The Wind Rises

I would recommend watching the movie first and finding out if you like it. The case is beautiful and I'm very happy with the quality

I've always been a huge fan of Miyazaki ever since I first saw KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE, but for his supposed swan song, I honestly don't know what to think. Perhaps because of this, I cannot rate it as highly as his other films. Don't get me wrong, THE WIND RISES is not a bad film at all. It's as colorful and beautifully animated as any Ghibli movie, and of course Joe Hisaishi's music is sublime. There are also moments that truly do recall Miyazaki at his most imaginative. But if you're expecting another movie filled with action, wonders, and magic as his other movies, you will probably be disappointed, because THE WIND RISES is as far removed from the rest of Miyazaki's output than even his less fantasy-oriented pictures. Rather than aiming for the exuberant joy and wonders of LAPUTA, TOTORO, the dark, epic spectacles of MONONOKE, NAUSICAA, and even the surrealistic SPIRITED AWAY and HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE, this movie is mostly down to earth, with only the occasional moments of pure spectacle. It's also his most "adult" film to date; perhaps because of this, THE WIND RISES is also cursed with the misfortune of being Miyazaki's least accessible film.Although financially successful in Japan, THE WIND RISES has not been without its share of detractors, particularly Miyazaki's target audience. Controversially, the protagonist of this story is Jiro Horikoshi, the man who was responsible for creating some of deadliest airplane bombers during World War II. In fact, this film is very loosely based on his account. Naturally, one would expect that Horikoshi would be portrayed as a tyrant considering the outcome of his crafts. But in a rather daring and almost controversial move, Miyazaki presents the man as a gentle, ambitious soul who simply wants to achieve his dream of flying rather than as a psychopath bent on destruction.Speaking of dreams, the most memorable sequences in the movie are those which involve Jiro's fantasies of being airborne. In one such scene, an extensive, dialogue-free prologue which opens the film, we see young Jiro wake up from his countryside home, climb to the roof and board an elaborately customized craft, soaring across the Japanese countryside to the strains of Joe Hisaishi's typically melodic score. This sequence comes to a crashing end when a massive zeppelin and shadowy blob monsters straight out of HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE and SPIRITED AWAY descend upon the boy and render him unconscious. Otherwise, the rest of the "dream" scenes (which are interspersed throughout the languidly paced story) feature Jiro interacting with the charismatic Italian aircraft designer Caproni. "Airplanes are beautiful dreams," intones the air designer to the short-sighted Jiro who he refers to as "Japanese boy", "Engineers turn dreams into reality."Otherwise, the remainder of THE WIND RISES follows Jiro as he grows from a not-so passive school boy who spends time reading books by his hero into an adult who becomes an aircraft designer instead of a pilot due to short-sightedness. This is a forty-year cycle of a journey that unfolds in over two hours. Regrettably, this is also one of the film's biggest shortcomings: not only are the scenes involving Jiro's growth less intriguing than his flights of fancy, they slow the movie's momentum to a snail's pace. Miyazaki is no stranger to producing movies that push over the two hour mark, but THE WIND RISES feels even longer than that, with most of the scenes being slow, drawn-out conversations between Jiro and his colleagues.Aside from the aforementioned "imagination" bits, the only other major highlight of THE WIND RISES happens about a third of the way through in which an earthquake literally tears through Japan and causes a passing train to derail and crash spectacularly. This is arguably my favorite moment of the movie because it showcases Miyazaki at his most visceral. The execution of the tragedy is powerfully conveyed through the dramatic staging and animation. Aurally, this scene is impressive as well; rather than the natural sounds of earth rumbling and winds, Miyazaki instead chooses to employ a wordless, monotonous "chorus" of voices to substitute for both. The effect adds an emotional, organic layer to the scene, especially when we witness the tragic aftermath of the tremor.Also intriguing is the sequence where Jiro and his friend Honjo travel to Germany. Not only does Miyazaki treat us to splendid tours of the aerial wonders of these massive "war machines", we get to see the characters speak German. Much later on at a hotel, Jiro meets Castorp, a German-accented defect who eerily denounces Hitler and, perhaps rather ominously, predicts the downfall of Japan.Alas, such moments are tragically undercut by the film's much more languid second half, which shoehorns a tragic love story involving a gentle painter woman whose internal clock is ticking. I don't know if it is just me, but neither Jiro nor his lover Naoko come across as particularly compelling characters, and perhaps because of this, we are given little reason to care about them. A "courting" scene in which Jiro attempts to fly a paper airplane to Naoko's balcony is inspiring, but sadly that's about as interesting as this love story gets.More detrimental, unfortunately, is the dub by Disney, which is surprisingly disappointing considering I've always loved the studio's English work for Ghibli's films, the performance I found to be the weakest being that of Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Now in all fairness, Joseph is not eccentrically cast, but I just didn't find him compelling as Jiro; to me he sounded like he was giving a stiff, monotonous performance, which is disappointing considering that many of the leads in Disney's other dubs (eccentrically cast or not) have done well. I don't know it's just me or if it's the style of the character, but either way, this is, I'm sorry to say, the dullest performance in any Disney dub I've ever listened to. The Japanese version, meanwhile, casts Miyazaki's former protege Hideaki Anno in the role -- rather eccentrically. His turn is similarly dull. I don't know what Miyazaki's intention was with the voicing of this character, but it just didn't work for me in either language. To be fair to the other cast members of the dub, though, Emily Blunt fares a little better as Naoko, but the love scenes between her and Levitt are shockingly ineffective: however much emotion Blunt gives, Levitt's distressingly wooden performance sadly nullifies any bit of chemistry between the two. Too bad, because with better voice direction the love story could have been less draggy than it comes across as.One actor I was particularly looking forward to hearing was Mandy Patinkin, having enjoyed his rollicking turn as a pirate in the controversial but still grossly underrated CASTLE IN THE SKY dub. Sadly, his turn here is nowhere nearly as entertaining; his role is just to be a down-to-earth boss with zero comic timing. He more or less plays it well, but I was still disappointed, considering his previous work. The rest of the actors also consist of names such as Darren Criss, Elijah Wood, and DIRTY DANCING's Jennifer Grey, but to be honest, they didn't really stand out to me all that much, and their parts are so scanty that one wonders why they were cast at all. One would think that more experienced voice actors would take the job instead (the first Ghibli dubs had a much better balance of that).Even though I consider this to be the worst of the Disney-Ghibli dubs (NOTE: by that I do not mean it is an outright BAD dub; it's not, it's just average, at least to my ears compared to their others), there were three performances I truly did enjoy. Martin Short plays Jiro's curmudgeonly cantankerous, "short" sized boss, Kurokawa with gusto and humor, breathing a lot of much needed zest into the dub. This is the sort of charismatic, interesting type of character audiences should expect from an animated production, Ghibli or otherwise, and Short effortlessly steals every scene he's in. Just as good is Mae Whitman as Jiro's sister, Kayo. Again, being blessed with a great role to begin with, she provides a lot of spunk and energy to the role and makes her arguably more sympathetic than her dull brother. The great Werner Herzog also gets to have a lot of fun as the German-accented Castorp, especially when he sinks a drunken brawl in a lively tavern scene. Finally, Stanley Tucci is TERRIFIC as Caproni, providing the character with charisma and a charm which is impossible to dislike. The Italian accent he provides is very appropriate as well. On that note, the use of accents for the different characters is also a plus, as is the use of children from the opening scenes. If anything, these assets prove that even an inferior Disney Ghibli effort can still have its share of saving graces. Otherwise, however, it's just not my favorite of the Disney-Ghibli dubs.Perhaps another major problem I have is the ending; while the fate of the love story isn't hard to guess, but Miyazaki instead chooses to close the film with yet another dream sequence. Instead of coming across as a genuine conclusion, this last scene feels strangely unresolved. What happens to Jiro after the scene? What became of his career? Sadly, the movie doesn't answer any of these questions, and as such, the denouement doesn't feel like a genuine conclusion. It's almost as if Miyazaki ran out of creative juice and decided to stop his movie on an uneasy note. PONYO was especially guilty with this practice, and it's unfortunate that the same is true here as well. Even MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO, PRINCESS MONONOKE, and PORCO ROSSO, abruptly as they ended, had a sort of genuine resolution that this lacks.Still, take my complaints with a grain of salt and go see THE WIND RISES. Even if it is by no means Miyazaki's best film, the moments that truly excel really show that a genius such as Miyazaki never ceases to amaze, whether at his most vigorous or his most down to earth. On a final note, it's a shame that this will be Miyazaki's last film; the man has left behind a legacy of richly animated treasures that many have not taken notice of at first but are gradually finding audiences. He will be missed.

Bottom Line first: Easily one the best movies I have ever seen. I had been a Miyazaki fan since  Spirited Away . But this movie as made Miyazaki collector out of me. This is a beautiful, poignant, intelligent and uplifting movie. While Spirited Away is a movie experience every parent should share with their children; The Wind Rises is one everyone can enjoy. There is some violence, not esp graphic, no bad language and some topics may be tricky for the very young there is no reason why this cannot be a cherished family movie night experience.More than the mere story-line, this s a beautiful, and beautifully made movie. So much so I hesitate to say more than:Miyazaki and the artists at Studio Ghibli hand draw and color some of the most beautiful art quality animation anywhere.Our story begins by establishing Jiro as a good person with good values and a life-long passion for flying. He has poor eyesight, so becoming a pilot is not in his future. He is a natural, and imaginative engineer instead he becomes an aircraft designer. In this he is inspired by a dream based relationship he has with his hero Caprioni, full name, Giovanni Battista Caproni, 1st Count of Taliedo a real and famous Italian aircraft designer.The time is the Japan the years following the Great Earthquake of 1923. It is this earthquake that so brilliantly begins the movie. If you are going to be an aircraft designer in Japan your best hope for a job will be designing war machines. In fact The Wind Rises is the fictionalized real story of Dr. Jiro Horikoshi the designer of the (among others) the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. One of the most effective fighter planes of WWII. The tension between this otherwise gentle and good hearted man and the events that led him into building killing machines begs the viewer to think about this movie long after watching it.Some will argue that Miyazaki sugar coats life in Japan under near military dictatorship. Others will point out that we never see the horrible things Japan did to people in invaded countries. Jiro does become a suspicious person and is hunted by the Japanese Secret Police, but he is ‘hidden’ and protected by his employers. In sum these are legitimate objections but they would not have been part of Jiro’s daily awareness. In other word these much harder questions belong in another movie.More central to the movie is the relation between Jiro and his wife. Their marriage is a central theme in this movie. Much of this is fictional and does not represent the actual events of the real Horikoshi.So far this is the last movies that filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki says he will direct. He has retired about six times to date so we can still hope.

Hayao Miyazaki’s 2013 film, “The Wind Rises,” was meant to be his final film for Studio Ghibli prior to Miyazaki’s retirement, though he has since announced that he will make at least one more film. The movie tells a fictionalized version of the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the inventor of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. Miyazaki portray’s Jiro in a manner reminiscent of Wernher von Braun: a genius engineer who found the only way to complete his work and chase his dreams was to create weapons of war. Just as von Braun said, “the rocket worked perfectly except for landing on the wrong planet,” Miyazaki depicts an imagined dream sequence in which Jiro meets the Italian aeronautical engineer, Giovanni Battista Caproni, who tells Jiro, “Airplanes are beautiful, cursed dreams, waiting for the sky to swallow them up.” The movie complicates the story of Imperial Japan in the years between the First and Second World Wars, with a particularly dynamic portrayal of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. The story itself is methodical, with beautiful dream sequences and vivid depictions of wind to invoke Jiro’s sense of aeronautics. A great entry from Studio Ghibli, particularly given Miyazaki’s love for airplanes.

Surprisingly included the exclusive booklet. 7 of the 9 Steelbooks that I ordered only included a promo flyer and were missing the exclusive booklet. Shipment packing means the metal case get slightly dinged and damaged on its way to you.

This, it is said, is the last Miyazaki film. He has been such an exceptional, individual and magical film-maker that the great hope was that this film would not disappoint. It absolutely does not. It is the story of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of the Japanese Zero fighter, his early genius as a designer, his utter dedication to the work and his final success in building an outstanding and iconic plane. It is not, however, at all a film which glorifies war and the use to which the plane is put. Horikoshi is fascinated by design, flight, the wind, man's aspiration to be airborne, and the film taps into those in a lyrical, sometimes dream-like way (indeed, there are actual dream sequences). Structurally, it is somewhat episodic, but that does not matter ; there is always a feeling that this is about something 'bigger' and more fundamental than a literal story of the man's life and theplane itself. Parallel with Horikoshi's work is his relationship with Naoko, a girl he rescues from the Tokyo earthquake, and this is a sad story ultmately, providing a really moving but characteristically strange - and the better for it - ending. I can understand why some reviewers found this element in the film sentimental, but it worked for me. Visually, from its first moment to its last, the film is beautiful beyond words, and its beauty is underpinned by a very strong musical score. There is, in the end, no disappointment here, only the stamp of a unique master at work.

Great to see a movie from a narrative space we are not used to seeing so much of the Second World War movies are from a western point of view , a shame I didn’t open the door to other countries making movies showing all the countries that were involved in this war and the costs to individuals and countries. I live in Hope as Asia Africa and South America and Oceania and even the French Spanish and British people need to be more honest about the true cost of wars and that that the Second World War wasn’t a moral war no war is . It’s a nice tidy way to hide the moral problems with war to call it a good war

本作は見かけ以上にかなり複雑なストーリーだ。それはあらゆるテーマが矛盾の対比で語られているからで、いつもの直球勝負を待っていた観客にとっては、変化球ばかりの投球に当惑した筈で、自分もそうだったからだ。本作は二回目から俄然味わいが増してくる。先ずは夢と現実の対比だ。いつかは平和利用に至る技術も、最初は戦争や軍需で生まれ磨かれる矛盾だ。意図的かどうかは兎も角、先の大戦で枢軸を組んだイタリアに純粋な夢や憧れを個人発の自由と発明で語らせ、ドイツに政治と規律と戦争による技術開発で語らせる。一番遅れてきた日本は良いとこ取りだが、その矛盾を同時に飲み込む選択が、「美しい機体の進化」をこの手にもたらし、「１機も帰ってこない」破滅をも呼ぶ。次に堀越次郎と里見奈穂子、二人の恋愛模様だ。不治の病の奈穂子を娶る主人公に一切の迷いはないので見落としがちだが、「結婚とは目的か手段か」を突き付ける。お互いに愛し合うからこそ負担を掛けまいとする気持ちと、たとえ一時でも夫婦になる事による精神的な充足を求める矛盾が痛々しい。愛情とは求めるものか、与えるものか、昭和初期の家父長制が支配する中での二人の生き方は、合理主義が広がり、一人でも生きられる現代でこそ難しい選択なのだろう。第三に民主主義における国家と個人の間に横たわる、自由と責任の矛盾だ。国を勝利に道引く為の戦闘機の設計技師すら、思想犯の疑いが掛かれば特高警察に狙われる。国民の自由の為の戦争が、逆に国民を思想的な隷属に追い込む矛盾。体制の中で夢と現実をしたたかに生きた技術者達の生々しい姿から、我々も志の高貴さと実現の困難さを感じることが出来る。彼らは関東大震災を生き延び、大恐慌を乗り越え、戦火に身を投じ、焼け野原から再び技術で国を起こした。最後に「労働は生きる手段ではなく、世に尽くす汗こそが存在意義」と言う、資本主義における労働者概念とは矛盾する珍しい社会規範を作った日本人の特異性が全編に染み渡る。宮崎駿が終盤に来て描いたテーマとは、従来作品の世界にも通じる普遍的な価値観を踏まえた上で、更に「あらゆる矛盾と艱難辛苦を乗り越えて未来に生きるのが日本人の道だ」と国内向けに回帰したエールなのだから面白い。これは子供やファミリーにはちょっと難しい。でも「ハウルの動く城」と並ぶ高尚な大人向けアニメとして、自分も背中から震えたのだから傑作に違いない。鑑賞後に残る清々しさはかなり熱くて長く響く、珍しいジブリだ。唯一、主人公の声優選択は頂けない事を付しておく。

I LOVE this. true it doesn't have wolves and dragons or ghosts or phantoms or Cat Buses. What it does have though is the quintessential proof that Mayao can tell a story - and tell it beautifully. This is a fairly simple tale but it flows along at an even pace. I did ask myself "why do this as an animation rather than live action?" and the answer is obvious - Proves what a wonderful animator he is. The characters are utterly convincing. It is so seamlessly flawless that it is easy to forget just how difficult it is to make a 2D drawing come to life an be convincing. The pictures are sublime, a total treat for the eyes.Do yourself a favour and buy this, just to give yourself a total escape for a few hours.Goodbye, we will miss you

I would never have believed that a cartoon film could be so beautiful and so affecting. It's an astonishing achievement. Nor would I have believed that the life story of a guy who designed a fighter aircraft could be so moving. The quality of drawing and animation is superb and the story itself is told with great lyricism and depth.Really it has very little to do with the Zero fighter, it's essentially about the wonder of flight and the inherent beauty of clever engineering. The chief character, Jiro, is a strange child who grows into an equally strange but gifted aeronautical engineer, pursuing his dream through turbulent and terrible times in Japan. We also follow his lifetime romance which begins with a chance encounter very early in his career and seems doomed from the start, but the outcome is strangely uplifting. Brilliant film, essential viewing for anyone with a heart.