What age is The Wind Rises (Le Vent se lève) appropriate for?

Rated PG-13 in the US. 13, alone or with a parent; 10 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is The Wind Rises (Le Vent se lève) not recommended under 13?

What's in it: the official rating, first; the illness of the woman he loves; an earthquake and a coming war; cigarettes throughout. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

The Wind Rises (Le Vent se lève): what age is it for? 13, alone or with a parent

From 13, alone or with a parent.

Movie · 2013 · 2 h 06 · animation, drama, history, romance

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

89101112131415161718

not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralonethe sweet spot

The official US rating is PG-13, and we never go below it. Alone from 13, and not before, even with an adult.

The sweet spot: around 15-17, when you can sit through a slow film about a man who draws, and wonder whether he should build a plane that will kill. Why a sweet spot?

Official US rating: PG-13. In France, zinema would say 10.

Watch the trailerContinue in zinemathen where to watch it, in zinema · more trailers, and where to watch films · Where to stream itWhere to watch

What it's about

A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

Why 13

The official rating, firstRated PG-13 in the US (parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.
rule
The illness of the woman he lovesNahoko has tuberculosis: she coughs blood onto her sheets, leaves for a mountain sanatorium, returns to marry him knowing she will die, and leaves again to die far from him. Nothing of the end is shown, all of it is understood.
An earthquake and a coming warThe great 1923 earthquake tears Tokyo apart and the fire that follows lasts a whole scene, with fleeing crowds; later, the planes Jiro designs are warplanes, and the film says so without showing it. Distorted faces in the hero's dreams.
Cigarettes throughoutJiro and his colleagues smoke constantly, including at the sick woman's bedside; it is 1930s Japan, and the film does not comment.

What the movie brings

A man who pursues an engineer's dream knowing his planes will be used to kill: the film does not decide, and that is what gets people talking.
The love of a lifetime, short and chosen, with illness in the middle.
Prewar Japan, its trains, its fields and its workshops, drawn like a picture book.

Watching it together

Before

Warn that it is a slow film, for adults, and that Jiro's wife is ill; a child who loves drawing or airplanes can get into it, the others get bored.

After

at 13 and up

Jiro knows his planes will serve the war: should he have stopped designing them?

See the facts

Smoking●●● · saidmeasured

A weapon shown or used●●○ · shownmeasured

Abandonment, separation, confinement●●○ · shownmeasured

Disaster, destruction, war●●○ · shownmeasured

Fighting, brawls●●○ · shownmeasured

Jump scares●●○ · shownmeasured

Kissing, romantic gestures●●○ · shownmeasured

Pace●●○ · shownmeasured

Smoking●●○ · shownmeasured

Visible injury, blood●●○ · saidmeasured

A moment that calls for a parent●○○ · suggestedmeasured

A weapon shown or used●○○ · saidmeasured

Alcohol●○○ · saidmeasured

Death of a character●○○ · saidmeasured

Death of a character●○○ · shownmeasured

Density of dialogue●○○ · shownmeasured

Disaster, destruction, war●○○ · suggestedmeasured

Long dark scenes, night, storm●○○ · shownmeasured

Tense music or sound●○○ · shownmeasured

Visible injury, blood●○○ · shownmeasured

For the same age, on zinema

Les Parfait(s) : Arnaques en famille 10, 9 with a parent
Masterplan 17
Blücher 11, 10 with a parent
Le Château dans le ciel 11, 10 with a parent

The latest guides

Le Cinquième Élément 13
Star Wars 11, 10 with a parent
Surveillant ! 10, 9 with a parent
En fanfare 10, 9 with a parent

A zinema reading from September 20, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made