The Wind Rises

A boy who dreams of flight grows up to become an aircraft designer in acclaimed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki's Oscar-nominated movie. It's based on the life of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, which gained a fearsome reputation as a dogfighter during the Second World War. Markedly more realistic than Miyazaki's fantastical signature films - My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke and the Oscar-winning Spirited Away - this may not be the best entry point for newcomers to his films. But the director's portrait of pre-war Japan boasts the usual high quality of hand-drawn art that has won him followers around the world. He presents Horikoshi as a dreamer rather than a man on a mission (which doesn't sit too well with the film's later scenes of wartime devastation) while the script's fascination with flush rivets and prototype flanges won't engage the very young. But older viewers and fans will be enchanted by this modest entry in Miyazaki's canon and appreciate the more personal elements of what he has declared to be his final film.