The Wind Rises, rumored to be Japanese animation filmmaking legend Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, is currently airing at the State Street theater. I attended a screening this past Friday, and was blown away by this inspirational movie. Not only is the core theme of perseverance inspiring, the breath-taking animation rouses a desire to envision lofty goals.
The film follows Jiro, a brilliant engineer whose dreams of flying are complicated by his poor vision. After joining an aerospace engineering company in 1927, Jiro confronts a moral dilemma–should he pursue his dreams even when airplane technology is the new frontier for World Wars? Jiro’s intentions are pure-hearted, he merely wants to realize a childhood dream. Nevertheless, I felt a strain on my allegiances during the film, unsure whether I wanted to see a brilliant mind succeed when its inventions were capable of so much destruction.
The tension between purity and corruption resonates over the course of the film, in dialogue, plot, and imagery. Jiro’s core moral dilemma, his kind wife’s increasingly debilitating illness, and the horrifying transformation of the beautiful Japanese landscape into a war machine all share a common theme–the fleeting nature of innocence. As the film progresses, picturesque valley designs are covered in lifeless factories spewing smog over a once pristine land.
The Wind Rises’s visual style echoes the motif of corruption–a pathetic fallacy representing the corruption of Jiro’s dreams and family life in the historical backdrop of a war-torn nation. Although dismal, the art design is well done, poignant factory designs literal polluters of the landscape and metaphorical representations of the spiritual toll the war takes on Japanese society.
Yet despite his struggles, Jiro never gives up. In a strikingly bittersweet, beautiful moment towards the film’s end, Jiro’s wife walks out of their house, suggesting her death. Jiro does not see her death, rather feeling a powerful breeze pass across him. The wind delivers news of tragedy to him, but also offers an opportunity for upliftment. Jiro ascends into a dream state, and some of the most fantastical imagery appears on-screen. Hence the ultimately uplifting thesis of the film–no matter how dark external reality may seem, we always maintain the option to dream new realities.
Ultimately, it is our personal visions which go on to shape reality. Factories, mass production, pollution and war began as ideas in someone’s mind. Nevertheless, others possess the agency to dream new dreams and spread new myths to counteract our unfortunate circumstances.
