How entertaining? ★★★★☆
Thought provoking? ★★★☆☆ 16 December 2013
This article is a review of THE WIND RISES.
Seen at the Toronto International Film Festival 2013. (For more information, click here.)
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“The wind is rising, we must try to live,” opening line quoted from Paul Valery
Let’s put this out there: Hayao Miyazaki is the greatest animation director of all time. And one is heartbroken on hearing of his retirement. From MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO and PORCO ROSSO, to PRINCESS MONONKE and CASTLE IN THE SKY, he has wowed. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget PONYO. But what a swansong THE WIND RISES turns out to be. Complex and morally ambiguous, not only the most accomplished animated feature of 2013, but one of the most ambitious films of the year. Covering a huge swathe of time and momentous events, the project remains intimate.
While children sleep, a young man drinks on his home’s roof. An unusual aircraft awaits him. Eagle pinions have inspired the plane’s wings. Such a flying machine of course gets a test drive. It is a Miyazaki flick after all. Baddies invade the dream. Visions are here commonplace; used to heighten the tragic gulf between one’s fantasies and grim reality. THE WIND RISES joins stablemate Studio Ghibli’s GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES as a very adult work.
Let’s put this out there: Hayao Miyazaki is the greatest animation director of all time. And one is heartbroken on hearing of his retirement. From MY NEIGHBOUR TOTORO and PORCO ROSSO, to PRINCESS MONONKE and CASTLE IN THE SKY, he has wowed. Oh yeah, and let’s not forget PONYO. But what a swansong THE WIND RISES turns out to be. Complex and morally ambiguous, not only the most accomplished animated feature of 2013, but one of the most ambitious films of the year. Covering a huge swathe of time and momentous events, the project remains intimate.
While children sleep, a young man drinks on his home’s roof. An unusual aircraft awaits him. Eagle pinions have inspired the plane’s wings. Such a flying machine of course gets a test drive. It is a Miyazaki flick after all. Baddies invade the dream. Visions are here commonplace; used to heighten the tragic gulf between one’s fantasies and grim reality. THE WIND RISES joins stablemate Studio Ghibli’s GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES as a very adult work.
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Concerned with the life of Jiro Horikoshi, fighting bullies and reading aviation magazines is the mainstay as a boy in 1918. We are not in the pre-First World War innocence of PORCO ROSSO Dream mingling between Jiro and Italian master plane builder Count Caproni surreally sets our protagonist on his path. Spectacle wearing prevents him from piloting, so the next best job is to build them. As we know, these mechanical wonders have both positive and negative potential. And after university, Jiro works as fighter plane designer. Little other employment opportunities are offered during the Great Depression. Moral dilemma through hindsight - fascinating empathy is required of the audience by writer-director Miyazaki. Back catalogue evidence shows his love of human flight through engineering ingenuity, though living in the aftermath of the atrocities of the Second World War must muddle pure pleasure. Attempting to convey such seems to be the gifted animator’s goal here. Loving a machine that has the ability to cause death does not mean you espouse homicide. Miyazaki must surely be given the benefit of the doubt when it comes to the birth of the fighter plane. Gentle intelligence seeps through lead Jiro Horikoshi. Overt pacifism doesn’t come clearer from aeronautical engineer Caproni, who opines: Aeroplanes are not for war and making money, but for dreams.
Historical bleakness is compounded by Jiro being in the thick of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. Destruction is not skimped on. Most unsettling is the sound effects made up of human groans for tectonic devastation. Mettle is proven in Horikoshi as a he saves a girl and her governess, and books at Tokyo University as fires rage. That girl, Naoko Satomi, will grow up to be the love of his life. Smoothness of romance is not permitted either. Manhood comes under scrutiny - “To work hard in the office, you need a family at home,” boss Honjo ironically councils Jiro.
An idealist and a grafter, is THE WIND RISES closest to the filmmaker? Joyous awe has fallen away from Miyazaki’s palette. Epic intelligent tragedy has taken its place.