The Wind Rises, if you believe director and animation legend Hayao Miyazaki, is to be the
last film of his career. If that is the case, he will be leaving us with the
most divisive work of his filmography.
Based loosely on the life of
Jiro Horikoshi, The Wind Rises
follows Jiro from his dreams of flying machines as a small boy to the man who
created the Zero fighter. The film begins in a dream of Jiro's, the boy flying
a plane in the sky with nary a care. Jiro's pleasant flight is ended quickly as
German zeppelins infiltrate his dreams dropping bombs over the idyllic Japanese
countryside.
Jiro's talents as an
engineering student will be the only way for him to realize his dreams of
flight. Inspired by Italian aero-designer Giovanni Caproni, Jiro aims to create some of the most
innovative work known to mankind. Miyazaki's film chronicles Jiro's life
starting from his childhood, to the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, through the
Great Depression, and Japan's entrance into World War II.
Designing the Zero Fighter Plane
was the sole devotion of Jiro's life -- he thinks of nothing else and does
nothing else. Even in dreams he thinks only of his next project and simultaneously
converses with Giovanni Caproni. Set about creating his masterpiece many scenes
feature Jiro doing nothing more than humming and fiddling about with his slide
rule. As such he is a blank canvas, any personality present is brought there by
the viewer.
The Wind Rises is a beautiful looking film and the story of Jiro Horikoshi is an
interesting one, but unfortunately Hayao Miyazaki's efforts ultimately fall
short. Gorgeous animation and fanciful sound design aside, when it comes to actualizing
Jiro's story onscreen, The Wind Rises
risks alienating viewers with its depiction of events during the Second World
War.
Jiro and Caproni discuss war
and the cost is has on their dreams and ambitions, but they glide right over
the cost of human life. Caproni chooses to overlook these details and compares
their planes to the pyramids, saying he would rather live in a world with the
Egyptian pyramids than without. Jiro aligns himself with this line of ideology,
but he never questions whether the slaves who died making those pyramids might
wonder if that creation was worth all of their lives.
With Jiro's moral dilemmas
soothed, he doggedly pursues designing the next level machine for Mitsubishi.
Director Miyazaki never mentions that the Zero Fighter itself was built by
Chinese and Korean slave labor, a bit of information which colors that debate
between Jiro and Caproni significantly. This incongruity with history, along
with many others in the film, is hard to ignore and makes 'Wind' even harder to
enjoy.
The depiction of Nazi bombs
being dropped over Japan suggests that Jiro's country was a victim of Nazi
Germany when, in reality, the two countries were allies. Many times The Wind Rises lays the groundwork,
presenting Japan as defending the homeland when the reality is far different. That
may not be Miyazaki's intention, but viewers might come to that conclusion given
that Jiro never mourns the victims, only the planes. Even in an ill-advised bit
of fictional romance, Jiro seems to exist more as a passer-by than a person
concerned with Nahoko's ultimate care.
In trying to keep from
angering his fellow countrymen, Miyazaki may have made Jiro's internal conflict
as subtle as possible, but it feels like it just isn't there. What cements that
feeling is that when Jiro visits his Zeroes in a field of wreckage, he laments
not human life, but that more of his planes didn't return to him.
Hayao Miyazaki has been very
vocal about the negative effects of ignoring the atrocities of WWII, but sadly,
the point of view he means to focus The
Wind Rises on fails to get that point home. Unfortunately the exceptional
beauty of Miyazaki's hand-drawn work of is overshadowed by the circumstances.
Miyazaki may have found a man of similar passion in Jiro Horikoshi, but in
capturing that passion, he opened the door for many more interpretations than
he intended.
The Wind Rises is a complex film and one sure to arouse many different feelings. I may
not have liked it, but I highly recommend that you give it a shot and decide
for yourself.