This might be the last anime movie directed by Hayao Miyazaki, after directing this movie he announced his retirement in 2013. This movie became the highest-grossing movie of the year in Japan upon its release and was nominated for the Academy Awards, best-animated feature film. Thankfully in 2017, he had returned from his retirement and announced that he would return to direct a movie, which is slated to be released in 2021, if everything goes fine, then next year we will be treated by Miyazaki’s movie when this disastrous year will come to an end.
As quoted in this movie,
Artists are only creative for ten years
We engineers are no different
The Wind Rises quote.
Perhaps he has lived a lot more days as an artist, but the artistic productivity will eventually decline, it has already declined. Maybe asking for another movie is too much, but he could write few mangas, which could be adapted in future by other directors, most probably by Yonebayashi(his work, probably the only director who can keep Ghibli’s hand-drawn animation alive)
Movie details- Plot and Voice cast
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
It’s PG rated, it’s theme is mature, kids might not enjoy it
Based on the 1937 novel The Wind Has Risen by Tatsuo Hori, a fictional biopic of Jiro Horikoshi
Plot
A Japanese boy shares his dream with the famous Italian aeronautics engineer Giovanni Battista Caproni, to design a great aeroplane. He gets graduated as the aircraft designer and joins Mitsubishi Company. He must overcome his failures and doubts and look for an inspiration to design a magnificent warplane. He is facing a dilemma that, his dream of designing an aircraft is cursed because it will be soon used by the military as warplane to annihilate cities and will wreak havoc in the sky.
The Wind Rises Plot or synopsis
Voice Cast
| English | Japanese | |
| Jiro Horikushi | Joseph Gordon | Hideaki Anno |
| Naoka Satomi | Emily Blunt | Miori Takimoto |
| Kiro Honjo | Hidetoshi Nishijima | John Kransiki |
| Giovanni Battista Caproni | Nomura Mansai | Stanley Tucci |
When the movie started the first thing I could hear, Joe Hishaish’s mesmerizing music, What I could see, was a character with dreamy eyes and strange flying objects straight out of the Howl’s Moving Castle. This alone has made my day.
An anti-war movie set during World War II, as the Caproni proclaims Airplanes are meant to carry passengers not bombs. The philosophy of this movie is deep and more vocal than any other Miyazaki movie. The mockery and satire are more profound than the Porco Rosso’s historical references, both have the same thematic elements. It’s ironic to mention Porco Rosso here, because Porco Rosso’s sequel, a flying shortie is very unlikely to happen, instead, we have this movie, as the closest thing to the sequel. Miyazaki’s love towards flying objects is so visible in his work, and this movie, which has the same subject, Who knows the reason behind his fascination other than Miyazaki himself, but it has helped me to relate his work and aeroplanes, both are the beautiful dreams, and engineers and animators turn a dream into reality.
The movie has a screen time of 2 hours, the screenplay is poetic as it follows Jiro Horikoshi as he gets inspired by the little things like, solemnly devoted to his work and his dream. But he also reacts to the backwardness of Japan, their technological inferiority and inability to use metal, Economic recession and wishes that he could do something. While the movie skips or hastily tells less important parts of his life and then shows him tirelessly working with the equations and looking for inspiration as the movie settle downs into the joyous calmness of Summer days. We cannot get enough(or just enough) of the other characters, except Nahoka Satomi they are humble, hospitable, full of spark. She is the thread that binds this tale of a young inventor to it’s an emotion. Personally, I liked the character of Kiro Honjo, a friend and colleague of Jiro. He has a personality unlike any other support(except Nahoka)characters, he is rational and protesting.
Being a pacifist, his feelings are complex. This movie has received a lot of controversies apart from the insane amount of cigarettes smoked in the movie. In an interview, he told that he decided to make a movie on a warplane engineer because Zeros are one of the few things of that time, a Japanese could be proud of. A beautiful dream but those warplanes were destined to become tools of slaughter and destruction.
Humanity dreams to fly
But the dream is cursed
The wind rises Quote
Animation is beautiful, the result of hours of human labour and craft. There is no denying the fact that this art is dying like all the other traditional dishes which takes a long time to cook, in favour of fast food.
Conclusion
A mature movie, with a poetic screenplay, beautiful animation, and very personal to him. But it’s thematic elements are dividing some viewers will love it, some may find it difficult to digest. Even when it reflects the Miyazaki’s philosophy and has few great concepts but some of its criticism can be justified too. I can accept it as the good work of Miyazaki but it’s difficult to place it as the last work of Great Miyazaki who is known for his mesmerizing tales, universal appeal and his work is loved by the people and kids of all ages.
So, what do you say about the possibility(almost certain) of another Ghibli movie directed by Miyazaki?
If you like my effort then please join me for more updates and reviews by signing up below
"Le vent se lève!… Il faut tenter de vivre! ("The wind rises!… We must try to live!")"
— Paul Valéry, "Le Cimetière Marin"
Bingetheflix 