The Wind Rises

On a Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 Being the Best

7

Courtesy of Buzzfeed

Plot: This last Hayao Miyazaki film is about story about a man's life who always loved airplanes. Due to his poor eyesight, Jiro, decides to design airplanes instead. The movie follows along his hopes, his love life, and his literal dreams during the 1920s until the end of WWII. This film is more serious than the other Miyazaki films and has basically no crazy creatures but is still lovely to watch.

Characters/Actors of Note: *English Dubbed Cast*

Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing Jiro Horikoshi: I enjoy Mr. Gordon-Levitt's acting and this film was perfect for his voice. Jiro is a serious fellow that loves his work and the soft and somewhat monotone voice that Mr. Gordon-Levitt gave this character was lovely. I really enjoyed the performance and give it a thumbs up.

Stanley Tucci has Caproni: The extraordinary talented Mr. Tucci once again did his magic on movies. I was surprised to read in the credits that Tucci was the voice. Caproni is the airplane designer that Jiro only talks to in dreams and leads Jiro to success. The accent and joy that he gave this character was GREAT. Mr. Tucci gave a nice fatherly tone to Caproni and was such a nice supporting character. 

Emily Blunt playing Nahoko Satomi: Ms. Blunt also surprised me when I found out she was the voice. Ms. Blunt has also shown her great versatility in films and she was wonderful in this film as well. Nahoko plays the love interest for Jiro and compliments him to a T. She is also a soft spoken person who thoroughly loves her work, which is painting. She is also a huge supporter to Jiro and loves him more than many could understand. Ms. Blunt's characterization of this was what we needed from the film that was getting a bit too heavy. Nicely done. 

Music: The music was the typical Miyazaki sound which is kind of a folky sound. It was as if I was listening to a charming folk song from Italy. There were guitars and accordions for the lower parts of the film, tubas and accordions for the silly parts, and the piano for the sad moments. I did not notice the music at times because it was so well fleshed into the film. Everyone had their own theme song as well, which I wish were included in films more often. A person could hear a few bars from the song and have a picture in their mind on who was supposed to be on screen. 

Camera Work/Cinematography: This is by far one of the most well illustrated animated film I have seen. The shadows, reflections, and glares from glass were all included and the colors were vibrant. Whenever I saw a person wearing a kimono in the film, it grabbed my eye instantaneously and ooheed and ahhed a great deal. The issue I had with this movie is that there was not a clear cut from dream and reality. Perhaps that is the way it was supposed to appear but it caused confusion at times. Whenever Caproni showed up, I got so excited because I thought Jiro had finally met his idol...only to realize he was dreaming again. They cut to the dreams and reality too fast and wish they would have done something to signal to me that they were changing the setting. Usually in films where the characters age they jump time periods too fast, I did not feel this way in this film.  

RECAP:

The casting was spot-on, the music was great, and the animation was stunning. The issue I had was with the dream sequences as they seemed to jump in and out so fast. I also wish the story, how do I say this, not necessarily shorter but perhaps more urgency? Maybe not even that but something to be a little snappier? It just seemed a bit slow. (Sorry to the big anime fans!) Another fact about the film is that Jiro is designing airplanes to fight the USA, and I found myself conflicted. On one hand I wanted to cheer on Jiro and on the other hand, I didn't want him to fight the USA. Despite these two things, I did think that it was still a nice film to watch. 

Courtesy of dramafever.com

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