New Trailer for Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises

Amidst all the goodness coming out of Comic-Con in the past few days, there has been a major animation film that has quietly released over the weekend in Japan.  The Wind Rises is the fictionalized story of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed the A6M Zero fighter planes which were used in World War II. Kaze Tachinu or The Wind Rises is the tenth feature by acclaimed animator and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.  His last directorial feature was 2008’s Ponyo on the Cliff.  This time around, the subject of the latest film is one that has fascinated and inspired the legendary director many times, airplanes.  In a way, you could say his career has come full circle with the film.  Here’s a look at the film’s trailer which features the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and a sweet romance initiated with, what else, paper airplanes.

If you are a fan of Miyazaki san or Studio Ghibli, you will notice his interest with aviation leading to some stunning flights of fancy in films like Kiki’s Delivery Service, Porco Rosso, Castle in the Sky and now The Wind Rises.  In fact, there is some fantastical trip in the clouds in almost all the Studio Ghibli films but Miyazaki’s curiosity stems from early childhood when his uncle owned Miyazaki Airplane which made rudders for the A6M Zero fighter planes and his father was a director at the company. There is no word yet on the film’s international release which I’m sure is eagerly awaited by his countless fans, including me.