Movie Review: The Wind Rises (2013)

Ref: The Wind Rises (2013)

Let’s start with a quote that I loved:

“Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you.  But when the leaves hang trembling, the wind is passing through.  Let the wind carry… these wings to you”

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Now if you’re trying to find a movie that’s so high-strung on love and romance, this movie probably isn’t the best for you.  Actually, it’s more about dreams and the magical element of flight and flying, more on work and accomplishing and improving your life whilst also trying to maintain love as well.  

The story revolves around Jiro who is very centered on becoming an airplane engineer, he has dreams with an Italian engineer, someone whom he looks up to to kind of provoke more motivation and thought into this goal of his.  His character is made in a way that allows him to seem less “humanly”, like a near-perfect human, sort of robotic.  He’s very calm and collected, never mad or upset or frustrated or ever sad, he doesn’t laugh much and he hardly shows any signs of expression, if at all: he’s mostly happy or neutral.  He’s a genius and an incredible engineer, said to have come up with very creative ideas and is reliable in his work but seems very hopeless as far as things like romance and his social life goes (though he has Honjo as his friend).  

What I found very interesting was the gender dynamics that were represented in this film.  Women essentially have no form of role or position in their society, Kayu makes a clear statement that “women can’t do what men do” (paraphrasing) and even Nahoko’s role in the film is very very secondary (despite it being a Miyazaki film).  In fact, she’s pushed out as a character alongside Jiro.  He has his work and his life and his duties that he’s responsible for and she also has hers.  Jiro develops an interest in her but still continues to progress in his life.  Actually, it’s not until he’s down on his luck and his work where he’s depicted in a very depressed state that he meets Nahoko, where she essentially revives him and helps him (you can argue that she’s relevant for these specific parts).  But as the story goes on, Jiro continues to live his life, separate from Nahoko, actually his entire work life deals with absolutely zero with what Nahoko’s situation is about, but he still tries to manage handling both at the same time.  As he continues to progress in his work, she regresses in health so it’s an opposite affect here; he’s down on his luck, she’s there for him, he gets better, she gets worst and SPOILER ALERT, it doesn’t get better for her.  

I won’t speak so much about it but I feel bad for Nahoko’s character in general, but just being realistic it wasn’t Jiro’s fault at all.  He tried his best, he loved her all the way to the extent that he had the ability to love her, there was nothing else that he could have done.  It wasn’t a selfish move, it wasn’t an ego problem, a confidence problem, he had his life and she had hers and it happened to take the turn that wasn’t ideal for both of them.  

The ending made me sad, it didn’t give me the closure I needed and I wasn’t satisfied with it but I love the movie nonetheless.  

There were some problems as far as sound, logic and whatever but I won’t get into it.  Definitely not the movie if you’re looking for some sappy romantic anime, this was more focused on the concept of dreams, goals, and careers per say so it’s good for that.  Dramatic, historical, and objective as far as his role as an airplane engineer.  It didn’t seem like a political statement, just A statement where he’s just doing his job, he was to invent airplanes and that was that.