Hayao Miyazaki's final film The Wind Rises was indeed a magnificent swansong for this great storyteller who is well deserving of status amongst the greats such as Walt Disney. His final film tells the story of a brilliant Aeronautical engineer Jiro as we follow his journey to pursue his dreams of creating the perfect flying machine. The movie isn't just about Jiro and his conquest to become a great engineer but rather the heart wrenching story of Jiro's creativity and the tragic love which he pursues among the chaos of World War II. This beautiful animation does what many animations fail to do, it unlocks the deepest emotions within us.
From his earliest days we see Jiro marvel at planes and dream of becoming an aeronautical engineer. Even when Jiro is sleeping we are treated with surreal dream sequences where Jiro converses with his idol Caproni who encourages him to follow his dreams. Jiro does exactly that, he follows his dreams to become one of the greatest minds of aviation and eventually lands a position at one of Japan's biggest airplane manufacturers. Despite his dream, Jiro has no choice but to design fighter jets as he lives under the thumb of the military. Jiro knows that creating these fighter jets will cause devastation yet he is still compelling and driven to create the perfect plane as he would rather see a world "with pyramids than no pyramids".
Miyazaki complicates Jiro's story by adding a love interest Nahoko. Usually many animated films get bogged down by a love interest as it doesn't add much to the story however in the case of The Wind Rises, Miyazaki's touch makes the love interest aspect of this movie of his tenderest and possibly one his best love interests to date. During one of Jiro's excursions he meets Nahoko who he saves from an earthquake and instantly falls in love. Years later Nahoko reappears, bringing back a flood of emotions which eventually results in Jiro confessing his love to Nahoko only to discover that she is suffering from tuberculosis which in the time period of this movie is incurable. Jiro being the dreamer that he is doesn't dwell on the future, he is the kind of person that lives in the present and sees the beauty in the moment.
Aside from the love interest we also have Jiro's close colleague Honjo, his boss Kurowa and the owner of his company Hattori who are constantly giving Jiro a reason to be better at his work. As I mentioned before despite the fact that Jiro essentially created the Zero fighter planes which went on to bomb pearl harbor. We don't really see Jiro react to that rather he only focuses on creating a beautiful airplane which he is initially proud of until the film's climax when he sees the planes in formation (in his dreams) going into battle.
The movie perfectly blended the drama portion with romance to deliver a great movie how there was times during the movie when the pacing was a bit slow, but overall it didn't really drag the movie down as it made up for it with the engaging story. This probably isn't the best Miyazaki movie to date but is still a solid film that any Miyazki fan will enjoy. The stunning animation and music just make Jiro's story come to life in a what would not have imagined from a real life interpretation.
The Wind Rises gets four out five Miyazaki heads. It is truly sad to see this legend retire but at least during his time he gave us magnificent movies and The Wind Rises is just another fantastic movie in that collection. Definitely check this one out, in full 1080p if you can.
Review Written by Armour Dude
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