Marval Movie

The Wind Rises is Hayao Miyazaki's eleventh feature film. Like all his others there is charm, wit, comedy, a cast of luscious characters and animation that will stay with you till the end of your days.

The movie is about Jiro Horikoshi (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a airplane engineer that loves planes and sees beauty in nearly everything, even in finding a bone in his fish. He dreams of meeting his idol, the great Italian airplane engineer Giovanni Battista Caproni (Stanley Tucci). Jiro is a genius and works furiously, constantly with pencil and eyes that look through thick round glasses on his work. The glasses and his furious working habits remind me of Miyazaki himself.

This is the first time that Miyazaki has made a movie that is based on a real figure. Jiro Horokoshi was a real person and Miyazaki was probably drawn to him so much because he could identify with his obsession with planes. It is obvious that Miyazaki loves planes. Before this film was announce I had heard that he would make a sequel to Porco Rosso. It seems like that was only a rumor now but still this could be called a spiritual successor to Rosso because Miyazaki carries his ever loving enthusiasm for planes with him to this project.

This may be Miyazaki's best animated movie. Everyone that knows animation knows that Studio Ghibli is a powerhouse studio capable of creating real, living vibrant worlds and characters. This movie has such detail and character to it, the way the wind makes the clothes come alive to the detail in the way Jiro's glasses warp and light shines through them.

We get to see what dreams look like to Miyazaki in this movie and they are wondrous, incredible places where the mind can make the world disappear and a boy can walk along the wing of a plane in-flight with his idol that he has never met.

For the transferring to English speaking audiences Ghibli has a deal with Disney that they can handle the translation process (with the condition that they don't touch a frame of animation). They do a very respectable job here again. They hire people that have the right talent, not just big stars, yes some of the people here are big stars but there also the right people for the job. Some are experienced voice actors like Mae Whitman and other bizarre choices like Werner Herzog.

Jiro is on his way to University by train and then an earthquake hits. The representation of the earthquake is like when you quickly shake a carpet, or a quilt and the wave gets carried through the rest of it. Also accompanying that is a sound like a monsters roar. He then selflessly helps a girl named Naoko and her maid, who's leg has been broken in the crash, all because the girl saved his hat from flying off.

Joe Hisashi has collaborated with Miyazaki on everyone of his films for Ghibli. This is still, like all the others a fine collaboration, an incredibly gentle, moving score that illustrates the emotions of the character and the story. Hisashi is one of the greatest living composers, so as one he delivers another magnificent score.

On its original release in Japan there was an immense controversy and criticism surrounding it. Jiro is making the planes to be fought in World War II and he doesn't like how his beautiful planes are being used for killing. So some Japanese critics have called the movie out for being "un-japanese." This is probably Miyazaki's most political film and even here the politics are really lightly brushed over. Miyazaki is not one for politics he is one for morality, poetry and beauty. Perhaps he should have chosen a less hot topic subject matter but still the themes and emotions outweigh the debate.

Miyazaki is exceptional for making such interesting riveting children movies. Here this seems like a movie for adults. Children will probably enjoy the magnificent dream sequences and the bright colors but the themes are something that life can teach you. I recommend this movie to every adult that I can find that isn't allergic to animation.

Miyazaki has declared this as his last movie and is officially retiring from making feature films. He did however make the same announcement back in 1997 when he released Princess Mononoke, then again four other times after that. But I believe that this time he is serious. There is something here that really does feel like a swan song. 

Never since The Dark Knight have I sat in the theater and just wished that the movie would never end. But of course I knew that this, like all other movies would have to end. And with this movies end would come the closing chapter of one of the finest directors of all time.

Sayōnara Hayao Miyazaki.

Rating: 4 stars out of 4