Watching Miyazaki: A Short "Film-Review" Series
- AyAyRon
- Oct 23, 2016
- 3 min read
The Wind Rises
(2014)
“Le vent se lève, il faut tenter de vivre!"
-Paul Valéry
This is it. The final Miyazaki masterpiece. It took me a while to get to this film, simply because it must be cherished. This is the master's goodbye and it must be forever treasured.
This made me cry; not only because this is the final Miyazaki film, but the story is just amazing! The story is by far the most daring Miyazaki work in his entire portfolio for the simple fact that it explores and celebrates a brilliant Japanese engineer who brought about the Zero plane-- the infamous Japanese aircraft model used to attack Pearl Harbor.
Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the infamous Zero plane, is a very interesting character. He is fascinated by the works of a famous Italian aeronautical engineer, Giovanni Battista Caproni--and often visits him in his dreams where they share their ideas and passion for making airplanes. Jiro's dream has always been to design airplanes and pilot them, but his terrible eyesight prevents him from being qualified to fly, but that doesn't stop him from designing them. We follow his life and eventually meet his soul mate, Naoko--who he meets after a devastating earthquake in Tokyo. They eventually reunite many years later, when Jiro spends his time at a resort in Kuruiwaza, Japan where the two fall in love and agree to get married.
Though it is a biography, this film isn't all that accurate, taking fictional elements from a short story of the same name, written by Tatsuo Hori, and incorporating them into the narrative. The historical inaccuracies can be forgiven however, due to the amazing execution of the whole narrative. The visuals in this are amazing! I really hope hand-drawn animation can remain this good.
The relationship between Naoko and Jiro is very tragic and so heartfelt and this was enhanced by Miyazaki's choice of slowing the film down. One thing I realized after a second viewing of it is just how slow the film is. Usually Miyazaki's approach to story telling is organic; he doesn't rush. But here, he is really stretching out time and when real action begins it is exhilarating!
Take for example the earthquake scene. This is when Jiro is headed for Tokyo to attend engineering school. He is on a train and everything is pretty slow. Miyazaki lets the audience become immersed with the characters on the crowded train. Jiro gets up, and lets a woman take his seat and he goes to the rear of the car and sits outside near the steps (these are old carriage trains, by the way, where you can sit where the train tracks meet). Here he meets Naoko and her maid and after the wind blows away Jiro's hat, she catches it and the two share a sentimental moment where she recites a line from Paul Valery's French Poem: "The wind is rising! We must try to live!" Everything is smooth sailing until this happens:
The EARTHQUAKE
HOLY CRAP! Intense! The film is full of big surprises like this. Although, it may feel like the movie drags for a bit too long, it's moments like this that makes the wait all the more worth it. I know that I've always made a point to laud the animators of Studio Ghibli, but I think they will never be able to top the work they did with the Earthquake scene. It is just breathtaking.
I recommend going to watch this with friends and loved ones, because this has a great lesson to be learned. This movie is artful and it knows it; it is a film about war, true love, and beauty as well as the unfortunate distortion and corruption of beauty. As Signor Caproni tells Jiro, "[Remember] this, airplanes are not tools for war. They are not for making money. Airplanes are beautiful dreams. engineers turn dreams to reality."
The Wind Rises Trailer