Review of The Wind Rises

just like 'the aviator', 'the wind rises' is a very memorable movie. (side note, did jiro got the idea of a metal plane via huges, since the latter is pretty vocal about all his achievements.) the zero plane is probably one of the most ingenious subsonic aircraft ever designed. to design such a plane requires an immense confidence in plane building. it's like looking back a century and someone tells you reusable rockets can carry heavy payload. the earlier scenes portrayed germans not as allies, but as proud, almost arrogant teachers. this is quite accurate. the entire japanese ideology is to prove that asian people areas good as western people, that they're an equal civilization to european nations. but eventually that went off the rails and became horrifying militarism. (really interesting, the weimar republic descended into fascism due to somewhat reasonable causes but japan in the 20s was in a really comfortable place and had a really liberal parliamentary system, liberal soceity, etc. see 'millennium actress'.)

jiro is politically neutral. this is probably accurate too. engineers are usually rational and towards the end he knows that his country is fighting a lost cause. yet he continued to design better planes.

i'm left wordless when jiro's wife came back to help him with his final work. what can i say. only 'love minus zero, no limits' (fun fact bob dylan actually sung that in tokyo in the early 90s).

my love speaks like silence \ without ideals or violence \ doesn't have to say she's faithful \ she's true like ice like fire ... the wind howls like a hammer \ the night glows cold and rainy \ my love's like some raven \ at my window with a broken wing