Talik Sanis
Registered User
I saw The Wind Rises over the weekend. It was far less "whimsical" -- to use a word that is forever attached to Miyazaki and his works -- than one would expect, to the point of being quite somber, but its bleakness offset moments of startling life and color for reasons that become obvious in the context of the film. The animation was incredibly intricate and detailed, as expected from a Studio Ghibli production.
Voice acting was generally solid, but there are some notable exceptions among the supporting cast and a few moments of intensely clunky translation.
Historical inaccuracies abound, but Miyazaki obviously attempted to capture the essential core of a man (or, rather, of his vision of a man) – something that transcends events. People have criticized the film for being a sympathetic portrayal of Jiro Horikoshi, and to some extent it is, but I think that his representation was really rather complex; it was not as laudatory or nationalistic as some have suggested. Miyazaki's distaste for war showed through, despite the subject matter.
I saw it with two friends who don't really care for animation in general, let alone anime, but they seemed to enjoy it immensely. It left us all with a profound sense of ambivalence, not towards the film itself, which we all agreed was moving, but towards the character. I thought that it was an impressive capstone on Miyazaki's career, intensely self-reflective on issues of aesthetics and the artist's social duty. In this light, it feels like his last movie. I recommended seeing it if you can, especially if you appreciate visual spectacle, but I could easily see some people becoming bored by a narrative that may appear slow-moving and disjointed, even though all three of us were riveted. I have to let my mind... fester on it for a little while, but I would give it an 8/10 at the moment.
Voice acting was generally solid, but there are some notable exceptions among the supporting cast and a few moments of intensely clunky translation.
Historical inaccuracies abound, but Miyazaki obviously attempted to capture the essential core of a man (or, rather, of his vision of a man) – something that transcends events. People have criticized the film for being a sympathetic portrayal of Jiro Horikoshi, and to some extent it is, but I think that his representation was really rather complex; it was not as laudatory or nationalistic as some have suggested. Miyazaki's distaste for war showed through, despite the subject matter.
I saw it with two friends who don't really care for animation in general, let alone anime, but they seemed to enjoy it immensely. It left us all with a profound sense of ambivalence, not towards the film itself, which we all agreed was moving, but towards the character. I thought that it was an impressive capstone on Miyazaki's career, intensely self-reflective on issues of aesthetics and the artist's social duty. In this light, it feels like his last movie. I recommended seeing it if you can, especially if you appreciate visual spectacle, but I could easily see some people becoming bored by a narrative that may appear slow-moving and disjointed, even though all three of us were riveted. I have to let my mind... fester on it for a little while, but I would give it an 8/10 at the moment.
