The Wind Rises: Miyazaki's Swan Song

While being known for his more fanciful films such as My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo, Hayao Miyazaki also has made films more grounded in reality. More recent are films such as From Up on Poppy Hill and his latest and last film, The Wind Rises. At 73 years old, the man has decided that he will make this his final film and it feels oddly fitting. Rises is a fictionalized biography of a Japanese airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi, known for making aircrafts that were used by the Japanese Empire in World War II.

Before getting into the review, there's something of note with the distribution of the film. Trailers said that Rises would be getting a wide release on Feb. 28^th. However, as of this writing, there appears to be only one theater in New Hampshire that has this film. That theater being the Red River Theater and the copy they had was a subtitled version straight from Japan. Just be aware of this when going to see the film in the theater.

Despite the hassle, Rises is definitely worth seeing as it is Miyazaki's grand finale. The story focuses on the life and work of Jiro Horikoshi and his ups and downs working on airplanes, from the issues of not having the right technology for metal planes to his wife was having lung problems. However, the true star of this film is the animation.

It's no secret that Miyazaki has a love for planes and flying. They in one way or another make their way into all of his films. Here planes are front and center and the film displays brilliance of planes that could only fly with the power of animation. This is especially highlighted with a character named Caproni, who is the man who inspires Jiro to design planes. He admits that while planes are used for war, they are still beautiful pieces of art.

We also see planes being used for tests and the power these planes have can be felt. It's a big event when a plane flies with the amount of detail given in the scene. The grass starts blowing softly and the planes make slight adjustments. It's even finely detailed when they crash, as they show which parts break as it splinters and smashes into the ground.

While the animation is definitely the star here, one can't help but feel that the story is a little bit lacking. You wouldn't realize that the film was a biography unless you knew who Jiro Horikoshi was, since there are aspects of the film that seem odd. One noticeable scene is the earthquake in Tokyo when Jiro meets his future wife Naoko. While this scene is based on an actual event, the earthquake seems a little too dramatized. The earth rolls and while it looks amazing, it seems like some more subtly could have worked better. 

There's also the fact that after this scene we don't see Naoko again the last thirty minutes of the movie. If The Wind Rises is a self-professed fictional biography, there honestly should have been more inclusion of this character. There's also the fact that, surprisingly for Miyazaki, the only strongly developed character is Jiro. Most of the other characters don't really seem memorable except for Jiro's boss.  Naoko should have had much more scenes than she had, even if they did nothing but exchanged letters it would have given her more character.

Overall, despite the issues with characterization, this is a fitting way for a legend to retire. The ending especially feels like Miyazaki is leaving in a way when you watch it. With brilliant animation and a pretty good story dealing with the theme of improvement, The Wind Rises is recommended.