Review of The Wind Rises

It's always a bit fascinating to see WWII history depicted from the Axis side of things as an American. In most American propagan- I mean media... you see Germany depicted as a soulless evil war mongering country who wanted to kill all non-Germans and the Japanese as a menacing Imperial force who wanted world domination. But some people just wanted to make airplanes, or at least that's what the plot here would have you believe. A bit of revisionist history from a country that now deeply regrets it's 20th century military endeavors, perhaps. But regardless of its historical accuracy I think it's a nice messageanyway.

Loosely based on the real life story of engineer Horikoshi Jirou, we get to see the war through the eyes of someone who is only using it as a vehicle to fulfill their personal dream of seeing air travel become a ubiquitous mode of transportation for the modern world. While useful as tools of war he sees them more as projects to show off engineering prowess and ingenuity and sees the war stuff as an afterthought. It's perhaps an unfortunate reality that war is profitable and gives countries incentive enough to fund ambitious scientific advancements they might not otherwise have if it means getting a leg up on an enemy combatant. In all of human history most of our greatest inventions and creative achievements have come out of some form of war and the desire to win.

I like that they didn't try too hard to push the Jirou as altruistic to a fault and anti-war anti-fighting. He was well aware of the reality that war was what was funding his dream projects and without it he'd be out of a job. There was the one moment where he hesitantly and perhaps jokingly suggests the plane would fly just fine if they left off the gun, but he quickly retracts the idea as being untenable and it's laughed off by everyone there. So in that they get to show just a hint of altruism without forcing it out fully to where it could ruin the plot.

The romance subplot was completely fictional, had nothing to do with the real-life Jirou and was just so the movie had something to do in it's third act. I thought the Magical Hebrew was a funny character, perhaps unintentionally so. The wife being ill with a mysterious disease trope was subverted by it just being tuberculosis, because in the modern day they have to make it a mysterious disease otherwise modern medicine might be able to treat it. Anyway I thought the movie was an interesting watch, a nice bit of historical fiction and had the right amount of that signature Ghibli brand of whimsy through its surreal dream sequences. 8/10