THE WIND RISES (KAZE TACHINU) -- First Impressions
Posted by Daniel Mann
For quite some time, I’ve held this belief that if film truly is a universal medium then a person should be able to watch a film in any language and still understand it to some degree even with the language barrier standing in the way. Seeing that I have been in Tokyo for the past week, I had a chance to check out Hayao Miyazaki’s latest (and supposedly final) film KAZE TACHINU, or as known by its English title, THE WIND RISES. I figured if there were any film to try this experiment with then this film in particular would make for a great test subject. Please keep in mind that this is in no way a full review of the film as there are certain intricacies that I cannot possibly critically assess. Once the film receives an English subtitled release then I shall come back and take another look at it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
KAZE TACHINU tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi. A chief engineer who played a key role in the design process of numerous Japanese fighter designs used during World War II. It opens with Jiro as a little boy. He dreams of being a great pilot however is held back by poor eye sight. One-night, Jiro dreams of Caproni, an Italian Air Craft designer whom offers Jiro the spiritual guidance that he should give up on his dreams of being a pilot and focus on engineering instead. Jiro takes the dream to heart and sets his focus towards engineering. He starts scrounging every book he can find regarding aircraft design. Reading each of them from cover to cover.
The film moves forward a few years to find Jiro now in University. One day aboard a train whilst headed back to his University, by the fate of a gentle breeze, Jiro meets a beautiful young girl named Naoko. However their first meeting is cut short as a savage earthquake tears through Japan devastating all in its path and leaving the country in great ruin. A few more years removed and Jiro is now working as the leader of a design team for an Aircraft Design Corporation. He has been assigned to a team that has set its focuses on designing a fighter plane.
Along the way, the winds of fate reunite him with Naoko. Together they rekindle what was love at first sight. However Naoko is terminally ill and hasn’t much time left on this earth. As her health deteriorates, the two continue to push forward and support each other in times of great struggle and despair.
KAZE TACHINU is a fairly simple story of perseverance. At its most base, it is about zeroing in on your dreams and making a sincere go of it, no matter the lurking complications or the ramifications that may follow. Miyazaki presents Jiro as less of an engineer and more of an artist. The biopic not only tells the story of Jiro with such love and care. It also allows for a reflection of Miyazaki himself as there are certain parallels to be observed and noted in both men’s obsessive attention to detail. KAZE TACHINU is not only a loving rendering of the life and times of Jiro but it is also a deeply personal film for Miyazaki himself. Finally, Miyazaki rounds out his closing cinematic offering with an emotionally charged tug at the heartstrings love story. To say it’s a tearjerker is to say the least.
For his final cinematic offering, Miyazaki has crafted a piece that is far more grounded in reality then most of his previous work. It is poetic in its grace, yet not entirely without traces of classic Miyazaki throughout. Periodically, his trademarked fantastical style rears its head mainly through Jiro’s many interactions with his life long spiritual over seer Caproni. These scenes venture into a bright and lushly colourful dreamscape that help to not only contrast the average and mundane real world locale that is established throughout the film. But these scenes also help to reassert the overall message of perseverance that goes hand in hand with following your dreams right through till the bitter end.
What astounded me the most was the way that Miyazaki managed to blend his familiar whimsical style with the grounded reality of what is a fairly straightforward biopic. Of course, there are a few moments of grandeur fantasy to be had here that take place within Jiro’s dreamscape; one such memorable moment includes a majestical flight on Caproni’s luscious grand scale aircraft. While other moments that play out in the mundane reality are surprisingly subtle in their whimsy.
The titular wind plays a vital role in the relationship of Jiro and Naoko. The two are serendipitously bought together by the gentle winds of fate, only to be torn apart by another gush of devastation, before being bought back together once again by the fateful wind at the whims of a paper plane gliding through the sky frolicking back and forward between the two as a form of flirtation between the two.
Unfortunately there is a major aspect of the film that I cannot touch upon at the time of writing. That being the politics with regards to the War it preludes. Granted, Miyazaki has never been shy in presenting his pacifist views in the past and as such, there is a moment towards the denouement that seems to present those familiar views once again. Strongly implying a sense of regret on Jiro’s behalf over the devastation that his creations have bought. Furthermore, there is a prolonged mid section that has Jiro being sent to Germany to help out with a project to which I ultimately confess to feeling the most lost due to the language barrier that stood in the way.
The lack of understanding those intricacies wasn’t necessarily a hindrance as I still found the film to be more then worthy of my time. The simple story of perseverance still worked for me even with the language barrier. The emotionally charged love story also tugged at my heartstrings in all the correct ways. As such, I remain thoroughly excited to see it again with English Subtitles somewhere down the line. But for now, if this truly is the final cinematic offering from Miyazaki, then it is a profoundly strong, deeply personal, and furthermore, gracefully matured effort to draw the curtains with.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
