Summary
A fantastical character study of Jiro Horikashi, the man who designed the Mitsubishi Zero Fighter Plane.
My Viewing
This film has long been on my list of movies I missed but needed to watch. I love WW2 history but don’t know that much about Japan’s side of the war and I love movies about cultural change, design, and the role that art plays in an artist’s life. If Miyazaki felt this was his final statement, to make a film he had always wanted to make, just before retirement, then I am definitely on-board.
My Thoughts
If there is one criticism I have of Miyazaki’s films, it is that they are too whimsical and border on extreme randomness. It is also hs movies’ charm that they are this way but there is nothing especially real about them. They are almost all fairy tales or legends.
Not “The Wind Rises.” One of its most sublime pleasures is that it is a film unlike any other Miyazaki film I’ve seen. It is a character study but one of a different sort than “Lincoln,” or “Mishima: A Life In Four Chapters.” This one is done with Miyazaki’s trademark flare for the whimsical, this time, however, placing the more extreme fantasy elements as dreams.
Jiro is a boy and then a man, who is driven by a love for flight and airplanes. They are a beautiful creation capable of giving to man an ability which they have dreamed of beyond they ages. He simply cannot do anything else but to study and become an engineer and a brilliant one at that.
Unfortunately for Jiro, Japan is a country struggling for capital, technology, and respect in the world and with World War 2 looming, the only planes being made in Japan are war planes. Despite his distaste for the idea of chaining a beautiful work of art like the airplane to a task as ugly as war, Jiro simply must continue his work.
Throughout his life pursuing his dream of flight, Jiro carries on a romance with a girl he met by chance during an earthquake when he was a young man. Though they lose each other for years at a stretch, their love grows deep and strong, mirroring and supporting Jiro in his near obsession with flying.
The beauty in this film is in its simple and deep love of wonder. Jiro is a driven individual who pursues and understands the minutiae of physics and aerodynamics. His technical drawings and book learning are impressive and astounding. Yet, these things fade into the background when he sees a plane he designed in flight. They fade into awe. They are the brilliant points of light in the night sky that seem to disappear with the arrival of the sun’s brilliance. Beautiful on their own, yet forgotten completely when watching flight take place.
It is easy to see why an aging artist, saying goodbye to a medium of which he was a master, would choose to make this his final film (for a while at least.) It has the sort of life affirmation one looks for when looking at your career or a lifelong pursuit. You hope for some meaning within the gains and losses. You look for some brilliance amongst the dusty hours with books and sweaty hours of sacrifice.
You look for those brilliant moments of flight which soared with a beauty above you as you watch.
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