CATDOLL: Mamoru Hosoda's new film "Child and the Beast" will be released in July 2015 after a three-year absence

Speaking of Mamoru Hosoda, everyone will think of his popular works such as "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time", "Summer Wars", "Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki", etc. You must also suddenly remember that you haven't seen him since "Wolf Children: Ame and Yuki" in 2012. Where has Mamoru Hosoda been in the past two years? It doesn't matter where he went. What matters is that Mamoru Hosoda is about to bring us another theatrical animation "The Boy and The Beast" directed by him.

The drama is an adventure live-action drama that depicts the growth process of a boy who encounters monsters. The drama is set in the human world "Shibuya" and the monster world "Shepten Street", and tells the story of an unfortunate boy who is alone and determined to become the apprentice of a monster swordsman who is also alone, and gradually grows up beside him. Director Mamoru Hosoda said in an interview: "Training together and growing together, this story is a classic one, but there will also be fresh elements in it."

Son of the Monster is scheduled to be released on July 11, 2015 .

Mamoru Hosoda was born on September 19, 1967 in Kamiichi, Nakashinagawa-gun, Toyama Prefecture. He graduated from Kanazawa University of Art and has been a member of Madhouse since 2005. He is also a member of the Japan Cartoonists Association. Mamoru Hosoda was determined to shoot an animated short film himself when he was a student. When he was in the third grade of junior high school, he prepared a thousand sheets of photocopy paper and drew a one-minute air combat short film. A year later, he participated in the animator selection of Toei Animation with this film and was selected, but he had to decline because of his studies. After graduating from university, he took the trainee examination of Studio Ghibli while working. The examiner asked the candidates to take out two drawings for the test. Mamoru Hosoda handed in 150 drawings, which caused a commotion within Ghibli, but he was not selected. Miyazaki wrote a letter to Hosoda Mamoru, in which he said: "If you enter Ghibli, your talents will be exhausted, so I won't let you pass the test." It is said that Miyazaki only wrote letters to two candidates at that time, one of whom was Hosoda Mamoru.

Hosoda joined Toei Animation in 1991 and became a director. He directed two theatrical versions of Digimon Adventure and one 3D theatrical version. At that time, Hosoda's director fee was 465,000 yen. He also emerged and attracted the attention of people in the industry. At the same time, Hayao Miyazaki once again took a fancy to Hosoda and invited him to direct Howl's Moving Castle. At that time, Studio Ghibli invested most of its manpower in the production of Spirited Away. Therefore, Hosoda was asked to organize his own team to produce Howl's Moving Castle. After completing the script and two-thirds of the storyboard, when it was about to enter the original painting stage, the senior management of Ghibli temporarily asked the team to suspend production and let Hayao Miyazaki and his team take over. There are many different theories about the reasons behind this, but the most convincing one is that Ghibli suddenly decided that Hosoda Mamoru did not have box office appeal halfway through production, and that the film would only be a hit if it was credited as "Hayao Miyazaki". Hosoda fell to the bottom, and not only did his hard work in preparing "Howl's Moving Castle" go to waste, but his reputation in the industry was also completely lost. He couldn't help but sigh: "From now on, I can no longer devote myself to the animation industry."

After leaving Ghibli, Hosoda worked at Toei for a while. After making a name for himself again with One Piece: Baron Matsuri and the Mysterious Island, he chose to leave Toei and join MADHOUSE. He became famous for directing The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, which won unanimous recognition from the industry and the audience.