Kaze Tachinu (New Hayao Miyazaki film)

[duckroll]

http://kazetachinu.jp/

Kaze Tachinu (The Wind has Risen)
Original Work/Script/Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Music: Joe Hisaishi
Animation Production: Studio Ghibli

This is Hayao Miyazaki's big Summer 2013 movie. It tells the story of Jiro Horikoshi, the designer of the Zero Fighter, from the the age of 10 to the height of World War 2 - a story spanning 30 years. The fictionized biopic is also framed around a love story based on the novel of the same name (Kaze Tachinu) by Japanese novelist Tatsuo Hori.

In the novel, it tells a story of a young man and his young fiancee who dies of tuberculosis, and he returns to the village where they first met to spend his winter after her death. Based on previous interviews with Miyazaki, we know that the movie will also cover the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. It is a large scale historical drama which will have many crowd scenes and cover various historical events.

The tagline on the poster reads "Show respect for Jiro Horikoshi and Tatsuo Hori. We must try to live."

[NoemiChan]

Miyazaki-sama's back.. I'll watch definitely! Can't wait to see how he'll amazed his fans and critics! I'm so excited!!!

[Nachtwandler]

I'm not a big fan of most of Miyazaki's and Stiudio Ghilbi works. But I like their more serious films(except of Grave of Fireflies) so I'll give it a try.

[Flower]

Oh ho! Will definitely check this one out.

[Archon_Wing]

Well, always nice to see sleeping giants reawaken again.

[Lenneth4]

Miyazaki wow!!

need my plane dogfight in 2d back

[Pocari_Sweat]

Originally Posted by Nachtwandler

I'm not a big fan of most of Miyazaki's and Stiudio Ghilbi works. But I like their more serious films(except of Grave of Fireflies) so I'll give it a try.

Just letting you know that Graves of the Fireflies was not by Miyazaki but the other big Ghibli director, Isao Takahata. Personally I like Takahata better and he also directed my favourite Ghibli film of all time, Only Yesterday.

However, Ghibli being Ghibli, it will still be a decent watch at worst. So lock me in

[Nachtwandler]

Em. I know this. I just said that grave of fireflies is the only "serious" Ghilbi's film I don't like. I really can't understand why people like it so much. Yes, it's quite realistic drama but the only one to blame is the protagonist himself. If he won't be so stupid, none of the dramatic things would happen.

[TinyRedLeaf]

First four-minute trailer released just yesterday, showcasing the extravagant animation (watch out for the crowd scenes!) that most people expect from Studio Ghibli. The actual footage starts from the 1:17 mark.

[Guardian Enzo]

That's actually the trailer they've been showing theatrically for at least a few weeks (I saw it with Kotonoha no Niwa) but I agree, it's pretty gorgeous.

[Haohmaru]

Damn it got deleted. Has anyone found a new one?

[Sheba]

Historical drama on an epic (time-wise) scale? Count me in!

[TinyRedLeaf]

Originally Posted by Haohmaru

Damn it got deleted. Has anyone found a new one?

Indie film website Twitch has the full trailer here.

The website's review of movie.

...Miyazaki has a well documented interest in aviation and it's visible all over his films, from the flying machines in his early hit Laputa (Castle In The Sky), to the seaplanes of Porco Rosso and the little boy with his pilot dreams in Kiki's Delivery Service. Having had so much practice it's no surprise that the flying sections in The Wind Rises are some of the most visually impressive, especially when reality is blurred as Jiro's mind slips into fantastical dreams of flying.

This film, despite all the visual similarities, is very different from Miyazaki's previous efforts. Basically the story is of a man in a company who works very hard. The film works best for the first hour, with Jiro as a boy and then a young man where fantasy and reality are mixed in his innocent dreams. We see as he soars through the air and is guided by conversations with his hero, Italian designer Caproni. Even in these sections the shadow of war is a dark cloud on the horizon. One of Jiro's dreams is interrupted by a squadron of shapeless black monsters attacking his aerial adventures and from this point on the military presence increases.

Despite the frequent flights into fantasy, The Wind Rises is a film very much bound in reality, which may make it a struggle for younger audiences as the subject matter is fairly serious stuff and it gets quite wordy later on. It also features levels of smoking which would put Don Draper to shame.

The film attempts to skirt the topic of the war with characters insisting their ambitions are only in designing beautiful planes, however there is no ambiguity in what these planes were used for. A touching romance helps lend the film a softer edge, although I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something off about a film on the life of the man who designed a plane for the Japanese Imperial Army, no matter how innocent the intent (Ghibili's or Jiro's).

Regarding the part in bold above, trashy tabloid site Kotaku, is quick as usual to stir up shi*t.

Some of the early reviews called the film "great" and said it was aimed at adults. Children, it seemed, found the film "dull". On the movie's Yahoo! Japan page, many commenters viciously attacked Kaze Tachinu and its creator, Hayao Miyazaki, by calling the film "anti-Japanese" and Miyazaki "dim-witted".

"Yep, this anime is definitely anti-Japanese," wrote one 2ch commenter. "Probably already no good."

"This anime is a eulogy to the Zero fighter, right?" wrote another. "Considering all that, apologise to the comfort women? I don't get this old coot."

In a recent interview with Studio Ghibli's publicity pamphlet, Neppu, the 72-year-old Miyazaki said: "On the comfort-women issue, because it's a question of each nation's pride, a proper apology should be given and suitable reparations should be paid."

And on the topic of territorial disputes between Japan and its neighbours, Miyazaki reportedly said: "As for the territorial problem, they should either be split in half or there should be a proposal 'to control them jointly'."

Miyazaki added that no matter how much disagreement there is, a case regarding the disputed territory's control should not be presented to the International Court of Justice. "A nuclear covered country like this, it should never be allowed to wage war or whatever."

Online, there were those who agreed with Miyazaki, while others wondered about the timing. But online in Japan, a place that often can feel more conservative than the country itself, critics have been vocal.

"Why don't you pay the comfort woman with the profits from your movie?" asked one Yahoo! commenter. "Wouldn't it be good to ban the movie that this traitor created?" fired off another, among those saying that Kaze Tachinu was the work of a left-wing liberal. "That's it! Ghibli's finished," one went as far as to proclaim.

"Well, there goes my desire to see this movie," wrote one commenter. "I'm really disappointed in Miyazaki," added another. "I want him to stop saying political things," wrote yet another commenter. "I only wanted to see it free of any preconceptions..."

[Cosmic Eagle]

I don't see how a film about the Rei-sen should be political as much as a film about the freaking Tiger tank be about the Holocaust <__<

[neshru]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

Regarding the part in bold above, trashy tabloid site Kotaku, is quick as usual to stir up shi*t.

Why are you giving attention to a trashy tabloid site that likes to stir shit up?

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

I don't see how a film about the Rei-sen should be political as much as a film about the freaking Tiger tank be about the Holocaust <__<

The controversy pretty much shows Asia is still very sensible about the WWII topic and have never quite moved on, which is a very sharp contrast with Western Europe where countries like Germany and France decided to move on.

[Cosmic Eagle]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Because Asia is still very sensible about the WWII topic and have never quite moved on, which is a very sharp contrast with Western Europe where countries like Germany and France decided to move on.

More like not sensible...

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Cosmic Eagle

More like not sensible...

Whoops, I got my french and english mixed up, I meant sensitive.

[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.

[windseer]

I also heard this is his last film....