The Wind Rises

The announcement of this film was a pleasant surprise after Ponyo and From Up on Poppy Hill, which both had simple, childish plots. Few films in Japan have tackled the lives of imperial period heroes; the ghosts of the 1960s urge people to denounce what really happened in that time and memorialize an imaginary anti-war movement, for example in this year's film "Shounen H". For Miyazaki to choose a subject like this showed that he was really going for a huge challenge. Miyazaki is of course anti-war and environmentalist. But Ghibli films are never negative. What sort of positive image of the Zero bomber inventor would Miyazaki produce?

The result is astounding. As everyone has noted, this is not a children's movie. It's complex, so it doesn't have the epic sense of Miyazaki at his best, but history and adulthood are just as complex, and Miyazaki does justice to both. The film indeed stays positive throughout, by showing from start to finish how everyone wishes they themselves would behave, rewarding the viewer with virtue and beauty, but without being condescending about the hardships of real life. In a sense, the film is about the "importance of dreams", but it's also about what it means to be a dreamer in real life, and how our highest fantasies can be turned into beauty if we put our minds to it. The cartoon medium is put to full, extravagant use in dream sequences that merge right into the narrative. Certain elements at the end of the film leave the obvious unsaid in a peculiarly Japanese and fulfilling way. The most classic films of Japan, like the great works of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, say something profound about the meaning of life, and Kaze Tachinu deserves a place among those ranks.

The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biography / character study of Jiro Hirikoshi and his story of becoming an Aviation Engineer. This movie had a great impact on me after seeing it in the theatre and I thought about what I had seen for the one hour drive home afterwards. In terms of pacing and how the movie focuses on the main character I was reminded of David Lean movies in its maturity and emotional grit. There were also times when watching that I thought to myself I have never seen hand drawn animation this good ever and will probably never see animation this good ever again. The character designs are beautiful. The backgrounds and color pallete are beautiful. The animation is breathtaking. But the story is just as beautiful as the artwork. The movie is about one mans journey to make beautiful airplanes but is also equally tragic in later scenes of the movie in the evolving love story and especially the last scene in the movie.

This movie does not explain at any time through dialogue what the character is feeling but instead it shows you and the subtle and at times powerful emotions which are the glue of what holds his story together. Some people may wonder why Miyazaki took creative risks with the real life story of Jiro Hirikoshi. The real life Jiro never married to a woman with Tuberculosis. Did he really fantasize about building airplanes? Was he really followed by a Soviet Spy? I think the way the character fantasizes about airplanes even when not dreaming is an honest depiction of how creative people like Hayao Miyazaki think.

Along with Porco Rosso this is probably Hayao Miyazaki's most personal movie. If you study Hayao Miyazaki's movies and read about his career like I have it becomes obvious that this movie is as much about Jiro Hirikoshi as it is about Hayao Miyazaki.

I recommend anyone who has ever been creative to go see the Wind Rises.

Hayao Miyazaki's Most Beautiful film.

Miyazaki's swan song, most likely. It's an animated biopic of Jiro Horikoshi, a Japanese aircraft engineer who developed the Zero, the plane which would eventually bomb Pearl Harbor and do kamikaze attacks in WWII. The man himself was a pacifist (at least according to this film). Most of the film just deals with the man's love for flight, which obviously makes the story very dear to Miyazaki. In fact, a good portion of the film takes place in Horikoshi's dreams, where he can invent any crazy contraption. First and foremost, the film is gorgeous. Though it mostly deals with the real world, it finds the beauty in it. As good as the film is, it isn't one of Miyazaki's best. It's a little long-winded and slow (definitely don't take your kids to it, even if they're big Ghibli fans). Miyazaki kind of neuters the militaristic history of Japan at that time. You can feel some terrible stuff going on in the background, but, outside of the Germans, whom our hero visits at one point, all the characters whom we meet are perfectly nice people. I would have liked a more detailed picture of history at the time. Also, the romance that is depicted in the film, which is entirely invented, is a tad too maudlin (though it is quite nice up front). And, though I won't hold it against the film itself, the English language dub is awful. This may be due to the film's specific, Japanese setting, but I really felt the voice actors were just dull as Hell. I hate to say it, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role is the worst. The least offensive performances come from Martin Short and Mae Whitman (the latter is a professional voice actress who is great on Avatar: The Last Airbender, though she is best known for her role as Michael Cera's dull girlfriend Ann on Arrested Development). I wish I had just seen the subtitled version instead (it was playing here, but at an inconvenient theater). I might like the film better seeing it subtitled. All those criticisms don't amount to too much, though. It's a wonderful film.

Aviation has always been a key element of the Studio Ghibli films; from the flying broomstick in Kiki's Delivery Service to the airborne armies in Howl's Moving Castle. So for Hayao Miyazaki's reported swan-song to focus on the development of aeroplane design is no surprise. A fictionalised biopic of designer Jiro Horikoshi, The Wind Rises is a stunning achievement, an animated film that uses the medium to tell a compelling, highly emotional story that has appeal for children and adults alike. Horikoshi's designs were used during World War 2, and that detail may make The Wind Rises unpalatable to some. But Miyazaki's films have never focused on battle-lines, but on the personal stories involved, and The Wind Rises gains power from the balancing of the beauty of the designs against the knowledge that the purpose for which the designs will be used leads to death and unhappiness. It's a bitter-sweet paradox, and one that many directors would sweep under the carpet. Instead, Miyazaki puts Horikoshi's dilemma centre-stage, and depicts the designer's angst as he finds himself immersed in industrial and international intrigue while he attempts to keep his own thinking pure. A subplot, invented for the film, relates how Horikoshi's work life is informed by his chaste romance with Naoko, a woman with tuberculosis who won't marry until she recovers. Horikoshi's dreams take flight while his day-to-day reality struggles to leave the ground behind. The Wind Rises stirs up sensational aerial dream sequences, but also captures the bleakness of life on the ground, as Tokyo recovers from a devastating earthquake. Horikoshi and Naoko journey to the Magic Mountain resort in an effort to address her physical malaise, and their interaction with a mysterious German spy, beautifully voiced by Werner Herzog, sketches out the sinister world of warmongering that forms the backdrop to their romance. Studio Ghibli films have always been beautiful to watch, and The Wind Rises excels in every frame. But the overriding message, about the role of a gifted individual to overcome the constraints of society, is just as beautifully wrought; The Wind Rises is required viewing for anyone who wants to have their spirits lifted and soar like the wind for two blissful hours.

This film is totally different from Miyazaki's other films and I personally think, like what he's mentioned, a message to to world about how he looks at the war, war machines , peace, love and living. As I am a Taiwanese, who has once colonized and ruled by Japanese during the second world war, how Japanese coped with the war topic is always sensitive. However, what I saw in this film is truly reflecting that Miyazaki is peace loving and his point of view on war, life and love. He depicted about the beauty of dreams and surviving. You can see that everyone in this film try every hard to live, even though the time is hard and forced to strike a balance between dreams and reality. However, they are self fulfilling. So who is to blame? who ruined their lives and dreams? Those who leads them to the war to blame.

In short, the film perfectly shows how the director's been telling in almost every his masterpiece but in a personally way, to the audience. Just like a final message he would like yo transmit to the world. I felt overwhelmed by the film and sad that he decided to retired. Please go to watch this film and you will do feel the courage to live hard and live well.