Hayao Miyazaki has announced that 'The Wind Rises', out today, will be his final feature film.
'The Wind Rises' tells the story of Jiro, with his dreams of building the perfect plane
At the age of 75, the Japanese master director, actor, storyteller, animator is bowing out with a surprisingly moving tale of an aeronautical engineer who simply wants to build planes, but gets drawn into international politics - in between falling in love with a girl doomed not to spend her life with him.
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Here's the blurb of 'The Wind Rises'...
Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted from a young age and thus unable to become a pilot, he joins the aircraft division of a major Japanese engineering company in 1927. His genius is soon recognised, and he grows to become one of the world's most accomplished airplane designers.
'The Wind Rises' chronicles much of Jiro's life, and depicts key historical events that affected deeply the course of his life, including The Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, The Great depression, the tuberculosis epidemic, and Japan's plunge into war. He meets and falls in love with Nahoko, grows and cherishes his friendship with his colleague Honjo, and innovates tremendously, leading the world of aviation into the future.
Hayao Miyazaki brings together the engineer Jiro Horikoshi and the author Tatsuo Hori, who lived during the time of the story of 'The Wind Rises' to create Jiro, a fictional character at the center of an epic tale of love, perseverance, and the challenges of living and making choices in a turbulent world.
'The Wind Rises' is in UK cinemas from today. Watch the trailer below...