☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
The
Wind Rises (2013) – H. Miyazaki
Miyazaki’s last film does have an
elegiac feel (and it isn’t for children).
It’s set in the decades leading up to WWII but only comments on Japan’s
growing militarization in passing (despite having some scenes in Nazi
Germany). Apparently, Miyazaki first
published a manga featuring his telling of aeronautic engineer Jiro Horikoshi’s
bittersweet story but I have to guess that this beautiful moving picture
rendering stands head and shoulders above that.
Indeed, there are so many dazzling moments of animation, it might be
possible to watch the film without sound and just gawk. The scenes of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake
are incredible. The story itself feels a
bit too long and, despite numerous fantasy sequences featuring an Italian
airplane designer, it is otherwise determinedly realistic – up until the sad
end. An unusual film on which to end his
career perhaps, but undoubtedly important to Miyazaki himself.
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