Miyazaki, co-founder of the legendary Studio Ghibli, eschewing his typically fictional characters ensconced in a fantasy world, instead brings to life the story of Jiro Horikoshi, visionary designer of one of history’s most beautiful airplanes—the prototype for the Zero WWII fighter. Adapted from Miyazaki’s own serialized manga, which was itself inspired by Tatsuo Hori’s 1937 story of the same name, this epic tale of love, invention, and hope spans decades, sweeping through great historical moments of 20th-century Japan. In what he has said is his last film, the winner of dozens of international awards, Miyazaki dazzles with his usual beautifully rendered flourishes, but this time exploring a grounded, evolved, and sophisticated nostalgia that is a fitting final celebration of art, science, and the impulse to create.
Appears in: 37th Portland International Film Festival
Genres: Animation, Biography, Historical
Other Films by Hayao Miyazaki
Howl’s Moving Castle
Sophie, an average teenage girl working in a hat shop, finds her life thrown into turmoil when she is literally swept off her feet by a handsome but mysterious wizard named Howl. After this chance meeting, the young girl is turned into a 90-year-old woman by the vain and conniving Witch of the Waste. Embarking …
Castle in the Sky
A rare opportunity to see one of Miyazaki’s most stunningly beautiful, exciting, and infrequently screened films. A young girl with a mysterious crystal pendant falls out of the sky into the arms and life of young Pazu. Together they search for a floating island in the sky, site of a long-dead civilization promising enormous wealth …
Spirited Away
Miyazaki’s Academy Award-winning masterpiece was the biggest box office hit of all time in Japan and a film that helped redefine the possibilities of animation for American audiences and a generation of new filmmakers. Wandering through an abandoned carnival site, 10-year-old Chichiro is separated from her parents and stumbles into a dreamlike spirit world where …
Porco Rosso
This unsung Miyazaki treasure nestles a tale of morality and identity inside a soaring airborne adventure—a tribute to early aviation and the reckless flyboys whose home was the open sky. Set in a mid-World War II Italy swept by fascism, the film follows Marco, a world-weary flying ace turned bounty hunter who plies his trade …
Princess Mononoke
A landmark of animation and a film of unsurpassed power and beauty, Miyazaki’s epic story of conflict and balance between humans, God, and nature has been universally acclaimed by critics and broke the box office record on its original release in Japan. While defending his village from a demonic boar-god, the young warrior Ashitaka becomes …