SummaryJiro—inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni—dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes. Nearsighted from a young age and thus unable to become a pilot, Jiro joins the aircraft division of a major Japanese engineering company in 1927. His genius is soon recognized, and he grows to become one of the world’s mo...
SummaryJiro—inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni—dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes. Nearsighted from a young age and thus unable to become a pilot, Jiro joins the aircraft division of a major Japanese engineering company in 1927. His genius is soon recognized, and he grows to become one of the world’s mo...
The film is visually sumptuous, morally ambiguous, dramatic and dreamlike, with a narrative as engrossing as any live-action movie of 2013. It’s easy to follow yet hard to shake.
As gorgeously animated as any of his previous movies, Wind has Miyazaki trading in his more fantastical impulses for contemplative, old-fashioned drama and period detail.
If The Wind Rises falls a bit short in regard to historical drama, however, it’s still a Miyazaki movie, meaning he casts the same magically beautiful spell.
While Miyazaki’s two-hour-long, historical-melodrama swansong is destined to be his most divisive film yet, it is also his most adult and interesting, and never less than visually breathtaking throughout.
There are visual flights of fancy here as glorious as anything Miyazaki’s studio has created, but the story is rooted in a country trudging towards its own destruction.
This is a mostly family friendly animated film, an imaginative one featuring depictions of dreams and the like. Animation aside, it is a drama, a fictionalised biopic drama. It covers themes such as love, passion (in a non-sexual way) hope and determination (to succeed).
I like the detail in the animation - the animation itself is quite charming in being 2D based, like most Studio Ghibli films are but I've always liked and enjoyed this. I feel that such films have more authenticity to them somehow, whereas CGI technology tends to seem, or feel, quite a bit artificial and slap dash. I like that characters are shown in quite a lot of detail, with them shown to run from place to place at certain times for example - the detail in the animation is good and makes it seem surprisingly realistic yet obviously not artificial. I like that shadows are well animated - lots of fairly small seeming details are well portrayed. There are some surprising scenes which feature extremes of colour, with bright yellow and oranges shining brightly against the white of the cloudy sky. There are also beautifully colourful sunsets and the like - I thought the quality of the animated visuals was really very impressive. I also noticed the sound effects are quite detailed as well, with the sound of individual foot steps being clearly audible at times and even the sound of the wind itself via bushes and trees blowing in said wind etc. I felt its quite an indulgent film in a way (such as the visuals/animation and the themes) but I genuinely mean that in a good sense. I felt it was quite an engrossing film, with me enjoying following Jiro's life. The plot is a bit confusing in parts, in terms of establishing which scenes are set during a dream and which are actually reality and in terms of the chronology. I noticed the film makes good use of a classical soundtrack, including some light and airy pieces that go well with positive scenes, when Jiro is in his element and as the old saying goes 'daring to dream'. I thought that the good use of the classical pieces combined with the impressive use of perhaps slightly old fashioned 2D animation and moreso the attention to detail it featured, really made it quite charming and a very enjoyable watch. I should perhaps point out that there are some moments of peril present in the plot - plot wise its not all happy as such, although I won't go in to any details so as not to provide any potential spoilers but suffice to say that the film features both joyously optimistic, dreamy type sequences and scenes of a war setting, in a much more uncertain time. I suppose it could be quite thought provoking in a sense, although currently I prefer to watch films for the escapism side of things nowadays.
As far as content is concerned, there is relatively little likely to scare or particularly offend people, although there are some scenes depicting natural disasters and war - one features a relatively long drawn out natural event, in which many tens of citizens are shown fleeing. I suppose this could disturb or frighten very young children. There is little in the way of direct violence shown on screen, although there are scenes featuring war planes clearly visible but people with injuries aren't really shown or certainly not in much detail anyway. The closest equivalent is when an illness becomes widespread and people obviously suffer from it, the depiction of which could seem a bit harrowing for young kids.
Also, I noticed Jiro is shown smoking in various scenes, which may put some parents off showing their children it but to be honest its probably more of an adults film in a sense - not in terms of the content but in terms of the length (it being just slightly over 2 hours long) and the historical context of the plot, I'm not sure if young kids would stay interested in it right to the very end. I very much enjoyed watching this - I couldn't help but feel like the film was very well made, featuring a good mix of both endearing animation and a lovely classical music soundtrack score.
Une idée originale et très intéressante que de raconter la vie de ce concepteur d’avions chez Mitsubishi pendant l’entre-deux guerres, la tête pleine de rêves et d’étoiles, et dont le dernier-né -le superbe Zéro- entrera dans l’Histoire avec un grand H…
Le film pose adroitement le paradoxe de l’ingénieur dont les créations sont uilisées à des fins très éloignées de ses propres aspirations mais si ce qu’il aime, c’est concevoir de beaux zingues, alors il n’y a certainement pas de mal à cela… Et s’il permet au Japon de **** son **** technologique sur les autres nations les plus avancées au monde, alors il fera la fierté de son pays tout entier…
C’est ici un point de vue sans doute des plus pragmatiques mais le film le défend avec un talent certain. Il nous parle également de la vie personnelle et affective de l’ingénieur avec une guimauve de mauvais aloi tout aussi certaine et d’une façon générale, ‘Le Vent Se Lève’ souffre de graves lenteurs qui font soupirer d’ennui (en effet, l’ennui asphyxie les neurones d’où un besoin accru d’oxygène).
La musique gnangnan n’arrange pas les choses et la fin me semble assez abrupte. Sans parler de l’animation assez… désagréable (à quand l’image de synthèse ? toujours cette vieille 2D en 2014 ?). Nonobstant ces écueils, le film vaut le coup d’oeil pour l’intérêt de son propos et son effort louable de réflexion.
I dunno... this was great to look at.... and since I like engineering and planes and history, it was okay... but after awhile, it just seems to be lacking enough story to justify all the sidetrips and lingering odd scenes. Kind of boring in the long run.... tho surely masterful in its animation style.
Easily my least favourite Ghibli movie, The Wind Rises doesn't seem to have a real plot and instead just shows fragments of one rather boring man's life. I know that many of Ghibli's films have slow plots with other movies like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and The Tale of Princess Kaguya (two other films with rather slow plots) being amongst my favourite Ghibli films, but for me a story needs to at least have some kind of foundation which can then support the slower pace. The Wind Rises doesn't have this in my opinion.
If you are wanting to see something like Spirited Away, etc. this movie is not in this style. I found it to be incredibly slow and boring. Not only that I am very offended a the "morality"/philosophy of the film. False history trying to make Japan the "victim" of WW2, etc. I know critics are just fanboys in love with the director since Spirited Away, etc. but this is definitely a "critics" movie and not one for the rest of us. I give it three stars just for the artwork, but that's it.
Production Company
Studio Ghibli,
Nippon Television Network (NTV),
Dentsu,
Hakuhodo DY Media Partners,
Walt Disney Animation Japan,
D-Rights,
Toho,
KDDI Corporation