2014
Formats
Movie theater (subtitled)
Premise
In Hayao Miyazaki's "last" animation feature, a biography of Japanese engineer Jori Horikoshi, who designed planes for WWII.
Loved
Portrayal of Japan, creative sound effects.
Liked
Romantic relationship, detailed look into the art/science of airplane design.
Disliked
Slow pace, misleading opening act, missed opportunity in last act, lack of Miyazaki-ness.
Thoughts
An interesting, non-Miyazaki-like (allegedly) final entry from the
master. It would help your expectations if you walked in anticipating a rather
dry biography, with fantasy elements dialed back and an unorthodox story
structure.
Probably the best part about the movie was its historical
portrayal of Japan. This was a sprawling epic, spanning multiple countries, but
decades as well. We saw some of the country’s major events from the first half
of the 20th century, like the 1923 earthquake, the Great Depression,
tuberculosis outbreaks, and of course WWII. It was informative in which it
illustrated Japan’s aggressively reluctance to modernize, by insisting on
wooden fighter planes, with prototypes taxied by oxen.
I watched this with a Japanese-American friend, and he said pretty
much everything shown was an accurate depiction, especially the social context.
For example, he pointed out that formal way Jiro’s family talked implied an
upper-class upbringing. The more interesting aspect was the gender roles, especially
in marriage. You could really see how ingrained the seemingly over-dedication
to work mentality was for Japanese citizens, mainly in men. Meanwhile, the
wives were expected to loyally support the husbands without complaint of
attention. This was jarring, not just because of my progressive-American
upbringing, but because I was so used to Miyazaki stories containing strong
female characters.
Part of me was disappointed that Nahoko was kind of a simpleton,
but in historical context, it was kind of touching to see this visual
expression of Jiro’s dichotomy in balancing his dedication to his
dreams/country/work with his love for his wife. Their relationship was
believable and forged some emotionally powerful moments, like the marriage
ceremony, and Jiro’s rare emotional breakdown on the train, rushing to his sick
Nahoko while still feverishly working on his designs. Now, it turns out Jiro’s
private life was completely fictionalized for the movie, but the social
dynamics in Japan (and many Asian cultures) were genuine.
Miyazaki’s story-telling was rather interesting. The fantastical
parts pretty much only resided in the dazzling dream sequences that Jiro had
early in his life/the movie. It gave the biographical narrative a break, and
helped show the stoic protagonist’s ambitions, heroes, and desires. During the middle
section, the dreams gave way to laborious work. We looked over his shoulder
through multiple cycles of prototype, failure, redesign; the story literally
dived into the nuts and bolts of his airplane designs, nature-inspirations and
problem-solving. Oftentimes, films won’t show the “how’s” of creators. Here,
they showed the fascinating marriage of art and science in Jiro’s works.
Another cool twist was the sound effects. Miyazaki blended human
voices throughout the movie, such as rumbling earthquakes and raucous
combustion engines. It wasn’t cheesy at all, instead it gave these things an
organic, soulful quality.
One element that worked against this movie was the baggage tied to
the visionary director. Many aspects of the film felt jarring, such as the lack
of females of strength. I didn’t realize it was just going to play out like a
human biography, and unfortunately, the trippy dream sequences at the beginning
were kind of misleading about the tone of the whole movie. While flight was
always a staple theme in his movies, I probably saw more of other Miyazaki
elements than he intended, such as the kids waiting under a lamppost reminding
me of My Neighbor Totoro, or the
German neighbor reminding me of Yubaba from Spirited
Away. It probably distracted me from taking the story at face value.
Due to the misleading expectations and straight biography arc, the
pace really took a lot of patience out of me. It lacked the usual catalyst,
subplots and build up to a climax to give me a point of reference to where in
the story I was in. There were some subplots that went nowhere, like the business/war spies. Sadly, all this made the movie feel longer than two hours.
But what disappointed me the most was the missed opportunity of
exploring Jiro watching his hard work be turned into instruments of war. He was
an artist and inventor. It would have been fascinating to see his
conflicts/sadness/horrors as his creations ended up hurting so many people,
culminating in kamikaze missions. Maybe it would’ve been too depressing, but it
had the potential to be a haunting, bittersweet final chapter.
The Wind Rises was an unusual tale for Miyazaki’s “curtain call”. It was an amazing tribute to Japan’s pre-WWII past, their social customs, and one of their greatest innovators. The narrative style was intriguing, especially its use of sound. Despite its flaws of slow pace and avoiding ambiguity, it was still very enjoyable and interesting. Until the credits rolled, I had completely forgotten that I was watching a meticulously hand-painted animation labor of love.
The Wind Rises was an unusual tale for Miyazaki’s “curtain call”. It was an amazing tribute to Japan’s pre-WWII past, their social customs, and one of their greatest innovators. The narrative style was intriguing, especially its use of sound. Despite its flaws of slow pace and avoiding ambiguity, it was still very enjoyable and interesting. Until the credits rolled, I had completely forgotten that I was watching a meticulously hand-painted animation labor of love.
