I’m sure that many times voters bandied about the idea of giving Hayao Miyazaki an Oscar for his swan song — wouldn’t that be a fitting way to end a glorious career. And, anyway, does Disney really need more accolades? Well … I can only imagine that was before voters saw this final Miyazaki film. And when they finally got through this self-important sleep-inducing love letter to the men who built the planes that crippled Manchuria and the U.S. Navy in WWII, well, I imagine they said, “he does have one of these already.”
The Wind Rises is a biography – think about that one for a sec while you consider this is the director of Kiki’s Delivery Service or Howl’s Moving Castle – of Jirô Horikoshi (voice of Joseph Gordon-Levitt). As a child in 1910s Japan, he dreams of piloting the combo bird/bi-plane weather vane on his family’s roof. That’s it for the classic Miyazaki fantasy sequences. Hope you enjoy the next two hours of film.
*sigh* Acquiring a magazine on European flying machines, young Horikoshi finds his career path – one day, he’s gonna make the planes that will slam into U.S. Aircraft Carriers, destroying lives, but saving face.
He doesn’t really dream of the destruction part, he just wants to build flying machines. However, given his role in history, it’s impossible to separate the two – as he becomes the #1 designer in the country, he’s recruited by the war effort which means he’s designing zeroes. The film is decidedly neutral on this point (and disturbingly Oliver North-ish): Jirô wants to build planes. Period. How his expertise is directed, well, not his fault. Oh. And Oliver North was just following orders; the man is a hero. This film plays like a tribute to J. Robert Oppenheimer or Wernher von Braun. Can’t say I’m overly fond of those gentlemen, either. I suppose I should clarify — I am grateful to Oppenheimer even if I’m neither fond of the man nor his work … von Braun & North, less, much less.
Jirô has a kind soul and attracts a young woman, Nahoko Satomi (Emily Blunt) somewhere in the three minutes he’s not thinking about flight. This is the strongest part of the film and there’s a beautiful romance between he and she involving a glider he shoots past her 
bedroom repeatedly. It’s a wonderful and highly unique way of showing romance without a single word or touch. Ah, yes, this is Miyazaki.
Miyazaki or no, most of this film a giant bag full of Wind –there are over ten shots of slide rule use in The Wind Rises. I’m not kidding. I know we poke fun at the studiousness of certain Asian cultures, but ain’t no cultural need to see a full-length feature film about a slide rule. For the uninitiated, a slide rule is a pre-calculator tool used for engineering. It looks like a combination ruler and slide whistle. The proper manipulation of such involves sliding the middle part to match tick marks, squinting intently and then writing down numbers. I’m bored just writing that. And I LIKE math. Even those awestruck by the beauty of flight will have to deal with constant number crunching on film.
Studio Ghibli, traditionally, has a great take on fantasy and I wonder what’s pulling them away from it. The past two Ghibli films, this and From Up On Poppy Hill, have both been decidedly down-to-earth … and decidedly dull. There is more fantasy in every single frame of Princess Mononoke than Wind Rises and it isn’t doing Ghibli any favors. Miyazaki films are almost always too long, but the lack of fantastical creatures increases the dull factor, roughly, three-fold. I’d say you could easily cut 75 minutes out of Wind Rises and not miss a gust. You gotta be a serious Miyazaki zealot to favor this one.
Ghibli was huge in the day
Imagination holding much sway
Now it’s all real,
WTF is the deal?
Hayao, Silverscreen, away!
Rated PG-13, 126 Minutes
D: Hayao Miyazaki
W: Hayao Miyazaki
Genre: A tribute to the toolmakers of war
Type of person most likely to enjoy this film: Aviation lovers
Type of person least likely to enjoy this film: Touchy Pacific theater vets
