Miyazaki's Rising Wind

Last week I took 4 Miyazaki nerds to see his latest movie, The Wind Rises. What is a Miyazaki nerd, you may ask? Well, you obviously don’t live in my house.

Two and a half Miyazaki nerds live in my house. The ‘half’ is the youngest child, who might not have been such a nerd if not influenced by the two older siblings. What is a Miyazaki? Well.

Hayao Miyazaki is a legend of Japanese animation. He has made many, many movies, and a good number of them have become known to American audiences (Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Castle in the Sky to name a few). And my kids happen to love them.

So, when they heard that he was retiring, and The Wind Rises was going to be his last film, the older two couldn’t wait to see it. And it was worth the wait, even though he seems to have once again retracted his desire to retire.

The Wind Rises is based on the life of Jiro Hirokoshi, a Japanese airplane designer. In the movie, he came of age just after World War I, dreaming of the beautiful machines he could design. He dreamed, literally, of meeting his hero, Italian plane designer Giovanni Caproni, who encouraged him to follow his dreams.

If you’ve seen any of Miyazaki’s other movies, you know there is always a whimsical and mystical quality to them. Even as he carries out a biographical movie, Jiro’s dreams allow for the magical element.

At the same time, Miyazaki gives us an epic historical movie of Japan, illustrating the great earthquake that hit Tokyo and the surrounding area, as well as the effects of poverty and war.

And then there is the romance, which I think affected the young viewers who accompanied me as much as anything. It is a sweet and melancholy romance, marked by devotion and tragedy.

In case you see the title Ponyo and think you should bring your young child to see this film, please don’t. It deals with war and devastation and illness. On top of that is some of the most attractive smoking I’ve ever seen in a movie. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to smoke this much since the days of candy cigarettes, when my friends and I practiced how cool we would look if we actually could stand to smoke a cigarette.

Here’s the thing. Jiro’s primetime of life occurred in the time between World War I and World War II. We don’t get to choose the time period in which we exist. And all Jiro wanted to do was design airplanes. In Japan, at that time, the only group producing planes was the military. Which means that all his beautiful dreams were funneled into producing bombers that resulted in a lot of devastation during World War II. Are we responsible to use our gifts in ethical and morally responsible ways?

Since Miyazaki seems to portray Jiro as an alter-ego to himself, making “beautiful things”, it feels like he leaves Jiro off the hook for this ethical and moral dilemma. The movie presents a beautiful, moving opportunity to talk about what that means.

The refrain of the movie comes from a poem by French poet Valéry: “the wind is rising, we must try to live.” This echoes the experience of the main characters who, like us, are stuck in a very particular place and time, and they must make the most of it.