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Watch The Wind Rises Sho Splash
I believe that Hayao Miyazaki is getting too old to animate. He keeps claiming that each animated feature he directs will be his last. Well, I hope he keeps his promise after his most recent film.
I saw the highly anticipated film "The Wind Rises" at the glorious Telluride Film Festival, and it saddens me to say this, but it's his worst film to date.
First and foremost, the artwork is the same - bland big eyes with two circular highlights, no lips and stiff walking cycles that have plagued him for over 30 years. This has become the trademark of animé. And if Miyazaki is such a genius, why doesn't he try some other ideas, freshen up his look? Exper
ment, perhaps.
Watch The Wind Rises Sho Splash
Secondly, the story is minor and melodramatically maudlin. His previous film "Up on Poppy Hill" was equally minor and unexciting.
Thirdly, there are only a few sequences that are visually amazing. In fact, the whole film could have been told in live-action. It's my belief that animation is primarily a visual medium, and to have these straightforward soap opera dramas in animation, it kind of goes against the essence of animation.
The story starts when Jiro Horikoshi, a young boy living in a provincial town, has a dream about climbing up onto his roof and flying away in an airplane. However, a large, monstrous ship emerges from the clouds, and drops bombs on him. His plane is destroyed, and he plummets to the ground. Later, he has another dream where he meets , an Italian plane designer. Caproni is surprised that a Japanese boy has intruded in what he thought was his own dream, but Jiro convinces him that this is a dream they both share. After talking for a bit, Caproni tells Jiro that while he can’t fly a plane with glasses, he can build them, which is much better anyways. Jiro wakes up, and tells him mom he has decided to build planes.
Years later, Jiro travels to Tokyo to study engineering in pursuit of his dreams, and runs into a girl named Naoko, who is traveling with her maid. Their journey is interrupted by the, which derails the train and causes Naoko’s maid to sprain her ankle. In the ensuing panic, Jiro helps Naoko and her maid find their family, but leaves before they get a chance to thank him. After arriving at University, he joins in the fight to save engineering books from the fires that have broken out as a result of the devastation.
After college, Jiro gets a job working for an airplane company, where his inventions help propel the company to success. He visits Germany, where his pure-hearted interest in airplanes wins over the head of a company. Coincidentally, he runs into Naoko again at a summer resort. Romance ensues, and soon after he proposes. Unfortunately, Jiro soon learns Naoko has tuberculosis, and they decide not to marry until she recovers. However, after some months in an, Naoko cannot bear being apart from Jiro. She escapes, joining Jiro in company housing in Tokyo. After they tell their story to Jiro’s boss and the landlady, the two help them perform a traditional wedding ceremony.
Jiro’s sister visits him soon after to tell him that this will end badly, since as a doctor she is well aware of the incurable nature of tuberculosis. Jiro counters with the argument that every day is precious to Naoko and that what he does, he does for her.
Even though Naoko’s health continues to decline, she and Jiro enjoy their life together up to the day when Jiro’s company finally tests his prototype for th which would become infamous for its extensive use in WWII. On that day, after Jiro leaves for work, Naoko informs the company housing manager that she feels strong enough to take a walk, and leaves to spare Jiro the horror of her final dissolution in the coils of the disease. She leaves three letters for her husband, family and friends.
At the test site, Jiro’s prototype performs splendidly, but in the midst of the run he is distracted by a burst of wind, seemingly an intuition that his wife has died.
Afterwards, Jiro emerging from the horror of war, walking through a field of plane wrecks. Caproni tells him his dreams were nonetheless realized. Naoko appears, in dream one last time, encouraging her husband to live on in the trust she has in him. After she fades away, Jiro thanks Caproni for his guidance and they go their separate ways.