The Wind Rises (風立ちぬ) — 2013
The Wind Rises is a 2013 Japanese animated historical drama about Jiro Horikoshi, a young engineer who dreams of flight but cannot become a pilot because of his poor eyesight. He is inspired by aviation pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni and later works at Mitsubishi designing aircraft. The story follows his career, his romance with Nahoko, and the moral tensions of creating beautiful planes that are used for war.
Narrative Score
Full Plot & Ending Explained
Intro
Jiro Horikoshi is a frail, nearsighted boy who dreams of becoming a pilot, but in his sleep he meets the aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, who tells him that designing airplanes is better than flying them. Inspired, Jiro decides to become an aeronautical engineer and studies seriously while Japan moves toward the modern age.
Turning Point 1
As a university student, Jiro travels by train and meets a young girl, Nahoko Satomi, who is traveling with her maid, Kinu. When the Great Kantō earthquake strikes, Jiro helps carry the injured Kinu to safety and is briefly separated from Nahoko, leaving a lasting impression on both of them.
Turning Point 2
After graduating, Jiro and his friend Kiro Honjo join Mitsubishi and are assigned to improve military aircraft. Their test plane fails badly, and later they are sent to Germany in 1929 to study aviation technology. There Jiro and Honjo see how advanced German aircraft design has become, but they also learn that political police are restricting access to information, forcing them to return with only partial knowledge.
Turning Point 3
Back in Japan, Jiro becomes chief designer for another fighter project, but that aircraft also fails testing. Discouraged, he takes a recuperative trip to Karuizawa, where he reunites with the now-grown Nahoko. They fall deeply in love, and their relationship begins to give Jiro a personal life separate from his work.
Turning Point 4
Nahoko reveals that she is suffering from tuberculosis and hesitates to marry Jiro until she is well. Jiro accepts her condition and supports her, while his colleague and house guest, the eccentric German visitor known as Castorp, adds tension by mocking Japanese society and warning about the dangers surrounding them. Jiro continues his aircraft work as the political atmosphere darkens and secret police surveillance increases.
Turning Point 5
Jiro is later assigned to lead another major naval fighter design project and works with his team on what will become his most important aircraft. While he is absorbed in technical problems and deadlines, Nahoko’s tuberculosis worsens, and she eventually leaves the retreat where she had been staying to return to him, despite her fragile health. Jiro learns that his personal happiness and professional ambition cannot be cleanly separated.
Ending
Nahoko dies from tuberculosis after their brief life together, and Jiro is left alone with the realization that the beautiful aircraft he devoted his life to will be used in war. In the final vision, he imagines Caproni telling him that his planes were not a failure because they were dreams made real, and Jiro stands amid the wreckage and memory of his lost love and lost era.
Cross-checked against Wikipedia and other public film references. View on Letterboxd ↗ The Narrative Score above is an experimental 5-axis rating, not a critic score.