The Wind Rises; A Masterpiece

by Kyle Kull

Hayao Miyazaki is known as one of the greatest animators of all time, creating award winning films such as Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). Miyazaki recently announced his most recent film, The Wind Rises, will be his last, saying that his time as a brilliant filmmaker and animator has come to an end. Although he has spoken multiple times of his retiring, only to return to the film industry, it was evident in seeing The Wind Rises that Miyazaki has used this film as a final thesis on his career and the themes he has built throughout the course of his films.

Hayao Miyazaki was inspired to create the story when he read, “All I wanted to do was make something beautiful” from Jiro Horikoshi, the main protagonist of The Wind Rises, a real engineer who inspired the story. He plays with this theme of beauty and love from beginning until end, showing the brilliant and caring mind of Jiro and his unrelenting passion for building airplanes. Along with this passion that the engineer has for his work, Miyazaki introduces a love interest during the course of the film, and parallels the two. By showing the comparison between Jiro’s love for Naoko and his love for aircraft, Hiyazaki shows his finesse for providing the audience with carefully crafted themes and subtle messages.

Along with love, we often see a theme of destruction throughout The Wind Rises, and the difficulty that Jiro has when confronting the reality of death and destruction. This is seen in the beginning when Jiro shares a dream with the Italian Aeronautical engineer named Caproni. Caproni tells Jiro that he creates aircraft understanding that they are primarily going to be used for the purpose of war; however his dream is that he can create vessels which will instead carry passengers safely over long distances. Jiro understands from the beginning of the film that he is going to have to accept the idea that in order to create airplanes like he dreams, he is going to need to create machines that will be used to destroy. Destruction is also seen accompanied with love, when Jiro’s train is stopped by the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and massive fires spread throughout the country. Jiro helps a girl (which later turns out to be Naoko) and her maid get back to their home through the panicking crowds.  We see Jiro’s most important relationship being built in the midst of massive destruction throughout the Tokyo region. This theme continues in the film, showing Jiro visiting pre-World War II Germany to look at their future aeronautical war machines and having to accept the truth that his fiancée is slowly dying of tuberculosis. Take a look at the earthquake scene below.

There has been quite a bit of controversy after Miyazaki released The Wind Rises, particularly in the underlying message which Hayao conveyed in the film. People have postulated that because of the wealth of destruction and death present in the film and how contrasted the character of Jiro was to these themes, that Hayao was actively trying to promote a pacifist message. However, I believe that Hayao was making a different claim about the nature of destruction, which is particularly visible when looking at the love between Jiro and Naoko. Although Jiro understood that Naoko was going to die soon, he accepted this pain and decided to marry her anyways. Likewise, although Caproni explained to Jiro in his dream as a child that people were going to use Jiro’s airplanes to destroy and go to war, he accepted this, and instead focused his work on doing what he loved: designing airplanes. Therefore, Miyazaki was not conveying a clear-cut message of peace and passivity, but rather that we need to understand that evil and suffering is eventually going to distort the things we love, and therefore it is important to devote focus solely to indulging in our passions and true loves in life. 

It is this particular message that is what proves The Wind Rises to be a final thesis of the great animator Hayao Miyazaki. While we see the unrelenting passion and desire that Jiro has for creating these majestic airplanes, we can’t help but think of the filmmaker and animator in his own design. Miyazaki shows us that he understands the negative impacts his creations could potentially create; however he has chosen to overlook these possibilities and instead focus on his passion in filmmaking. When you understand this, you see the film in an even more beautiful way, understanding the depth, hard work and love which Miyazaki has for creating the images which you see of the screen. It is this connection that makes me believe that The Wind Rises is Hayao Miyazaki’s best film to date, solely because it helps you understand him as a filmmaker and then look back to his previous features with a respect for his passion in making each film.

On top of all this development of theme, it’s hard not to marvel at the honest beauty of some of scenery that is shown in The Wind Rises. Take a look at some of these shots below:

Like always, it’s hard not to be awed by Hayao Miyazaki’s animations.

In conclusion, try to go see this film in the theater before it’s too late. You may never get a chance to go see a film with as much beauty again. Hayao Miyazaki presents you with a film that offers the same breathtaking shots he always provides, but this time with a level of maturity and development that truly asks for you to think about themes such as love and destruction. Whether or not Miyazaki creates another film, his legacy is definitely complete with The Wind Rises.