The Wind Rises
The Wind Rises
PG-13 | 21 February 2014 (USA)
The Wind Rises Trailers

A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi, whose storied career includes the creation of the A-6M World War II fighter plane.

Reviews
Baseshment

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

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Invaderbank

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

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Brendon Jones

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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Kaelan Mccaffrey

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

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Jackson Booth-Millard

I knew this was a film from the Japanese animation geniuses at Studio Ghibli, I didn't know it was based on a real story, to be honest though I mainly wanted to watch it because of its inclusion at the Oscars, directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away). Basically it tells the true story of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japanese fighter planes during World War II. As a young boy, Jirô (Zach Callison) dreamed of flying and designing beautiful aeroplanes, he was inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Giovanni Battista Caproni (Stanley Tucci), he has a dream about meeting him. Unfortunately Jiro's nearsightedness from a young age prevented him from becoming a pilot, but in his dream, Caproni told him he never actually flew a plane in his life, and that building them is better. When he grows up, Jirô Horikoshi (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) joins a major Japanese engineering company and becomes one of the world's most innovative and accomplished aeroplane designers, including the design for the Mitsubishi A6M Zero. The story sees him going through his own life, as well as experiencing historical events of the time, including the Great Kanto Earthquake, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic and Japan plunged into the Second World War. It also sees Jiro falling in love with Nahoko (Emily Blunt), who suffers tuberculosis and a lung haemorrhage, but eventually recovers and marries him, and it also sees his cherished friendship with his colleague Honjô (John Krasinski). Also starring Martin Short as Kurokawa, Mandy Patinkin as Hattori, Mae Whitman as Kayo Horikoshi, Jennifer Grey as Mrs. Kurokawa, William H. Macy as Satomi, Elijah Wood as Sone and Werner Herzog as Castorp. The stars doing the dubbed voices are all fine, there is no denying it is fantastic hand-drawn animation as usual, I'm not sure if going for a more realistic approach is right for the studio, we are more used to the fantasy stories with fantastical creatures, but it is just about interesting, an alright animated drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. Worth watching!

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subxerogravity

...And the story is so excellent it could have been a live action film Studio Ghibli at it's best and animation at it's best. how did the Oscars pass up on this for the win!? Plus I'm showing favoritism as the movie is about one of my favorite subjects, Aviation.Somewhere in-between The Great War and World War II lies Jiro, a young Japanese man who becomes a fan of an Italian airplane designer and shares his dream (Literately in the sense of the movie) of designing air crafts, and the movie goes through his process, as well as him finding love.I don't know if this is a true story or how inspired by true events the movie is, but the Zero fighter that Jiro designs was used by the Japanese in World War 2. I do know the title comes form a poem. The Wind Rises, what a perfect title for a movie about Aviation.Anyway, The Wind Rises is like a painting in movement. the complete extension of what I want from animation. There was one scene in which Japan suffered an earthquake and with animation, they intensified the scene making it look like the ground just had a hiccup and caused all this chaos and destruction. it was brilliant.So I'm sorry, as good as Frozen is I think the Oscars made the wrong choice in not given the Wind Rises the trophy.

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dee.reid

2013's "The Wind Rises" is a magnificent piece of Japanese animation, or Anime' (for the uninitiated). In what may be one of the rare films of this type, "The Wind Rises" is a unique mix of biopic, historical drama, romance, and fantasy. It tells the story of an enthusiastic dreamer who is able to realize many of his life's greatest ambitions, but unfortunately lives to see his genius and the fruits of his labor later give way to a dawning nightmare.Thankfully, although the film doesn't descend into pointless political arguments and finger-pointing and questioning the morality of its lead character, "The Wind Rises" does recognize that its central protagonist can feel the winds of change upon him and the moral conflict he will eventually find himself in."The Wind Rises" is, of course, the final film of legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki - who wrote and directed the film, which was partially inspired by the 1937 short story "The Wind Has Risen" by Tatsuo Hori and which Miyazaki then adapted into a Manga series - who retired from filmmaking in September of 2013. "The Wind Rises" didn't hit American shores until February of the following year; I had plans to see the film in the theaters, but I unfortunately never got the opportunity. Two years later, I finally got the chance to sit down and watch this fantastical masterpiece of Japanese Anime'.The film is different from his past masterworks like "Spirited Away" (2001) (my personal favorite Miyazaki film ever), "Princess Mononoke" (1997) or his last film before this one, "Ponyo" (2008). While there is fantasy here, it's mixed in with Japanese history, which may turn away some young viewers and anyone still accustomed to his usual fantasy work. But it's still a brilliant exercise in animated storytelling.And yet, despite its brilliance, this film did cause a controversy in its native Japan, due to its subject matter - the late Japanese aeronautical engineer Dr. Jiro Horikoshi (June 22, 1903-January 11, 1982), who, of course, was the man who designed and built the much-feared Mitsubishi A6M Zero attack fighter plane, which was used by Japanese kamikaze pilots in World War II. Miyazaki was attacked by the political Right AND Left in Japan for making a film that supposedly glorified war - which does not look good for a nation that is still dealing with the physical and psychological traumas of its wartime aggression and brutality against its enemies 71 years after that war's official conclusion - as well as negative comments he'd made about attempts to revise Japan's 1947 Allied-drafted, post-WWII pacifist constitution.Miyazaki, of course, is an out-spoken pacifist who condemned his country's actions during World War II (even though Miyazaki was only four-years-old at the time of Japan's surrender in 1945). His film does not glorify war, but it does nonetheless take a very sympathetic view of a complex individual, one who was morally opposed to war and objected to his work being misused for such destructive purposes - as tools of war - but was ultimately powerless to do anything about the reckless and foolish, self-destructive actions of his government and military. But like I said earlier, Miyazaki's film is not a political statement, but a heartfelt portrait of a man striving to live his dreams and create art - which sort of mirrors the fact that "The Wind Rises" was a dream project of Miyazaki himself, who has been a warplane enthusiast since childhood and whose father's company made rudders for the Zero attack fighters during the war.Idealistic and driven, Jiro Horikoshi (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the English-language version) just wants to design and build airplanes, since his nearsightedness dashes his dreams of ever becoming a pilot. With his close friend Hiro Konjo (voiced by John Krasinski), they set to work building planes to be used by the Japanese Imperial Navy. Jiro's life and work are inter-cut with dreams of his hero, Italian aeronautical engineer Count Giovanni Battista Caproni (voiced by Stanley Tucci), who states that he has never flown a plane in his life, but building them is much better than actually flying them. (Caproni also ominously states that his planes are being used by the military for war purposes, and that many of these planes and their pilots will never come back from their missions.)Jiro's professional achievements are mirrored by the love and support of his one true love, Nahoko Satomi (voiced by Emily Blunt), whom he first meets in the aftermath of the great 1923 Kanto Earthquake, which devastated Japan and had a terrible effect on its already-struggling economy."The Wind Rises" is a fantastic animated film that treats its subject matter with dignity and respect. Like I stated earlier, the film never becomes political, but nonetheless it's filled with foreboding with major events in world history about to unfold. Even for me while watching it, the characters can see that a great change is coming just over the horizon, and for those of us that know world history, Miyazaki places a number of omens in "The Wind Rises" to show that in just a few short years a great and terrible calamity is about to befall the people of Japan (and the rest of the world, for that matter) - World War II.If "The Wind Rises" truly is the last masterpiece of Hayao Miyazaki, I honestly cannot think of a greater send-off to a living legend. This had all the earmarks of the last work of a master filmmaker and animator - perhaps the ultimate culmination of over four decades of one critically acclaimed animated feature after another.10/10P.S.: The 1973 song "Hikoki-Gumo" by Yumi Arai, which is featured prominently in the film and theatrical trailer, is simply amazing!"All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful" - Dr. Jiro Horikoshi

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Tweekums

This film, Hayao Miyazaki's last, tells a fictionalised account of the life of the aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi. From a young age Jiro dreams of flying although his poor eyesight means he will never be a pilot. After reading a magazine article he dreams of meeting Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni; after this he decides to pursue a career in aircraft design. As he travels to college by train he is caught up in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. On the train he meets Naoko and after the earthquake he helps her and her injured maid. After graduating he finds work at Mitsubishi and it is clear that Japanese aircraft design is far behind that of the west but he and his friend Kiro Honjo are determined to help them catch up. After an early setback Jiro takes some time off and bumps into Naoko again and a romance soon blossoms. She tells him that she has tuberculosis but after some time in a sanatorium they are married. He continues to work and makes great advances… there are storm clouds on the horizon though; Japan is on the road to war and Jiro's planes are destined to play a key part in that self-created national disaster.I had put off watching this film for a long time as I didn't want there to be no new Miyazaki films to watch; having finally watched it I can say it was not in any way disappointing. This is Miyazaki's most grown up work and it doesn't shy away from tragedy; either personal of national. As one would expect from Studio Ghibli the animation is amazing. There are no static background characters; everybody is moving in a vibrant but not overly exaggerated manner. Not surprisingly the flying scenes are beautiful. The characters are interesting as are their stories; the fact that many items of Jiro's life as depicted in the film don't match reality doesn't matter as it doesn't claim to be a true record of what happened. This is one of Ghibli's more emotional films; only Isao Takahata's 'Grave of the Fireflies' is sadder at the end as this story doesn't shy away from showing the consequences of Jiro's aircraft designs or give us a happy ending to Naoko's story. Overall I'd say this was a great film; it might not have the universal appeal as Mayazaki's other films but it is a must see for older fans of his work and a fitting farewell to this master animator.

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