Kaze Tachinu
The Wind RisesSynopsis
Although Jirou Horikoshi's nearsightedness prevents him from ever becoming a pilot, he leaves his hometown to study aeronautical engineering at Tokyo Imperial University for one simple purpose: to design and build planes just like his hero, Italian aircraft pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni. His arrival in the capital coincides with the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, during which he saves a maid serving the family of a young girl named Naoko Satomi; this disastrous event marks the beginning of over two decades of social unrest and malaise leading up to Japan's eventual surrender in World War II.
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The Wind Rises: A Poetic Meditation on Dreams, Duty, and the Cost of Creation
Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises (2013) is a film that soars as much as the airplanes it celebrates, yet carries a weighty undercurrent of introspection and moral complexity. As Miyazaki’s final feature film before his brief retirement, this animated masterpiece stands apart from his more fantastical works like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke. Instead, The Wind Rises is a deeply personal and historically grounded exploration of creativity, ambition, and the consequences of pursuing one’s dreams in a world fraught with conflict. Released by Studio Ghibli, the film is a fictionalized biography of Jiro Horikoshi, the real-life aeronautical engineer behind Japan’s Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane, used during World War II. Through its lush animation, nuanced storytelling, and emotional depth, The Wind Rises invites viewers to wrestle with the tension between beauty and destruction.
A Dreamer’s Odyssey
At its core, The Wind Rises is the story of Jiro Horikoshi, a young man whose childhood fascination with flight shapes his life’s ambition. Inspired by vivid dreams of meeting Italian aviation pioneer Giovanni Battista Caproni, Jiro dedicates himself to designing airplanes that embody elegance and innovation. The film follows his journey from a nearsighted boy in rural Japan to a brilliant engineer navigating the technological and political challenges of the pre-war era. Miyazaki paints Jiro as a dreamer, driven not by nationalism or militarism but by a pure love for the art of flight.
The film’s title, drawn from a line in Paul Valéry’s poem “The Graveyard by the Sea” (“The wind is rising! We must try to live!”), encapsulates its central theme: the relentless pursuit of one’s calling despite life’s tempests. Jiro’s passion for aviation is portrayed with almost spiritual reverence, as Miyazaki’s signature hand-drawn animation brings airplanes to life with breathtaking fluidity. Scenes of planes gliding through the sky or sketches coming to life on Jiro’s drafting table are imbued with a sense of wonder, making the act of creation itself a character in the story.
A Love Story Amidst Turbulence
Interwoven with Jiro’s professional journey is a tender and bittersweet love story with Naoko Satomi, a young woman he meets by chance during a train ride disrupted by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Their romance, marked by quiet moments of connection and shared resilience, grounds the film in human emotion. Naoko’s struggle with tuberculosis adds a layer of fragility, mirroring the impermanence of the world around them. Their relationship, though understated, is one of the film’s emotional anchors, rendered with Miyazaki’s characteristic sensitivity to small, meaningful gestures—a shared umbrella, a paper airplane, a gentle touch.
The Shadow of War
What sets The Wind Rises apart from typical biopics is its refusal to shy away from the moral ambiguity of Jiro’s work. His airplanes, designed with artistry and precision, become instruments of war, used in Japan’s imperialist campaigns. Miyazaki does not judge Jiro outright but instead presents his story as a meditation on the cost of creation. Jiro’s single-minded devotion to his craft blinds him to the broader implications of his designs, raising questions about the responsibility of artists and engineers in times of conflict. The film’s depiction of pre-war Japan—marked by poverty, political tension, and the looming specter of militarism—adds historical weight to this dilemma.
Miyazaki, a known pacifist, infuses the film with his own perspective. In interviews, he has expressed admiration for Horikoshi’s ingenuity while grappling with the destructive legacy of his creations. This tension is palpable in scenes where Jiro’s dreams of soaring planes are juxtaposed with images of war and devastation. The film neither glorifies nor condemns Jiro’s choices, instead inviting viewers to reflect on the interplay between personal ambition and societal impact.
Visual and Emotional Craftsmanship
Visually, The Wind Rises is a triumph. Studio Ghibli’s meticulous animation captures the textures of early 20th-century Japan—bustling cities, serene countryside, and the intricate mechanics of aircraft—with vivid detail. The sound design, incorporating human voices to mimic the hum of engines, adds a playful yet haunting layer to the film’s atmosphere. Joe Hisaishi’s soaring score, with its wistful melodies, perfectly complements the story’s blend of hope and melancholy.
The film’s pacing is deliberate, allowing moments of quiet reflection to coexist with bursts of drama. This rhythm mirrors Jiro’s own life, oscillating between intense focus and fleeting moments of personal connection. While some critics have noted the film’s length (126 minutes) as a potential drawback, its meditative pace feels essential to its introspective tone.
A Personal Legacy
For Miyazaki, The Wind Rises is deeply autobiographical. Like Jiro, Miyazaki is a creator driven by passion, and the film reflects his own struggles with the impact of his work. The director’s lifelong fascination with aviation—evident in earlier films like Porco Rosso—shines through, but so does his awareness of the darker implications of technology. The film feels like a summation of Miyazaki’s career, blending his love for beauty, his reverence for human resilience, and his concern for the moral complexities of progress.
Reception and Controversy
Upon its release, The Wind Rises was widely praised for its artistry and emotional depth, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. However, it also sparked debate. In Japan, some criticized Miyazaki for portraying a figure tied to the war effort, while others felt the film was too critical of Japan’s historical actions. Internationally, audiences grappled with its nuanced portrayal of a man whose dreams inadvertently fueled destruction. These debates only underscore the film’s power to provoke thought and challenge simplistic narratives.
A Timeless Reflection
The Wind Rises is not a film that provides easy answers. It is a portrait of a man, an era, and a universal human struggle: how to pursue one’s dreams in a world where beauty and destruction are often intertwined. Miyazaki’s ability to weave this complex narrative into a visually stunning and emotionally resonant story is a testament to his genius. For fans of Studio Ghibli, it’s a departure from the fantastical but no less magical. For newcomers, it’s an accessible yet profound introduction to Miyazaki’s ability to find poetry in the human experience.
As Jiro’s planes take flight, so does the film, carrying viewers on a journey that is as inspiring as it is haunting. The Wind Rises reminds us that to create is to live, but to live is to bear the weight of what we create.
