A new international trailer for Studio Ghibili's much-awaited film, The Boy and the Heron, helmed by acclaimed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, has been released online. The film, which was released in Japan on July 14, was later premiered at the 48th Toronto International Film Festival as the opening film. The film will have an international theatrical release on December 8.

The film's official synopsis reads, “A young boy named Mahito, longing for his mother, ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death and creation, in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.”

Here's the trailer 

The Boy and the Heron was released in Japan as Kimitachi wa Di Ikiruka, which means How Do You Live? While Miyazaki has written the story, it is backed by Toshio Suzuki. Joe Hisaishi has scored the music. It was speculated that the film is based on Genzaburo Yoshino's 1937 book Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka, which is about a teenage boy going through a spiritual journey as he begins to understand life and its meaning through a journal related to his uncle. However, the makers later confirmed that the filmmaker made the film out of an original story.