The Wind Rises (2013)

Review The Wind Rises

When it comes to the field of animation Hayao Miyazaki is a living legend. He co-founded Studio Ghibli, an animation studio known for its high quality animated films, including My Neighbour Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Ponyo, Howl’s Moving Castle and Spirited Away. Miyazaki has been working in the industry for more than 60 years and thus it was inevitable for him to announce his retirement. Before he did do that though he has worked on his The Wind Rises, which will be his last movie.

Review The Wind Rises

The movie is a biopic and tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi, a plane designer at Mitsubishi, who was responsible for designing on of the most important planes for the Japanese in World War 2, the “Model 00”, which was also called the “Zero”. The movie starts out with him still as a boy and follows him through various experiences in his life. The Italian designer Caproni forms a big inspiration for him and he regularly talks to him about planes in his dreams.

Review The Wind Rises

The animation is, as expected, breath taking and even little details are animated. That results in impressive moments, like the destruction of an earthquake, but also in the dreams about airplanes. It is clear that it is a subject Miyazaki cares a lot about and it results in a beautiful movie. Something which stood out to me was the sound of the planes, which has mostly been done using voices. This literally results in machines that seem to breathe and are alive. Miyazaki’s message seem to be that the planes are no simple machines, but something which has been given a lot of energy and knowledge and should be seen as more. With The Wind Rises Miyazaki delivers a beautiful farewell movie, closing a career he can be very proud of.

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