Listen to the soundtrack while reading
Spirited Away: MyReview: Spirited Away
Princess Mononoke: MyReview: Princess Mononoke (This is posted on my girlfriend's account due to technical difficulties)
MyReview
I was delighted to hear the recent news of Miyazaki's return to Studio Ghibli; he will be working on one final film, which he claims is going to be dedicated to his grandson. In light of this news, I thought I might take it upon myself to do a review of what was supposed to be Miyazaki's last - and one of my personal favourite film's: "The Wind Rises".
The Wind Rises is a special Miyazaki movie in a way; it parallels the reality we inhabit much more closely than his other pictures. Most people know Miyazaki for manufacturing a litany of fanciful narratives, replete with whimsical spaces and entities that defy the constraints of reality. We could never expect for example, to see a "pig fly" as the adynaton goes, but in the film Porco Rosso that phenomenon is exactly what comes to life on our screens. "The Wind Rises" marks a surprising stylistic change in this regard, and although it didn't detract from the quality of the movie, I wonder what urged Miyazaki to deviate in this way for his final film.
Imaginative features are still scattered throughout the picture, but through a realistic medium: dreams. Jiro - the main character - is a visionary. He imagines that he shares his dreams with world-renown airplane engineer, Giovanni Caproni. As a child we see that Jiro is fascinated by planes; they're an artistic muse of his, and the object of his night-time fantasies. Jiro had aspirations to become a pilot so that he could operate these works of art, but to his dismay, he learned that he would be unable to fulfill the responsibilities of the position due to a tragic sight defect. As a result, Jiro gets the resolve to become an airplane engineer during one of his dreams, when Caproni inspires him by espousing the idea that it is better to make art than it is to occupy it. Jiro follows this advice, and becomes an airplane engineer later in life, just like Caproni, his hero. This theme of transforming inspiration from dreams into a lived reality becomes very important to Jiro, and pervades the entire movie.
Dreams proffer a stark contrast to the bleak reality Jiro encounters. The film follows his hapless romance with Naoko, which sadly burgeons during her final days with terminal tuberculosis; as well as his morally ambivalent career working for Mitsubishi, where Jiro creates war planes in an artistic pursuit, but knows that they will be used for violence he disproves of. One of the film's most fervent messages is that art has a high inherent value, and is worth pursuing even in the face of great costs. In one of Jiro's dreams, Caproni expresses that he would prefer to "live in a world with pyramids". The pyramids came at the cost of great human suffering, much like Jiro's war planes, but Caproni implies that in the end, the beauty and wonder they bring to the world makes their creation worth while. Many people - including myself - find this message to be morally repugnant, and in my opinion, it represents the movie's greatest weakness.
The wind was very cleverly used as a metaphor for the brevity of beauty in life throughout the film. At the exposition the wind comes in a scurry, and sweeps away Jiro's hat into Naoko's arms, giving them the opportunity to meet. This event marked the inception of their relationship, which eventually blossomed into a beautiful romance. But like a gust of wind, the beauty in Jiro's life is only ephemeral. At the end of the picture Jiro regrettably informs Caproni that all of his planes were lost to the war's peril, and even more tragically, that his wife Naoko had passed away. Jiro and Caproni look out into an empty field of grass to see Naoko holding the very umbrella that the wind snatched from her - allowing her and Jiro to reunite - all those years ago. The wind then dramatically blows over her, and she proceeds to disappear as Jiro's planes disappeared during the war. Jiro's artistic creations and Naoko constituted the beauty in his life. They were beautiful when they were there, but like a gust of wind, they were short-lived. The way that this message pertaining to life's beauty culminated in the ending of the film was very touching, and had I not been watching it with my girlfriend, "The Wind Rises" may have been the first film to ever make me cry.
I couldn't help but feel like Miyazaki was using this film to comment on the ending of his career. At one point, Caproni tells Jiro that engineers are like artists: they're only creative for 10 years. As a result, he prescribes that Jiro make the most of this window of opportunity by using it to produce as much beauty as he possibly can. Like Jiro or Caproni, Miyazaki's career only lasted a short period of time in the grand scheme of things, but he still brought a copious amount of beauty into the world. Spirited Away remains my favourite movie, and the amount of time I spent watching it with my sister when I was younger constitutes an important part of my childhood. "Porco Rosso", "Princess Mononoke", "My Neighbour Totoro", "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Howl's Moving Castle" are other Miyazaki movies that have made an indelible mark in the world of animation because of the beauty and joy that they have brought into other people's lives. The Wind Rises is a fantastic addition to this list; it's an 8/10.
Most Helpful Opinions