Master Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary animator and founder of Studio Ghibli, recently granted an interview to The New York Times, where he rarelly shared his decision to once again take up the pen to create animation.
In fact, as early as 2013, Master Hayao Miyazaki had already announced his retirement to all the staff of Studio Ghibli after confirming the release of “The Wind Rises”. However, he eventually returned to the studio in 2018 and participated in the production of feature-length animations such as “Boro the Caterpillar” and the first Studio Ghibli 3D animation “Earwig and the Witch” led by his son. Furthermore, Master Hayao Miyazaki later decided to return to his former position and create the “final” work titled “How Do You Live?”.
After declaring his retirement, Master Hayao Miyazaki has made a comeback several times, sparking curiosity among many supporters and domestic movie fans about the main reason for his return. There has been continuous discussion online, and in a recent interview with The New York Times, he finally opened up and shared the reason and motivation behind it. The real reason is simply: “Because I want to (come back).”
Such straightforwardness, as it turns out, had already been evident as early as 2015. Studio Ghibli co-founder and producer Toshio Suzuki shared that after more than a year of retirement, master Hayao Miyazaki suddenly contacted him again, this time with the idea of making another film. Suzuki said, “At that time, I thought, ‘Let me take a break.'” He added that he had tried to persuade Miyazaki not to come back, as he believed Miyazaki’s best work had already been done.
However, Toshio Suzuki eventually compromised, acknowledging, “The entirety of Studio Ghibli is dedicated to creating Hayao Miyazaki’s films.”
Unable to resist the urge to create, apart from reflecting on it from the mouths of colleagues within Studio Ghibli, son Goro Miyazaki also shared some little-known anecdotes. Goro Miyazaki revealed that since deciding to retire in 2013 and officially leaving Studio Ghibli, his father Hayao Miyazaki has been plagued by a sense of unease. Used to constantly creating, he found life after retirement to be aimless, so shortly after retiring, he felt the need to create something new in order to live. Goro Miyazaki said, “He (Hayao Miyazaki) started making a short film for the (Ghibli) museum, and then he continued to work on his new feature film.” Among them, based on the novel “How Do You Live?” by Yoshino Genzaburo in 1937, one of Hayao Miyazaki’s favorite childhood books, will soon be released as a film.
However, due to the inability to disclose too many details about the new work, Goro Miyazaki could only briefly describe the background story of “How Do You Live?”. However, it is worth noting that even though the film, as mentioned by Master Hayao Miyazaki in an interview, is not meant to directly respond to the questions posed by the title “How To Live”, Toshio Suzuki described the story and film production as “grand fantasy”. Perhaps, the film may have more or less derived some of Hayao Miyazaki’s views and feelings on life after his retirement and return.
資料及圖片來源：Web Photo
