The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu)
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Running time: 126 minutes
Though perhaps falling short of being a classic, Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, perhaps his swan song, is a return to form for the old master as he weaves a complex tale of childhood dreams, engineering marvels, solemn loves, and killing machines.
A bespectacled boy wakes in his ordinary house and climbs onto the roof, to which is attached something most unordinary – a plane. He climbs in and sails into the clouds as the townsfolk celebrate his flight, before organic, living bombs destroy his aircraft and he falls through the sky and back into himself, waking from the dream.
The opening scenes of Hayao Miyazaki’s latest film, The Wind Rises, reflect the structure of the film. In most ways, it is his most realistic movie for Studio Ghibli, the company he co-founded. A fictionalized account of the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the lead designer of Japanese World War II fighter aircraft, the movie is reminiscent of the more grounded films from his Studio Ghibli contemporaries. But Miyazaki beautifully weaves his noted fantastical elements into the film through dream sequences and other events that transpire in Horikoshi’s head. Especially early in the film, the director did something to me he has never done in his previous films – he appealed to the boy in me, the one who dreamed big and wanted to be the hero.
But though the fantasy portions are a highlight of the film, bringing to mind soaring sequences from Castle in the Sky and Porco Rosso, perhaps even more enthralling is the animation in the more earthy parts of The Wind Rises– shadows on a face, writing on a piece of paper, grass and parasols blowing in the wind, and in what is surprisingly the most breathtaking and heart-pounding scene of the movie, Horikoshi and his love interest, Naoko, passing paper airplanes to one another. Though not the rich visual feast Ponyo was, The Wind Rises is nonetheless stunning in its subtlety.
But it’s also these quieter elements that sometimes drag on for far too long. The movie clocks in at two hours, and half that time has the protagonist wandering – in Germany, in Japan – and not doing a whole lot, at least not in terms of anything dynamic. I guess engineering can only be so interesting when animated. The film does pick up after this soporific middle portion, however, as a lovely romance story unfolds, one which I didn’t expect to see in a Miyazaki film. That was a pleasant surprise.
Less pleasant was the elephant in the room – the fact that the main character, celebrated in the movie, was responsible for designing airplanes which helped Japan in their wartime activities. Miyazaki, a known pacifist, hammers home his themes that we must go on and follow our heart and that the common people of Japan, many of whom didn’t agree with the country’s actions, did their best without being responsible for the war effort. Unfortunately, Miyazaki tries too hard with his dialogue, beautiful as it is, emphasizing points which are more morally difficult to grasp than he tries to make them.
What is Horikoshi’s complicity in the killing of so many in the war? More importantly, what was the average Japanese person’s complicity in the war? The answer to both is “far more” than Miyazaki implies, though he deserves a modicum of respect for bringing up such difficult issues in his home country.
Ultimately, while the movie suffers because of the slow plotting and the moral unease of the tale, it shines to an extent that hasn’t been seen in a Miyazaki film since Spirited Away. As if to say that he has more to animate than Shinto spirits and magical stories, Miyazaki proves that he can tell most any story with graceful and sometimes astounding artistic strokes. If not a masterpiece, The Wind Rises comes close, and if it is his last film, Miyazaki has left us with a marvel to remember.
Rating: A-
I don’t think I will watch this film, no matter how brilliant it is. 3 of my grandma’s siblings died during the war, and so many other relatives,not to mention the fact the Philippines was the second most devastated country during WW2. ( second to Warsaw.) Graveyard of the Fireflies is a more meaningful movie.
It’s a very morally complicated film, to be sure. I have similar connections – my grandfather fought in Japan and certainly there’s a lot of pain involving many of those that share my Korean ancestry.
I have heard many people complain that Japan was shown as being a victim and that this movie contains revisionist history. I have heard that the Japanese did at one time acknowledge their war crimes but switched to covering them up during the late 20th century, which was why a particular scene in Ghost Hunt, where Mai admits that Japan did horrible things in WWII, shocked me.
But, I’m glad to hear that the movie is enjoyable for all that. How can one miss Hayao Miyazaki’s swan song?
Yeah, it kind of swings back and forth in Japan, and it’s been a major source of dissension between that country and both Korea and Japan. Maybe bigger news among otaku this year involving that incident besides the release of this movie was that the mangaka of Attack on Titan tweeted some insensitive remarks involving Japan’s activities during the war.
This movie could be seen as revisionist. I don’t know enough about history to say as much, although I certainly know it’s a fictionalized account of the protagonist’s life. The idea is that though Japan was doing terrible things and so were the Nazis (who get presented in such a light in the film), individual Japanese people were either doing their duty or trying to do something separate from the war effort and were caught up in something they couldn’t do anything about. Miyazaki tried to be honest about his government’s activities, though I think he was too sentimental to present his countrymen in a more accurate light – as bystanders, if not something much worse.