Hayao Miyazaki questions the marketing strategy of his latest film and fears that it will be a failure…
The Wind Rises was to be his last film, yet Hayao Miyazaki returned to the studios in 2017 for a new project entitled How do you live? (“Kimi-tachi wa dô ikiru ka” in Japanese).
However, Studio Ghibli marketers may have relied too much on public interest. As they announced last month, there will be no trailer or promotional images for the upcoming feature film. All that we will see of the film before its release in Japan, this July 14, will be a simple poster. But Miyazaki has been working on this project for six years: that should be reason enough for the public to flock to see it.
However, as Espinof reports (via Oricon), the director is now not so sure of this strategy. Indeed, during the opening of the Ghibli exhibition in Tokyo, Hayao Miyazaki confided in his doubts.
I wonder if it will go well without advertising. I’m starting to worry… I’m worried, that’s all.
The secret is such that even the Cannes Film Festival, which tried to project it with all its might, did not succeed! There is still no release date for the film in the rest of the world. We will therefore have to wait a little longer to see the feature film for which, in a traditional way, Hayao Miyazaki was doing one minute of animation every month before other animators joined him.
However, even without advertising (or would that be the best ad of all time?), Ghibli and Miyazaki still have weight in the field. There is no doubt that, here again, the studio and its emblematic co-founder will emerge victorious. The answer this July 14.
In the meantime, rediscover his previous creation, The Wind Rises, currently available for streaming on Netflix.