Update late 2019:

(as another quintessentially modern, 21st century technology)

Original (Edited) Review: 

The Wind Rises carries a lot of baggage. It is director Hayao Myazaki’s retirement film, if he is to be trusted, and thus will inevitably be compared to every film he’s ever made and hampered with the impression of future films left unmade. My usual rule of thumb would indicate to divorce the film from Miyazaki’s history and view it on its own terms. While there’s ample reason to take this path, such a take would also do this film a disservice. Not only is this a strong film in its own right, but it’s a telling and touching commentary on Miyazaki’s career as a whole, and thus it invites the comparison.

Although a biography of Jiro Horikoshi, a Japanese inventor famed for his prototype Mitsubishi A5M, it’s easy to see the film as a confessional of sorts for Miyazaki as he comes to terms with his own career in filmmaking and the dangers of the medium for the world. While the director’s films usually approximate dreams and desire, this is a surprisingly straight-forward piece, and the surprising pre-release comparisons to the classic epics of David Lean reveal themselves not only worthy but perfectly fit to this grand but personal film about art and consequences that uses the director’s flair for visual storytelling as much as conventional dialogue to tell its story. It isn’t perfect, and it is difficult not to wish for something a touch more ebullient and deconstructive for his final film. But conventional quality is quality nonetheless, especially in a film which so quietly, so sedately, and so rigorously meditates on and appreciates the necessity of sturdy, incremental improvement and diligence within a chosen field, all while eyeing – in its periphery, admittedly – the tragedy such a (potentially) blinkered focus may emit into the world.  Continue reading →