibli previously described the film as “a grand fantasy” loosely based on Japanese author Genzaburo Yoshino’s 1937 novel of the same name, a coming-of-age story about a boy’s emotional and philosophical development after his father’s death. The studio only released an inscrutable poster for the film in December (see it below), but hasn’t revealed anything else about the film since: no plot summary, no voice cast, nothing about the film’s setting or characters.

Thanks to last week’s Imax announcement, when some Japanese moviegoers blindly enter the cinema on Friday, they will be able to experience How do you live? again in the largest possible format. Moviegoers worldwide will have to wait a little longer, however, as the film doesn’t yet have a release date outside of Japan.