The Wind Rises - latest Studio Ghibli film

[samoht]

Fifteen years ago, as a first-year engineering student, a fascination with Japan's apparent technological edge lead me to join the university Japanese cultural society, where I saw My Neighbour Totoro, and immediately fell in love with Japan - despite not yet having been there.

Now Miyazaki completes the circle with The Wind Rises, a film version of the autobiography of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Mitsubishi Zero fighter plane.

It's the basically true story of a boy who dreams of flying, and grows up to study aeronautical engineering, join Mitsubishi and design the legendary Zero. The animation is incredible, a step beyond even Miyazaki's previous work in how lush, detailed and well-observed it is.

http://www.slate.com/content/dam/slate/articles/arts/movies/2014/02/140219_MOV_WindRises.jpg.CROP.promovar-mediumlarge.jpg
http://www.rotoscopers.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/the-wind-rises-whysoblu-6-1024x554.jpg

The autobiography that the film is partly based on:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41wYE2GHaBL._.jpg
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/Eagles-Mitsubishi-Story-Zero-Fighter/dp/0856133973/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1400365638&sr=8-6)

The film is quite different from most of his previous creations, the story being more closely based in reality; Jiro's boyish dreams are interrupted by visions of the horrors of air warfare. Naturally there is some controversy around celebrating the life of someone who played a part in Japan's brutal colonisation of its neighbours and subsequent attack on the US; however, this is Jiro's story, told from his point of view. To me, it strikes a very fair balance; I know a fair amount of the wider context, so can consider it within its historical context.

In any case, the lightweight engineering of the Zero is irresistable to me as an engineer, and the film does a better job than anything of conveying the joy and romance of engineering. I loved it, and I think you guys would too. Anyone else seen it yet?

[Rikadyn]

Last movie Miyazaki will be the head of. Ghibli will still exist. Also the movie shows the design of the A5M, though the A6M is just an advancement of that design.

Haven't seen it yet not widely shown here, but I will. In Japan the right wing that rules the country called the movie unpatriotic and other shit, the left called it for glorifying the war... So something must be done right.

The zero is the most famous Japanese fighter but the ki 43 is the most successful fighter. Japan's super light engineering of their planes came at the cost that they were easy to take out

[KillerB]

I didn't get an opportunity to see it in the theaters. Is it out on DVD yet?

[samoht]

Yeah, I put 'latest' not 'last'; Miyazaki has said this is his own last film, although he has said that before.

The DVD will come out in Japan in a month (18th June) with both language soundtracks and subtitles, I guess it will be available worldwide shortly after?

[Cam]

I enjoyed it. I felt that it was a wonderful film. However, I believe that it was not up to Miyazaki's usual standards. Numerous shots look rushed. I also thought the use of 3D elements and backgrounds looked out of place considering the style. My guess is that they probably had a lot of inexperienced animators and perhaps were rushing to meet a deadline. There can be a lot of outside factors that affect the quality of a production.

It's clear that Jiro did not like war. He just wanted to make wonderful things and the war allowed him to do that. Some of my colleagues believe that great art has meaning. I think the the movie was an anti-war message.

See it if you can.