The Wind Rises

Hayao Miyazaki has never been afraid to infuse his films with mature elements, even when the stories center on children. But in a diverse career spanning many genres, his latest may be his darkest. A work of historical fantasy, The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer who designed the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane, combined with elements of Hori Tatsuo’s novel The Wind Has Risen, a story that centers on a woman in a pre-WWII tuberculosis hospital. The decade-spanning tale covers natural disasters, war, and poverty—not the typical fare for fantastical animated films—giving it a definite Graveyard Of The Fireflies feel. It’s already a hit in Japan, where it debuted to mixed reactions, with some even calling Miyazaki a traitor for the movie’s anti-military themes. The film will have its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, so now there’s a subtitled trailer with a bunch of new footage. There’s not much dialogue, but the visuals are typically sumptuous and arresting.