A World With or Without Pyramids - The Wind Rises Review

It goes without saying that Hayao Miyazaki is up there with Walt Disney in terms of his success and influence on animation. Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and My Neighbor Totorro are just three examples of his massive appeal not just in Japan but in the West as well. Miyazaki can be credited with bringing the genre of anime eastward, telling a great story while conveying beautiful imagery and themes all at the same time. These are just some of the many factors that makes his retirement from cinema something especially tragic. That all being said, I had the pleasure of experiencing his final film on Sunday, The Wind Rises. While not the prototypical Miyazaki piece, it stands apart from his other works in an awfully unique and powerful way.

The Wind Rises is definitely not your regular Miyazaki film in the respect that this time he has decided to effectively make an animated biopic detailing the life of Jiro Horikoshi, a famous aeronautical engineer from the World War II era. However, despite not being a typical Miyazaki film, many of the themes present in his other other films make their way here. Unlike Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle we are not enveloped into a world of Miyazaki's design. Rather, through immense animation detail we are taken to a largely romanticized version of pre-World War II Japan, unspoiled and largely innocent. The film starts with Jiro as a young boy, making up his mind to become an aeronautical engineer. Frequently we are taken into the young Jiro's mind and into his dreams as we're frequently visited by famous Italian engineer Caproni. The dream sequences are the best parts of the film as Miyazaki is allowed to indulge us in the zaniness and the freedom that his other movies have. In addition to Jiro's dreams we see him play out his life in a way that almost represents a Japanese version of the movie Forrest Gump. In the same way that Forrest finds his way into almost every significant American event that happens in his lifetime, Jiro seems to be present for several extremely important Japanese events. The Kanto earthquake of 1923, the tuberculosis epidemic, the Great Depression, and World War II are all depicted here, each event shaping Jiro's life and painting a picture of what Japan was before the war left it in ruins. The characters frequently reference that the world outside is burning while this pristine depiction of Japan remains untouched.

Jiro's dream sequences are grand spectacles which brings the film's core premise to the forefront

One theme that is present in many of Miyazaki's films is the struggle of having pacifist ideals in a world that can be cruel. Throughout the film we see how Jiro's idealism clashes with the harsh realities of the world around him. His close friend, Honjo, is representative of a more cynical worldview and their discussions are indicative of their divergent thoughts. Jiro claims that he just wanted to create something beautiful and create beautiful airplanes. However, the world twists his creations into war machines. The film raises this question in a unique and interesting way as during a dream sequence, Caproni asks him "do you prefer a world with pyramids or a world without." Even if mankind may twist one's creation for something evil, the beauty of the creation never dies. Like I said before, the film seems to be a time capsule of Japan before the war and even as the rest of the world is burning, Jiro's remains pristine. Coming out of the theater, I wasn't entirely sure what to think of this movie, but the more I chewed on the themes present in the film the more I began to appreciate it's genius. While The Wind Rises represents a lamentation of how mankind corrupts beautiful things it also celebrates the beauty of what mankind is capable. The more I thought about it, The Wind Rises is less of a biopic and more of a though provoking film meant to make us lament and celebrate the beauty of human creations. This is especially true as the film ends after World War II, making us realize how that war truly changed everything.

While The Wind Rises is a beautifully made film, it struggles with focusing on certain plot lines. For example, the driving force of the film really should be Jiro's struggle to come to terms with the world around him. However, the film struggles mightily when it brings in his love interest Naoko. By the time the film ends it is left unclear as what exactly her importance to the film was. Perhaps their love was indicative of how Jiro could find something pure and idealistic in a cruel world. However, their plotline is rushed and never feels like it reaches much of a conclusion. The film flip-flops from scenes with Naoko and Jiro to Jiro's work on planes and then back again and it feels like two different worlds that we're being dragged in an out of without much time to appreciate either. Perhaps this was Miyazaki's intent, perhaps not, but either way it felt that the film was trying to balance two different plot lines with little effect.

The Wind Rises is a beautiful balance of both idealism and cynicism

It goes without saying that The Wind Rises, being a Miyazaki work, is absolutely stunning visually. Miyazaki is able to capture the unspoiled beauty of prewar Japan while simultaneously contrasting these scenes with a feeling that the rest of the world is burning. The film features scenes of planes soaring through the air at high speeds, rolling green hills, and the lush woods of the Japanese countryside. The romanticization of the period is clearly present and the animation is something to behold. Even if this isn't the typical Miyazaki film, the visuals are still captivating and suck you into the world. From an audio standpoint, the film's musical score is fantastic. Free flowing music conveying the freedom of flight as well as the more blunt sounds of when planes crash or when the tensions run high. In an otherwise calm film score, those more loud and explosive sounds are what stands out. The audio and visuals often combine into a work of art and this film is definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen in that regard. The writing however is somewhat disjointed especially in the English dub. It's very straightforward and some lines clunk like a CRT dropped out of a tall building. Even so, it's still cool to hear the voices of well-known actors like Joseph Gordon-Leavitt, John Krasinski, and Emily Blunt. Even Martin Short shows up to voice Jiro's short and very blunt boss. However, despite the star power, it's hard to say this movie is well written, with the exception of Jiro's dream sequences.

Overall, The Wind Rises is a worthy film to end the illustrious career of Miyazaki and a very fitting one at that. It seems right that Miyazaki end his career with a film raising deep philosophical questions about the world at large and the Japanese identity. Some of those who have seen Miyazaki's past films may be a little disoriented at first by the different tone and setting that he takes in this film. With a change in perspective however, it's clear that Miyazaki has created a masterpiece of a film that will leave you with several ideas to think about as you leave the theater. Even if the plot is sometimes unfocused and the dialogue stilted, we realize that there's something overarching here that's at times greater than the sum of it's parts. At times cynical but always remaining optimistic, The Wind Rises is an animated tour de force.

My Score: 4.5/5