On February 21st, Touchstone Pictures released Hayao Miyazaki's latest masterpiece, The Wind Rises, in a limited theatrical release before giving it an expanded release the following weekend. I was excited for this release since I am a huge fan of Miyazaki's work, so I was destined to go see it even if I had to go to a theater in another town (which actually happened since the one in my hometown didn't have it).
The Wind Rises (known as Kaze Tachinu in Japan) is an animated historical fiction film based loosely on the short story, "The Wind Has Risen," by Tatsuo Hori, and the life of Jiro Horikoshi, who designed both the Mitsubishi A5M and the Mitsubishi A6M Zero.
The film is based around Jiro, who dreams to be an airplane designer after being inspired by the works of Giovanni Battista Caproni, an Italian airplane designer that he read about in an English aviation magazine. After a brief time skip, Jiro is now grown and aiming to live his dream, but he soon meets Naoko, a young girl who would eventually meet him again later in the film, right before the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake hits the shores of Tokyo. Afterwards, we see him working on a design team for an airplane production company, and having multiple dreams that has Caproni giving him more advice for his dreams.
The film itself is very dramatic, especially with the scenes with both Jiro and Naoko, but contains the same amount of enjoyment that is seen in any of the other films by Miyazaki. However, unlike projects like Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, this particular film is a bit more realistic in its storytelling. I enjoyed the film, and I even said the words, "Congrats, Miyazaki-san," as the credits began to roll. I highly recommend anyone to see this film since it is now playing in theaters across the United States.
Written by Nolan Schmidt
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