Review of The Wind Rises
This is more of a review of the protagonist, Jiro, rather than the actual film iteself; though I did try to include some context of the film. Having a dream can give you motivation – the motivation to live every passing day pursuing that dream. The main character in the film, Jiro Horikoshi, has the dream of designing a wonderful airplane. Whilst dedicating one’s life to a seemingly kind-natured dream may seem like a good thing; the film shows how every dream is accursed, and eventually one will be consumed by their dreams, become dehumanised of all emotion, making them ignorant of the harsh realityaround them.
The film begins in Jiro’s kingdom of dreams – it is portrayed as beautiful and benevolent; yet it is not calm and peaceful. A strong gust of wind is constantly blowing through the land, creating a somewhat menacing atmosphere hiding behind the beautiful façade. This is the first sign that a horrible curse hides behind this seemingly innocent dream.
As time passes, it becomes more and more evident that Jiro has become overly obsessed with his dream, and that his dream is cursed. During a conversation between Caproni and Jiro, Caproni asks: “would you prefer a world with pyramids or without pyramids?” Through this, Caproni is asking whether Jiro agrees or disagrees with the rapid advancement of technology dictated by powerful authorities, i.e. the war-bent Japanese government (I think this way because it is believed that the pyramids were built through slave labour dictated by the powerful pharaoh). Jiro simply answers with: “I just want to design a good plane.” Jiro, being the dumbass that he is, just avoids the question. He does not consider the morality behind his actions, whether being a tool of war is right or wrong – he is too focused on his own dream to care. When other people around him alert Jiro of the horrible acts the Japanese military is doing with the new technology, Jiro never participates or states his own opinion – as soon as the conversation ends he goes back to his usual self, fantasising about planes.
Nahoko Satomi isn’t included in the film just to evoke sadness from the audience when she dies; she also plays an important role in revealing a lot of Jiro’s personality to the audience. Every morning, Nahoko puts on some sort of makeup to make her look less sick than she is; Jiro never notices this, he is only thinking about planes. The first time Nahoko reveals to Jiro that she is very sick, Jiro does not give a shit, he is not shocked or anything, he simply says that “he loves her” etc. etc... He does not look into the all the problems surrounding him, not the war or his wife’s condition; he only finds out about it when someone directly confronts him about it. Even then, he is quick to return to his plane designs. Nahoko is pretty much dying, their time together is becoming shorter and shorter. During the night they spend with each other, Jiro holds Nahoko’s hand; yet, he still continues on designing his plane, never letting go of his dreams. Jiro asks Nahoko if it’s all good for him to have a smoke outside, but Nahoko insists he does so inside so they won’t need to separate. Despite knowing that Nahoko has a lung disease, Jiro still lights the joint – what an ignorant and irresponsible personality.
Nahoko as a character parallels with Jiro’s accursed dream. Nahoko’s health is rapidly deteriorating on the inside; but on the outside, she still remains so elegant, so beautiful. Jiro’s dream to design an amazing plane is also like this – on the outside it seems innocent, yet it is hiding all the horror and destruction it will bring in the war. Nahoko makes the brave, but somewhat selfish decision to leave before she dies so that the Nahoko in Jiro’s memory is the beautiful version of her, rather than version of her on the brink of death. This further emphasises the motif of optimistic dreams concealing the harsh reality.
The second to last scene was absolutely brilliant, no doubt my favourite scene in the film. Jiro’s plane’s test flight was a success – an absolutely revolutionary design. Everyone is cheering, staring at its elegance in the sky… everyone except Jiro. In which should be a happy moment of celebration, he came to realise something. Jiro turns from the plane and stares into the distance – the music stops, pure silence. All joy leaves Jiro’s face - in the distance, he sees the emptiness of the countryside. And that is all his dream is – emptiness – a dream with no meaning - his wife is gone, and his plane is soon to be sent to war, ultimately leading to its destruction.
The final scene portrays Jiro’s weak character even further. Jiro tries to retreat back into his kingdom of dreams, somewhere to hide from the harsh reality. His fantasy world still has the same landscape; however, scraps of his planes are littered everywhere; the once clean green grass is now tainted black. For the first time, Jiro cannot fully escape from reality; no matter where he goes to hide, he will always be held responsible for the destruction he has caused through his fighter planes. Eventually he acknowledges the fact that his dreams are accursed by saying that his kingdom of dreams is also the kingdoms of death, conveniently after it’s already too late.
Early in the film, Jiro was shown preventing bullies from picking on another kid. This hints at young Jiro’s opposition to conflict (parallels with anti-war ideas); however, once becoming fully consumed by his dreams, he becomes ignorant to the affairs around him, and even ended up indirectly supporting the war movement through designing fighter planes. Whenever the harsh reality is brought to light around Jiro, he always avoids thinking about the subject and remains fixed on his obsession with planes.
Because of his desire to fulfil his dreams, Jiro has lost all sense of humanity within him, neglecting all the things he should be responsible for, such as comforting his dying wife. Instead of restraining himself from designing planes and saving many lives, he discards his morals in order to satisfy personal ambition. Selfish and weak character in my opinion.