[Theowne]

Saw the film earlier this week.

It's a good film, and much better than the previous few offerings from the studio. Inevitably there will be a comparison with the "classics" of Ghibli, and the answer is that they are just too different, though Miyazaki's trademarks can be found in full force. Fans of Miyazaki will likely enjoy it, while fans of a few specific films of his may not.

Although the film is based on a real-life engineer, it takes many liberties. For example, there is a star-crossed love story that is borrowed from another source (Personally, I would say that the weaker moments of the film are in this sideplot). The film is, therefore, more of a fictionalized account of a historical figure than a biography.

In the film, a few scenes portray Jiro as an idealistic creator of beautiful airplanes, who is occasionally haunted by the knowledge that they are used in war, but avoiding confrontation with this reality. This may be Miyazaki's projection of himself onto his subject rather than an portrayal of the historical Jiro's thoughts. I haven't read any of the writings of the original Jiro, so it is only my assumption, but during those scenes, I felt Miyazaki speaking rather than Jiro speaking.

I believe this is mainly the source of the controversy. If taken as a work of fiction, the message of the film, and the lack of resolution to its fundamental conflict, is quite compelling and easy to identify with. However, if taken as a biographical film, and without hearing any of Miyazaki's intentions, it's easy to interpret things the wrong way. Miyazaki created a film to celebrate a brilliant engineer and what he perceives as an admirable product of Japanese ingenuity. But in his attempt to try and separate the engineering from the warfare, to some audiences it may look like an attempt to whitewash the life of a man who, as the review above says, designed fighter planes for Imperial Japan. Alas, a controversial topic in a controversial time.

It's a good film.