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When Hayao Miyazaki released his last film, The Wind Rises, more than 10 years ago, I was disappointed. But in the way, how its missed me. In 2023 his supposedly last film was released. In English it's called The Boy and the Heron, but in the original it could be translated as: How Do You Live? And that's what the film is about. Once again, we meet the main child protagonist who is confronted with a tragic event and copes with it by making a pilgrimage to a fantastic world. Miyazaki is essentially recapitulating his entire life's work here. There are many of the motifs ... that are so typical of him - talking animals, denial of the laws of physics, blending between worlds, mysterious characters who stand for something but have little influence, and elderly wise women with the appearance of witches. The story is set during World War II, a theme that has haunted the director all his life, as he was born during the war.

And this is where I feel the problem. The film doesn't really have much of a story. It's typically Japanese, where it's not about what happens, but how it happens. A lot of the scenes are fully archetypal and they are also based on Japanese mythology, which is very difficult for people in Europe to perceive. But it will delight its loyal viewers and they will hardly shed tears at the end. With Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, Miyazaki and his entire team at Studio Ghibli are really just saying, "I am Miyazaki Hayao and this is my life's work. Goodbye."