With several high profile films under his belt, including the recent The Boy and the Beast, Mamoru Hosoda is not a director to just hang around and do nothing for awhile. He’s now revealed that his next project will be called Mirai and he’s expecting completion of it through his Studio Chizu in May 2018, presuming a theatrical release near that. The focus on this film is leaning toward siblings, which follows the varied themes that his films have had since The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Amusingly, the title of the film is also the name of his daughter and one can imagine it will color his work in some interesting and more personal ways than some of his prior films might.
Plot concept: Mirai follows a 4-year old boy who is struggling to cope with the arrival of a little sister in the family, until things turn magical. A mysterious garden in the backyard of the boy’s home becomes a gateway allowing the child to travel back in time and encounter his mother as a little girl and his great-grandfather as a young man. These fantasy-filled adventures allow the child to change his perspective and help him become the big brother he was meant to be.
[Source: Variety]
