A man turned into a pig flies better than anyone alive, and that impossible thing is the most honest character study Miyazaki ever made. Every frame moves like watercolor, every aerial dogfight breathes, every moment on solid ground aches with the weight of choosing beauty over bitterness. Joe Hisaishi's score doesn't accompany the film, it carries it, making a story about a pilot's last good day feel like remembering something you lived yourself. The ending refuses to punch. That refusal is the entire point.

A mysterious curse has left Marco Pagot with a pig's face, but the World War I flying ace keeps working the Adriatic skies as Porco Rosso, a bounty hunter who brings down sky pirates. He spends his days on a remote island, leaving mostly to collect bounties or to see Gina, a singer who runs the Hotel Adriano. His heroics anger the pirates enough that they bring in Curtis, a brash young American pilot, to finish him off. After Curtis shoots him down, Porco borrows heavily to rebuild his plane at the Piccolo company, where 17-year-old engineer Fio Piccolo is eager to show what she can do. On the ground, the two pilots compete for Gina's affection, while the decisive fight waits in the air. The film mixes action, comedy, drama and romance.