The Wind Rises (2013) voices Hideaki Anno, Mirai Shida, Jun Kunimura, Hidetoshi Nishijima directed by Hayao Miyazaki Movie Review

The Wind Rises (2013)   4/54/54/54/54/5


The Wind Rises (2013)

Miyazaki Rises Again

From a storyline point of view "The Wind Rises" is a look at the life of Jiro Horikoshi who from an early age is fascinated by aviation but his poor eyesight prevents him from becoming a pilot. But Jiro would go on to become a plane designer and the man behind the Mitsubishi A6M Zero which the Japanese empire would use during World War II.

Let me split this review in two and start with the story, which in this case is the fictionalized account of Jiro Horikoshi's life, the man who designed the plane which was named after him and which the Japanese used in WWII. Now firstly that is not the sort of thing you usually see animated and in truth "The Wind Rises" is not some children's animation and secondly on paper I wouldn't have said it was an interesting story for the masses yet thanks to Miyazaki's skill at making animations the story becomes interesting because he gives us characters who we can connect to. As such "The Wind Rises" ends up one of those movies that captures your attention and keeps you glued to what is going on.

But a big part of this is because of Miyakzaki's skills as a maker of animations and once again he has delivered a piece of art. A scene where Jiro is watching the planes in the sky is beautiful because of the way the clouds are drawn; they slowly tumble away causing the rays of light shining through to change ever so subtly. It is this attention to detail which fills every single scene which helps make this feel more than animation and when you add the orchestral score to it "The Wind Rises" begins to take on a new life and becomes more than an animation.

What this all boils down to is that "The Wind Rises" is another joyful experience from Hayao Miyazaki and it is a joyfyl experience due to a coming together of art, music and a storyline told by characters which makes you want to watch it more than once.


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