Reviews & Ratings for
The Wind Rises More at IMDbPro »Kaze tachinu (original title)

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102 out of 112 people found the following review useful:

Something Different, Something Awesome

Author: Squanto Makoons from United States
22 July 2013

Do not go into this movie, expecting Kiki or Castle in the Sky, because it's not. It truly is something different by Miyazaki, and in a way it pays an homage to Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies. However, it provides the same inner warm feeling you expect when watching the incredible animation of Studio Ghibli.

Kaze is sentimental drama, and during the entire 2 hour long run, you will truly understand Jiro Horikoshi. This movie is insightful and will leave you staring at the Japanese film credits long after the movie finishes. It's packed with a familiar and breathtaking score from Joe Hisaishi and still manages to provide the magical Ghibli moments that people have become familiar with.

This is the only film I've ever written anything about, and probably will be the only film I ever write a review about. This is Miyazaki at his finest; perhaps not the imaginative super spiral that Spirited Away was, but definitely a sentimental and powerful film that has a great deal of messages; I think this was the movie that we were waiting for from him.

54 out of 61 people found the following review useful:

Miyazaki's most mature film?

Author: ShiiStyle from United States
28 July 2013

The announcement of this film was a pleasant surprise after Ponyo and From Up on Poppy Hill, which both had simple, childish plots. Few films in Japan have tackled the lives of imperial period heroes; the ghosts of the 1960s urge people to denounce what really happened in that time and memorialize an imaginary anti-war movement, for example in this year's film "Shounen H". For Miyazaki to choose a subject like this showed that he was really going for a huge challenge. Miyazaki is of course anti-war and environmentalist. But Ghibli films are never negative. What sort of positive image of the Zero bomber inventor would Miyazaki produce?

The result is astounding. As everyone has noted, this is not a children's movie. It's complex, so it doesn't have the epic sense of Miyazaki at his best, but history and adulthood are just as complex, and Miyazaki does justice to both. The film indeed stays positive throughout, by showing from start to finish how everyone wishes they themselves would behave, rewarding the viewer with virtue and beauty, but without being condescending about the hardships of real life. In a sense, the film is about the "importance of dreams", but it's also about what it means to be a dreamer in real life, and how our highest fantasies can be turned into beauty if we put our minds to it. The cartoon medium is put to full, extravagant use in dream sequences that merge right into the narrative. Certain elements at the end of the film leave the obvious unsaid in a peculiarly Japanese and fulfilling way. The most classic films of Japan, like the great works of Akira Kurosawa and Yasujiro Ozu, say something profound about the meaning of life, and Kaze Tachinu deserves a place among those ranks.

32 out of 39 people found the following review useful:

Hayao Miyazaki's Most Beautiful Film

Author: ([email protected]) from United States
9 November 2013

The Wind Rises is a fictionalized biography / character study of Jiro Hirikoshi and his story of becoming an Aviation Engineer. This movie had a great impact on me after seeing it in the theatre and I thought about what I had seen for the one hour drive home afterwards. In terms of pacing and how the movie focuses on the main character I was reminded of David Lean movies in its maturity and emotional grit. There were also times when watching that I thought to myself I have never seen hand drawn animation this good ever and will probably never see animation this good ever again. The character designs are beautiful. The backgrounds and color pallete are beautiful. The animation is breathtaking. But the story is just as beautiful as the artwork. The movie is about one mans journey to make beautiful airplanes but is also equally tragic in later scenes of the movie in the evolving love story and especially the last scene in the movie.

This movie does not explain at any time through dialogue what the character is feeling but instead it shows you and the subtle and at times powerful emotions which are the glue of what holds his story together. Some people may wonder why Miyazaki took creative risks with the real life story of Jiro Hirikoshi. The real life Jiro never married to a woman with Tuberculosis. Did he really fantasize about building airplanes? Was he really followed by a Soviet Spy? I think the way the character fantasizes about airplanes even when not dreaming is an honest depiction of how creative people like Hayao Miyazaki think.

Along with Porco Rosso this is probably Hayao Miyazaki's most personal movie. If you study Hayao Miyazaki's movies and read about his career like I have it becomes obvious that this movie is as much about Jiro Hirikoshi as it is about Hayao Miyazaki.

I recommend anyone who has ever been creative to go see the Wind Rises.

Hayao Miyazaki's Most Beautiful film.

22 out of 27 people found the following review useful:

The Beauty of Life

Author: 紗矢香 落合
29 September 2013

There might be people saying that it was the bad thing to do to create airplane to kill people. However, the beauty of his life through his Mitsubishi Zero is worth viewing. The young guy lived with his dream, creating the beautiful airplane to fly in the free blue sky. It describe that even though there are many beautiful moments to live as a human being, the wart itself turns them into all evil. I felt like Hayao Miyazaki wanted to tell us the point. And even though under worst situation like world war, people live their own life, and those lives themselves are just so beautiful. Once you watch this movie, you must feel something warm from deep of your heart.

16 out of 18 people found the following review useful:

Another "Visualized Masterpiece" from Miyazaki

Author: m_rishav from Osaka, Japan
15 August 2013

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

First of all, let me start by telling "Woah, What a great movie".

Hayao Miyazaki's latest movie The Wind Rises is one of his best movies till date though the story line and plot is completely different from all his other movies which had a magical and fantasy feeling to it. It's nowhere near Spirited Away his best work till date but it ranks 3rd in my ghibli list after Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke.

The story, partly non-fiction, evolves around a young mechanical designer whose dream was to build beautiful airplanes. He ultimately succeeds in building fully up-to-date planes, but which went to war, and none came back.

His personal life is set in Japan when people were facing great uncertainty after the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, and preparation for the war with China, then America, and Britain, and Netherlands, and the Soviets ... He and his colleagues do what they do best and what they are supposed to do under those circumstances: make planes. Just do it.

His life enters into a new stage when he meets again accidentally with the girl whose life he saved during the earthquake. Their beautiful romance and eventual marriage is however overshadowed by her disease (tuberculosis, which was incurable at that time), and war.

The ending completely pays off and blew me away in every term. The Movie is what we wanted from Miyazaki though intended for Mature Audiences only, I suggest everyone to watch this movie and I am sure that you will receive 1 ounce more pleasure than I did.

10/10 For this Masterpiece.

16 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

The Most different Miyazaki's Film

Author: Chiu Shih-Bo from Taipei
18 September 2013

This film is totally different from Miyazaki's other films and I personally think, like what he's mentioned, a message to to world about how he looks at the war, war machines , peace, love and living. As I am a Taiwanese, who has once colonized and ruled by Japanese during the second world war, how Japanese coped with the war topic is always sensitive. However, what I saw in this film is truly reflecting that Miyazaki is peace loving and his point of view on war, life and love. He depicted about the beauty of dreams and surviving. You can see that everyone in this film try every hard to live, even though the time is hard and forced to strike a balance between dreams and reality. However, they are self fulfilling. So who is to blame? who ruined their lives and dreams? Those who leads them to the war to blame.

In short, the film perfectly shows how the director's been telling in almost every his masterpiece but in a personally way, to the audience. Just like a final message he would like yo transmit to the world. I felt overwhelmed by the film and sad that he decided to retired. Please go to watch this film and you will do feel the courage to live hard and live well.

11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:

Definitely Oscar worthy.

Author: bbickley13-921-58664
23 February 2014

So when I first saw that an anime called the Wind Rises was coming to theaters I could not wait to see it simply because it was an anime coming to theaters. I had no idea what the movie was about, but when I saw the movie, I discovered it was about one of my Favorite subjects, Airplanes.

It's a very simple story that could have been done in Live-action. Jirou who as a boy met his hero, airplane designer, Caproni in his dreams was inspired to become an airplane designer. Years later Jirou lives his dreams and designs airplanes for a manufacturer who sells his beautiful designs to be used for the Ugly art of War. Jirou also fines love in the movie with a young girl name Naoko. All the characters in the movie who supported Jirou, from his little bratty sister, to his firm but fair boss, to his best friend and rival at work. They all help to make you feel like Jirou had a real posh life. I also loved how the story gives us a perspective of Japan pre-World War 2 through the life of Jirou.

All of this could have been done in live action, but the craftsmanship of fame director Hayao Miyazaki makes you think otherwise. The animation takes a very surrealistic approach to telling this drama without making it seem cartoonish like Mickey Mouse. The scene portraying the great Kanto earthquake of 1923 made the ground feel like it was coming to life as a giant wave just took out an entire city. The Dream sequences worked very elegantly, just naturally seeming through. And the planes! the animation team did a great job of making the entire layout of the airplanes look fantastic.

I've seen dramatic anime where the animation does nothing to push the story along but Mr. Miyaazaki did fine work to make sure that was not the case. It's been forever since I've seen a 2D moving illustration on the big screen, it felt a little weird, but this was definitely the movie to bring us all back to that. Someone told me that Hayao Miyazaki may retire after this one as he feels he can't top this. I will not disagree, because this one is excellent.

11 out of 13 people found the following review useful:

The wind rises... we must attempt to live

Author: francesco favro from Italy
4 September 2013

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I watched the film in Venice, and i was amazed as usual by Miyazaki's talent. Starting with the visual impact, at times i forgot to read the subtitles simply because i was staring at a landscape, realizing that it was really a painting. Literally. Sound effects were made entirely by voice, and in the (i don't think this is a spoiler, it's in the trailer) . . . earthquake scene, these effects really made the difference. Now, to the film. It follows the story of Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer who built the "zero-fight" planes for ww II, starting in his childhood, alternating between reality and dream sequences, and going on to his adulthood, all led by the wind, which is a sort of "deus ex" for Jiro. It's very different from every other Miyazaki's works, so don't go watch it expecting spirits, magic or such.

8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:

Miyazaki's swan song doesn't disappoint

Author: MisterWhiplash from United States
1 March 2014

I don't know if I loved it right from minute one, but then it doesn't quite start like any Miyazaki film (well, even with a dream scene). Its a little quieter, more natural, thoughtful and subdued, much like the main character will be through the film. And then earthquake hits. Its unlike anything you've seen in an animated film. It doesn't hype up its suspense or action. it simply shows Its protagonist, Jiro, react to a situation as calm and controlled as possible amid the debris and darkness and chaos, and help a couple of people in need. of course he doesn't know this young woman he saves will be an emotional foundation for his life. But as with any simple but splendid poetry we have a sense of the connection made.

Any other director might just make it a film about the 1920s earthquake that devastated Tokyo. Not Miyazaki. Soon after Tokyo is up and running and Jiro is after his passion which is airplanes. He dreams about them, and more than that dreams about the Italian icon of flying he looks up to as he gives Jiro advice and philosophical points about flying, inspiration and technology. And very soon after the film is more than anything about this man and his process - finding without any grandiose strokes what can make a plane fly quicker, faster, safer, with more agility and s look like no other. And, sometime soon, finding a love all his own.

Miyazaki has said (once again but probably for real this time) that he is done making films with the conclusion of the Wind Rises. If so, that's fine. I'm not sure if it's any sort of culmination of what his career has been or what he's said - Though you could certainly have a double feature with Porco Rosso, also about the wonder of flight but more in an adventure fantasy approach and have a fantastic several hours - and yet it's no less a marvel than anything else he's made. And if anything it just reveals more depths to how he feels for people and can show them in dimensions on screen than ever before. It is a biopic still, and a line here or there may be cornball, but so what. Its a fiercely intelligent film with genuine sentiment and a grace that comes from being a master letting your story unfold without rushing, letting scenes play out for full emotional weight, And ample colors and compositions painted with nostalgia for a mood (if not necessarily a side in history).

And yet you may think going in that there will be some sort of agenda politically speaking as it looks at a man who helped, ultimately, design planes that dropped bombs and shot and killed the US during world war two. It really isn't, or as simple as that. A couple of scenes with a German businessman of a sort voiced by Werner Herzog (yes the one and only, you'll know him when you hear him) lays out the futility in war and conflicts. And Jiro agrees. when someone speaks to him about what planes will be sent to fight whom, he is already resigned. "Japan will burn,' he says more or less. And yet he always stays more pragmatic, more about the work and the hard enough task to make the planes and make them fly high and well. This double edged sword also comes out when he is talking to his Italian guru in his dreams (especially the last one at the end of the war).

With all of this, the Wind Rises is a touching love story that seems possibly very doomed from the start - before getting engaged Jiro is told by Nahoko she has Tuberculosis and he doesn't care, or at least about that deterring him away - and how strong their bond is. How often do we get to see people in a movie, animated or otherwise, act like this to one another with kindness and compassion and a tenderness that (for the most part, maybe there's a bit of that "Japanese Disney" schmaltz but not much) is without any reservation? Not often really, at least like this as told at times without words at all; the high point of the picture is when there is a kind of wordless courtship as Jiro flies a paper plane around and it goes to the girl and she flies it back out as he chase to catch it and it repeats. The moving music, the amiable tone of the whole set piece, the mild peril... I'm at a loss to how much that just works because it feels true.

Did I mention its among the ten most beautifully animated films ever made? And I'm sure that group includes Mononoke and Totoro already. And I know full well a term like 'beautiful" is overused and tired. But Miyazaki crafts his works (or did) by hand with gorgeous, clear lines, water colors and maybe some cgi, and it both serves the story and its own sense of the world it's in: the earthy greens, the shiny clouds and blue skies, the metallic force of the planes, the drab grays of the offices and plane hangers. And yet you are still wrapped up in the tale of this man and those who cared about him or were inspired by and led by him, and is another rarity (easier to pull off in literature, trickier here and Miyzaki just about pulls it off): a mild wind that grows with power and energy, briefly, and then ebbs and flows with reality and, again, thought.

14 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

Studio Ghibli

Author: Conan Edogawa
12 September 2013

This movie is the latest work of Studio Ghibli. The hero has dream. He really likes airplane when he is young. However, his eyes are not good. So, he becomes the engineer of airplane. He has a best friend. He is also the engineer of airplane. Airplane is the all of him. One day, he meets a woman. She is a destiny. They fall in love and…?

This story is little difficult for me. It is because may be there is a message that I cannot find out I watch it once. I want to watch one more. Of course I can understand this story. However, I think, there is a more message. I like the scene that he and his best friend talk about the airplane. When I watch the scene, I think it is the beautiful that people are absorbed in one thing. I want to find my favorite thing I can forget other things and be absorbed in.

I recommend you this movie. If you watch it, you will want to find your favorite thing.

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