Stars (vocally) Hideaki Anno, Morio Kazama, Jun Kunimura, Masahiko Nishimura, Hidetoshi Nishjima, Mirai Shida Directed by Hayao Miyazaki When the lead character, Jiro Horikoshi, expresses his gratitude at the end of the film in acknowledgement of his contribution to the aviation engineering world, you can almost sense he’s speaking in proxy for director Hayao Miyazaki expressing his gratitude to us for accepting his work over the last few decades. The world of animation is now a poorer place as Miyazaki officially retires from directing animated features with this, The Wind Rises. Oh- did I need to add a spoiler warning at the beginning? After all, this is a fairly epic biopic, which means that it’s the journey through the film that counts, and the outcome… well, all the more reason to watch this beautifully lyrical animated feature. It’s no secret that Miyazaki loves the sky, and flying machines as they do feature in most of his previous movies, from Nausicaa to Laputa and to the closest cousin to this film, Porco Rosso. The movie charts the life of Jiro Horikoshi from childhood to the point where he creates what was once regarded as the finest fighter plane of World War II, so the ‘fictional’ tale spans decades but it moves at an interesting clip. The story also flits into dreams where Jiro would meet with his inspiration, Caproni as they share their love for flying machines. These dream sequences are where the liberties are taken with actual history, although given the nature of the narrative, one shouldn’t expect a ‘true’ accounting of the events. The story choices Miyazaki makes is driven by inspiration, but not at the cost of character, particularly Jiro. The other characters that circle him do have limited screen time, but they are given moments of definition, particularly so with the three primary female characters who have the least screen time. However, it is Miyazaki’s magic touch that they are fully formed characters. I won’t go too much into the characters or the story and performances like I usually would, and instead focus on the artistry. It can be seen that there is passion in the project and it might seem that this has always been what Miyazaki had been building up to. It is a tough story to crack and to tell the tale in just over two hours does require some judicious editing choices. The character animation is what one would expect of Miyazaki and Ghibli Studios, but the background plates for establishing shots are so painterly that they evoke a sense of romanticism. They also add to the cinematography in some amazing ways, showcasing the finer artistry of traditional hand-drawn animation while establishing the era in which the story takes place. The details are simply awe-inspiring, from the design of the numerous aircrafts, to the set-designs, costumes, locations, right down to the background animation. There were some very odd sound choices for the flying machines. It’s almost like a conscious decision to have all the sound effects related to the flying machines be of an ‘organic’ nature, the sputtering engine sounding like someone blowing out through pursed lips! At least, those were the most obvious, but it would seem that all sound effects were done that way, and it is an inspired choice at that. This is far from the fantasy animation features that one would usually associate with Miyazaki, but it holds its own and ranks up there with the rest of his films. It is a magnificent film that is beautiful to behold in all forms of artistry that is on display, from the storytelling to the music by Joe Hisaishi to the gorgeous animation itself. If Miyazaki is true this his word and has truly retired (he’s made the retirement announcement several times in the past, although with this film, even his long time producer Toshio Suzuki, has stepped down), he’s gone out with the perfect film to cap his career. If Jiro’s final words are Miyazaki’s own to us, his audience, I would like to extend my gratitude in return for his filmography, the wonderful worlds and characters that he has brought to life, and showing that there is so much life in traditional animation. Rating: *****
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