Review of The Wind Rises

The wind is rising, we all must live. Since Hayao Miyazaki loved flying, which was made abundantly clear in Porco Rosso and others, this movie felt like his passion project, as well as a tribute. The story was a factionalized version of the real life Jiro Horikoshi, who designed the Japanese Zero airplane during World War II. I loved how Miyazaki portrayed Horikoshi as a kind person who had a dream of building airplane as a kid, and tried to maintain that passion as an actual engineer. The director also showed the main character did not care about the politic or war, but just wanted tomake beautiful airplanes for the sake of flying.

This led to one of the themes, which was the struggle to maintain a dream, and keeping the dream pure. Another theme was the purpose of airplanes. In a time of war, it was inevitable that airplanes became tools of destruction. Here, Hayao wanted to emphasize that this was not the main purpose. As a person who is obsessed with flying and disdains war, he made his intention quite clear.

Another aspect of Horikoshi was the romance with his partner, Naoko. The romance was beautifully and realistically portrayed. They were just young birds that loved and wanted to be with each other. As sweet as the romance was, their story was tragic and heartbreaking.

These two aspects of Horikoshi’s fictionalized life led to the movie’s biggest theme, which was to keep living life to the fullest.

My small problems with the movie were some pacing issues, and at the beginning the time jumps were a bit sudden. It took a bit for me to realize that some years had already passed between scenes.

Overall, another Hayao Miyazaki’s passion project and beautiful movie. 8.5/10