Miyazaki Makes a Graceful Exit with The Wind Rises Film Review

Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki's The Wind Rises opened in theaters across North America on February 21st and did not disappoint.

The film was released in Japan in July of last year, and has since been nominated for and won several awards. It is set to be Miyazaki's final film since he announced his retirement back in September (though some are convinced he's bluffing).

The 126 minute animated film features an English dub cast that includes Emily Blunt, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, William H. Macy, and Martin Short, among other notable celebrities.

The Wind Rises is adapted from a manga that Miyazaki created earlier in his career and was inspired by a short story by Tatsuo Hori. Unlike many of Miyazaki's other films, it does not draw from mythology or feature any magical creatures. Instead, it tells the tale of a young boy named Jiro (voiced by Gordon-Levitt) living in rural Japan in the 1920s. His obsession with Italian plane designer Giovanni Battista Caproni and his dreams of flying lead him on a quest to become an aeronautical engineer.

He studies diligently and is eventually rewarded with the opportunity to design a fighter aircraft (the Mitsubishi A5M) for Japan's leading engineering company; he is not interested in aiding the war, but rather in creating a plane whose design is both beautiful and practical. In the process of developing his prototype he encounters many challenges; he is frustrated by his country's poverty, hounded by Hitler's secret police, met with loss, and forced to make painful moral decisions.

In the end, when he finally has a chance to step back and admire his creation, he has mixed feelings; on the one hand he succeeded in creating something beautiful, but once it went out into battle it was no longer his.

This may, perhaps, be similar to what Miyazaki is experiencing now that his career has come to an end.

As with Miyazaki's other films, The Wind Rises is visually quite stunning, especially the sweeping shots of the landscape and the planes in flight. Minute details--steam rising from a mug of tea, moths swarming around a lamp at night--which are so characteristic of Miyazaki's films and are captured lovingly frame by hand-drawn frame, really enrich the experience and make the viewer want to stay in that world just a little longer. The storyline, moreover, is both innovative and poignant.

It is enjoyable for both children and adults but resonates deeper with older audiences due to its heavy themes (i.e. Hitler, tuberculosis, the Great Depression).

With the tycoons of American animation like Disney and Pixar, turning to the less costly and more time efficient CGI, traditional animation appears to be a dying art. For that reason, Miyazaki's films have served as gems to U.S. movie-goers.

Not only have they offered more imaginative stories, but more dynamic characters than their American counterparts (with exceptions, of course). One can only hope that Studio Ghibli--the animation studio founded by Miyazaki--will continue to grace us with their future creations.

If you haven't already, check out the trailer for The Wind Rises:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlaW8-2T1HI