Monday, August 12, 2013

Review: "The Wind Rises" (風立ちぬ) Directed by Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki, the founder of “Ghibli” film studios, is the undisputed king of Japanese animation. As the medium increasingly becomes dominated by digital technology, Ghibli remains a bastion of tradition, its films largely the work of pencil and paintbrush rather than computer pixels. To many, Miyazaki can do no wrong, underlined by the string of box-office and critical successes he’s helmed since “Nausica of the Valley of the Wind” almost 30 years ago. Over the past decade or so, however, his dazzling reputation has been slightly blemished. In my eyes, at least, the last truly great work to come from his brush was “Spirited Away” in 2001.



Nevertheless, this hardly lessened my anticipation on the release of his latest feature, “The Wind Rises,” here last month. Reading up about the film beforehand, and watching the preview trailer, it seemed to have all the hallmarks of a Miyazaki classic – stunning visuals, of course, but also an intriguing story that takes in the themes of love, war and the power of dreams. In a first for the director, though, the setting is not some kind of made-up mystical world but that of our own, specifically pre-Second World War Japan. The film serves as a homage to Jiro Horikoshi, the inventor of the Zero aircraft, which played a major role in Japan’s ultimately doomed war effort. Horikoshi’s fascination for manned flight is something that the white-whiskered animator undoubtedly shares, as anyone who’s seen “Castle in the Sky,” “Porco Rosso,” or pretty much any Miyazaki flick, could attest.

“The Wind Rises” is basically an animated biopic of Horikoshi, following him from the beginnings of his plane obsession as a kid to the launch of the famed Zero. Apart from a few dream sequences, there are no major flights of fancy, and this has left many viewers, who presumably went along expecting something more along the lines of floating castles or soaring dragons, severely disappointed. It’s certainly hard to imagine how anyone under the age of twelve could sit through over 2 hours of “The Wind Rises” without dozing off. But seeing as I’m a mature 30-something guy with a keen interest in modern Japanese history, I should have had no such problem. Right?

Well, as it happens, while I wasn't bored by “The Wind Rises” I wasn’t exactly blown away by it either. Around a week on from watching the film, it hasn’t left a hugely positive impression on me to be honest, which is a great shame after I’d had such high expectations. The lack of a fantastical element wasn’t the problem. If anything, I welcomed this more serious and mature take on the kiddy-dominated genre of anime. It was also, as expected, a visual treat, with an abundance of memorable images and lovingly created detail throughout (I especially loved the opening dream sequence where a young Jiro flies joyfully around the countryside in a mini-plane of his own). No, what the filmed lacked for me was an emotional core. Though I was an interested observer, I never really felt that the film sucked me into its world, as Miyazaki's best work can do. Just as crucially, apart from young Jiro at the start, I never found myself caring for any of the characters, particularly grown-up Jiro. Which leads me on to my main gripe: Hideaki Anno.




Hideaki Anno is best known as the creator of the wildly popular "Evangelion" anime series. He also worked together with Miyazaki on Nausica, and they've been close friends ever since. What he has never been, until now, is a voice actor, or any kind of actor. Nevertheless, Miyazaki took the bold step to cast his buddy in the central speaking role of Jiro. And in my view he totally drops the ball. For a start, at 53, his voice is too old for Jiro, who's in his 20s and 30s for the majority of the film. But more than that, he sounds so flat and emotionless, which dragged down every scene when he opened his mouth for me. This effect was exaggerated when alongside the other professional voice actors, especially Miori Takimoto as the love interest, Naoko. Takimoto manages to bring such charm to her character, and there are a number of touching scenes between Naoko and Jiro, but their relationship just wasn't believable for me as I could never see her being drawn to this guy with a robotic, old man's voice, no matter how much of a genius he was.

Anyway, this issue shouldn't matter for those watching the eventual dubbed versions of "The Wind Rises." I usually prefer subtitles to dubbing in foreign language films, but I think I'll make an exception in this case. It will be interesting to see how much the viewing experience is improved for me minus Anno, but I'll have to wait a while to test this out as the film won't be getting an overseas release until some time next spring. I'd still encourage anyone, especially Miyazaki fans, to see "The Wind Rises," as there's plenty to delight the eyes if not the ears. Just don't expect a classic.

3 comments:

  1. I enjoyed it way more than his recent stuff like Howl's Moving Castle and maybe even Sen to Chihiro (skipped Ponyo). Thought the artwork was great, music was well chosen and the story is a real life tragedy, so there's that new dimension.

    Will have to disagree about the lack of emotion. I saw it as more emotional than most of his fantasy films. The core being the Naoko character, who Jiro marries after only three meetings, the first of which coincides with one of the worst natural disasters of the 20th century. Their "doomed-to-be-short-lived" relationship couldn't be much more emotional.

    Obviously some facts have received the Ghibli treatment, but I would say they poured on the emotion.

    My gripe would be that it is hard to feel compassion for any of the characters. They are all from well-to-do families and they seem to move about the economic chaos of the time in relative luxury. Plus, the idealism of Jiro to make "a beautiful aircraft" (as opposed to an efficient killing machine) may have been conjured up.

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  2. Really liked the way they depicted the "extras" in the scenes on the trains and in public. The stoic faces of the huddled masses in the Great Kanto Quake scene was pretty amazing I thought.

    http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_news/social_affairs/AJ201308210008

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  3. Miyazaki's always had trouble finding the emotional core of his films and sticking to it. He tends to wander off. Story-wise, he's a bit immature. Of course, I didn't realize all this until after I'd seen the work of the the other Studio Ghibli director, Isao Takahata. His films, although few, are exquisitely crafted. They are intricate masterpieces of storytelling and have real depth. The eye-opener for me was watching "Omohide Poro Poro". This film is now my favorite Studio Ghibli work.

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