Review: The Wind Rises

There was a point where director Hayao Miyazaki said he was retiring. Since then he has come back with some new ideas and has expanded his Studio Ghibli empire.
But this time, I think this is the actual retirement for one of the very few directors in the film industry today that can attract people to go just by hearing his name.

With by far his most personal film to date. Miyazaki is going out with the film he wanted to make, but thought would not be as successful compared to the rest of his back catalogue.

From the opening minute, you do get a sense that this will not be your typical Miyazaki in terms of the story. But when you see the animation, you still feel in awe of what is being presented on screen.
It did feel a bit more subdued then his previous work. It felt it was giving you time to settle in and understand what the director wanted when making this.
Even with the film having a particular famous incident in 1920's Japan, Miyazaki is concentrating more about this little story that other directors would just ignore. By the end of it, I felt sad that I would be walking out from a Miyazaki film for the last time, but also of the emotional ending to the film that felt quite fitting to what was a touching story.

There has been some controversy with this film saying that it is about a man who helped design a warplane that killed many people. But it really does not talk about that. It is simply about a man's love for designing and inspiring to be as successful as his hero. We do get moments with German businessmen that talk about them creating machines for war. But the main character remains passionate about his work and determination to take the industry to the next level of engineering.

In the end, I felt The Wind Rises to be a such a touching story. It has a great inspiring feel to it along with an emotional love story to give it that variety. It is quite a hard task making people feel emotional about animated characters. But when you do, it has to be a success. The animation is just unreal, and no matter how many times I see Miyazaki's films, it just amazes me as there is nothing else like it. One point I noticed was how they did the noises of the planes which amused me and felt quite fitting. There is one particular moment in the first half of the film that will surely amaze you. Just for a moment, it will feel like your back into his fantasy worlds.

If anyone is reading this without the knowledge of Miyazaki, then you are in a terrific position. You have almost 40 years of work to catch up on and I guarantee you will be amazed at Miyazaki's ambition, imagination and beautiful story-telling that certainly makes Disney films quite simplistic.

I know I will definitely miss seeing Miyazaki as I know he cannot do anything wrong. But I think he has done enough to make himself a cinematic titan in the film industry. With Studio Ghibli's other directors getting better with their projects, it will be interesting to see who steps up to the plate to create the next fantasy themed feature as I feel the studio seems fine with doing more drama based films.

Love live Miyazaki, and thank you.

Rating: 8/10