Toshio Suzuki reveals that Hayao Miyazaki has begun work on a new film

This is about The Red Turtle.

It's been about three and a half years since Miyazaki made his retirement announcement. About three and a half years. At the NHK news conference where Miyazaki made the announcement in front of reporters, I was sitting right next to him. It was about a two-hour retirement press conference, and I was sitting next to Miyazaki. I was really happy about that.

He said, "Now I can start to live my own life." But it didn't even take a year for him to say he wanted to come back, to return to active filmmaking. It took less than a year.

Actually, this is connected to The Red Turtle. The Red Turtle was something I was working on, and Miyazaki knew about it. He would watch some of the dailies and various things. He was concerned about it. And one more thing — at Ghibli, he really didn't like it when other people made films. He just couldn't stand it.

I'll keep it brief. I will never forget — on July 1st of last year, he came to me with a proposal. It was for a short animated film. He said he would draw a 20-minute storyboard and wanted me, Suzuki-san, to judge whether it was interesting or not. That's what he came to me with.

Last July, I read it. I was really troubled. I was deeply, deeply troubled. The content — the story was incredibly interesting. It was interesting, but if I said it was interesting here, my own retirement would be over. So I steeled my heart and told him it was interesting. I said it to his face.

Right now he's working hard in Tokyo on it.