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The Wind Rises | 4/5

SINGAPORE — One of the obvious reactions to Japanese anime icon Hayao Miyazaki announcing that he would not be making films any more was fans all flocking to see his latest movie, The Wind Rises, about the life of Japanese aeronautical designer Jiro Horikoshi.

The Wind Rises looks at the life of aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi.

The Wind Rises looks at the life of aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi.

SINGAPORE — One of the obvious reactions to Japanese anime icon Hayao Miyazaki announcing that he would not be making films any more was fans all flocking to see his latest movie, The Wind Rises, about the life of Japanese aeronautical designer Jiro Horikoshi.

The movie went on to become Japan’s highest-grossing movie last year, even as it received flak as well: Several Japanese left and right-wing and humanitarian groups questioned his decision to make a movie about a man whose most famous aircraft design was the Mitsubishi A6M or “Zero” fighter, one of the most formidable fighter planes of World War II. Some even suggested that he was celebrating “killing machines”.

But really, the story isn’t historical, it’s historical fiction. It has nothing to do with the Zero, which only appears for a few seconds as a cinematic footnote, since most of the movie is focused on the creation of the A5M monoplane. Instead, Miyazaki reimagines Jiro’s fascination for aeroplanes. It highlights several key pre-War events in Japan (the financial crisis, the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923) as well as key moments in Jiro’s life, such as his life in university and being recruited to join the Mitsubishi company. But interspersed within this narrative are surreal moments, such as his dream encounters with acclaimed Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Caproni, who acts as a spiritual mentor for the young Jiro.

Like several of Miyazaki’s other movies such as Howl’s Moving Castle, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind, and Princess Mononoke, there is a certain sense of darkness throughout the movie, with death seemingly lurking in every corner. Even Jiro’s romance with Naoko is marred by the fact that she’s suffering from tuberculosis and doesn’t have long to live.

The title is based on line from a poem by Paul Valery (“Le vent se leve, il faut tenter de vivre!” meaning “The wind is rising, we must try to live!”). It’s a line that’s uttered by the characters, and ultimately it underlines what the movie’s key message is about: That despite the rising tides of uncertainty, fear, destruction and other calamities thrown at us, we should try to live our lives to the fullest.

In The Wind Rises, the film-maker presents Jiro almost as an artist: His key focus is on making a good plane — what it’s used for isn’t at the top of his mind. Similarly, Hayao Miyazaki has never hid the fact that all he wants to do is make a good movie — and what other people make of it isn’t a key concern for him.

Is The Wind Rises really a metaphor for something else? It depends on who you are. Or perhaps the answer ought to be: Who cares when the movie is this good?

(PG, 126 mins)

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