3 Sep – Studio Ghibli has announced that "The Wind Rises" will be animated film director Hayao Miyazaki's last film. Studio Ghibli President Kujo Hoshino announced Miyazaki's intentions to retire last Sunday but declined to take questions. "He wants to say good bye to all of you" Kujo Hoshino said. Miyazaki was not present for the international premiere at the Venice Film Festival. His Itallian distributor said he had decided to stay in Japan for the domestic release. One of animations' most admired director, Miyazaki, 72, has won an Oscar for his animated feature film "Spirited Away" in 2003 and a Golden Lion for his lifetime achievement in 2005. Other films he is remembered for include "Princess Monoke", "My Neighbourhood Totoro" and "Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind".
His latest film "The Wind Rises" has attracted some controversy in both Japan and South Korea. The film is a fictional account of Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer who designed the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, a fighter plane used in the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. In Japan, conservatives have criticised Miyazaki's anti-war stance while in South Korea, he is accused or romanticising the inventor of the plane that became one of the symbols of Japan's military might in WWII.