Mirai (2018 film)

Mirai (未来のミライ) is a 2018 Japanese animated film, written and directed by Mamoru Hosoda and produced by Studio Chizu. Mirai stars the voices of Moka Kamishiraishi, Haru Kuroki, Gen Hoshino, Kumiko Aso, Mitsuo Yoshihara, Yoshiko Miyazaki, Kōji Yakusho and Masaharu Fukuyama.

Mirai premiered on May 16, 2018 at Directors' Fortnight and released in Japan on July 20, 2018. The film was nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 76th Golden Globe Awards, the 24th Critics' Choice Awards, and the 91st Academy Awards, but lost all three to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

Plot

Kun is a 4-year-old boy born to an executive mother and an architect father. The family lives in a stepped house in Kanazawa-ku, Yokohama that Kun's father designed around a tree, where Kun spends his days playing with the family dog, Yukko, and his toy train sets. Kun's sister Mirai, Japanese for "future", is born, and he is happy at first but soon grows jealous when his parents focus all their attention on her. He lashes out at his parents, especially when his father becomes a work at home parent conducting remote work, while his mother returns to the office.

After one such tantrum, Kun stomps off to the house's garden, where he meets a strange man who claims to be the "prince" of the house. As the man whines about how he lost all the attention when Kun was born, Kun realizes that the man is actually Yukko turned human.

Production

Hosoda was partially inspired to write the script for Mirai after seeing his then-three-year-old son's first reactions to having a baby sister in his life.[19] While initially only cautious of the newborn when meeting her for the first time, Hosoda's son threw a tantrum one day, jealous of the attention that his parents were giving his sister.[20] Hosoda's curiosity with how his son reacted, and how he would adapt to being a big brother, prompted him to make the protagonist of Mirai four years old.[21]

By making the protagonist so young, Hosoda wanted to capture what life would be like at such a young age.[22] To do this, he brought his own children to the Studio Chizu office so that animators had plenty of reference material to sketch and animate from.[20][23] Hosoda also wanted to use the fantasy elements of Mirai to propel inner character development, stating, "[...] when the main character meets other people through those elements and changes — it’s not those elements that help him change; it’s really what he feels inside.”[24] Since Mirai was about "how a family can change but always [remained] itself", Hosoda chose to have the film take place in Yokohama, a "city that is constantly changing".

Kun's great-grandfather's story was loosely based on Hosoda's wife's great-grandfather, who also worked on warplanes and became injured in wartime conflict.[25]

To achieve better authenticity, Hosoda worked with professionals outside of the animation industry to design some of the assets used in the film.[26] Kun's family's house, designed on-screen by Kun's father, was actually designed by real-life architect Makoto Tanijiri.[26][27] For the sequence where Kun is alone at the train station, Hosoda consulted with Japanese engineer Hideo Shima, designer of Japan's bullet train, to create a model of the shinkansen that was more frightening.[19] In addition, the paper cutouts of strangers that Kun meets were designed by children's book author and illustrator duo Tupera Tupera, whose books his son loves.[19][28]

alt	A girl in a school uniform falls in the sky, reaching for a younger boy's hand. On their left in Japanese text, the film's title is shown.
director	Mamoru Hosoda‡R1R‡
producer	Yuichiro Saito‡R2R‡ Takuya Itō‡R3R‡ Yūichi Adachi‡R4R‡ Genki Kawamura‡R1R‡
writer	Mamoru Hosoda‡R1R‡
starring	Moka Kamishiraishi Haru Kuroki Gen Hoshino Kumiko Aso Mitsuo Yoshihara Yoshiko Miyazaki Kōji Yakusho Masaharu Fukuyama‡R1R‡
music	Masakatsu Takagi‡R1R‡
editing	Shigeru Nishiyama‡R1R‡
studio	Studio Chizu‡R1R‡
distributor	Toho‡R1R‡
runtime	98 minutes‡R7R‡‡R6R‡
country	Japan‡R8R‡
language	Japanese‡R8R‡
gross	$30.4 million‡R9R‡

Plot

Voice cast

Production

Music

Promotion and release

Reception

Box office

Critical response

Accolades

Other media

Novel

External links

References