Watched: The Wind Rises
I can’t help but suspect that aesthetically and thematically, this film is far superior to Frozen, which recently scooped the Best Animated Feature Oscar; presumably what held it back was a) racism and b) the political awkwardness of nominating a movie that never outright condemns the Japanese involvement in World War II. I think the people who make that case are sort of missing the point. Yes, the focus of this film is more on the aeronautical engineers than the things their aeroplanes go on to do, but that’s the whole point of this film: to assert that there is something intrinsically valuable in the act of creation, and that even when your intent is cast by the wayside in the interest of cynical goals, you shouldn’t lose that impulse.
I think that maybe there’s some controversy in that, though. Creating without a sense of responsibility can be damaging (see: Mein Kampf, any number of applications of scientific racism), but there’s a gulf of difference between wrestling with and ultimately valuing an impulse (as I believe this film does) and promoting it without external consideration.
Moving beyond that, the film itself is gorgeous, with some of the best environment design I’ve seen in any Hayao Miyazaki film, and moments of emotional beauty without the usual recourse to surrealism. To call this film historical would be bending the truth a little; Jiro Horikoshi existed, but the character is a blend of Horikoshi and his biographer, Tatsuo Hori. That said, the characters leap off the screen, from Horikoshi’s muted performance by Joseph Gordon-Levitt to the more absurd fringe characters (particularly memorable is Martin Short as Kurokawa). The music, by Joe Hisaishi (a long-time collaborator and stellar composer in his own right), is enchanting, and considerably less eccentric than earlier films. Everything here is so well put-together, acting as a structural parallel to the creations of Jiro himself.
See this in cinemas if you still can - it merits a big screen and an audience to laugh and cry alongside.