Never Mind Pop Film

The Wind Rises, if you believe director and animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, is to be the last film of his career. If that is the case, he will be leaving us with the most divisive work of his filmography.
Based loosely on the life of Jiro Horikoshi, The Wind Rises follows Jiro from his dreams of flying machines as a small boy to the man who created the Zero fighter. The film begins in a dream of Jiro's, the boy flying a plane in the sky with nary a care. Jiro's pleasant flight is ended quickly as German zeppelins infiltrate his dreams dropping bombs over the idyllic Japanese countryside.

Not so great news comes our way from Venice today, reports are circulating that Hayao Miyazaki will be retiring from feature directing. The news was announced at the Venice Film Festival, where his latest film The Wind Rises is in competition. The statement regarding Miyazaki's retirement came from Studio Ghibli president Hoshino Koji instead of Miyazaki himself.

Seeing a legend of cinema go before he has to is always sad, but keep in mind that Miyazaki has said he would be retiring from directing once before, so this could prove to be premature. Couple that with the announcement specifically wording that he was retiring from directing and creating other works or producing features could still be in the cards.

The Wind Rises hits theatres September 28th.