Edward Mordechay
Professor Sheehan-Saldaña
IDC: Featured Article
11 November 2013
“The Wind is Rising! We Must Try to Live it”
After nearly six decades, animator, manga artist, producer and screenwriter, Hayao Miyazaki is retiring with his last feature film, “The Wind Rises.” Released at New York City’s Sunshine Cinema on Houston Street for one week, “The Wind Rises” is a fictionalized biographical representation of Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer who created the devastating warplane, A6M Zero Fighter. Because of the plot, which focuses on the construction of the warplane, and other images, many groups, both domestic and foreign, have criticized the film.
Hayao Miyazaki has produced over 20 feature films in his lifetime and each has gone on to win various awards throughout Japan. With films that often depict Japanese mysticism and folklore, Miyazaki has become a very popular and highly acclaimed animator throughout Japan and the world.
Unlike other films, however, “The Wind Rises,” does not show any form of mysticism, rather, it is fixated on realistic events. As a boy, Miyazaki always had an affinity for the flying machine, which is the focus of “The Wind Rises” because of his father, who worked at an airplane factory. The film follows Jiro Horikoshi as he grows up and becomes an aeronautical engineer and eventually the chief engineer designing fight planes for a leading aircraft manufacturer. After a series of failures, Horikoshi finally builds the Mitsubishi A5M, a precursor to the A6M, and falls in love with Naoko, Horikoshi’s future wife, who is afflicted with tuberculosis.
Though the plot is quite simple, many people, from both sides, have criticized its representation of World War II Japan. The biggest criticisms from abroad are the smoking scenes, which they’re a total of eight. The problem isn’t necessarily the smoking, but who sees the smoking. Since the movie is an animation, parents in America, and other countries, expect to take their child to see a child’s movie; unfortunately, Japanese anime is not Pixar. In Japan, anime is treated with the same respect as an actual movie. It is as real as authentic as a real life movie, only in picture form; thus, the confliction was created over differences in cultures.
Disney distributed “The Wind Rises” in America, and I’m glad it did although it was releasing it at arm’s length. I believe Disney looked at “The Wind Rises” as a film by a great artist instead of as a film that is meant to keep kids away. When asked if a child should be taken to see the movie, Robert K., an avid anime watcher and Miyazaki fan, says that “some parts are kid friendly, but others aren’t,” and Myrrhia R., another avid Miyazaki fan, believes that “a level of maturity is needed so that the child could understand the ideas of the film.” Myrrhia sums up my thoughts exactly. The movie has many moments inappropriate for kids: tuberculosis, smoking, animated bombs, but we shouldn’t be keeping kids out because of historical context, rather, we should be allowing mature children understand the pain of tuberculosis, the hardships of loss, the coping mechanism of smoking, and the irrational reasoning of human beings. If a parent feels that his child can’t understand just that, then this film is best left for the adults. On the other hand, if a child can understand, then it is a wonderful moment to teach a child the mentality of the past, and the good and bad that came from it.
Domestically, all sides have criticized the film. The many liberals of Japan as well as China, Korea, and even America, are disgusted of the film because of its historical context. The film follows the protagonist’s invention a deadly weapon that killed countless lives during the war. Many liberal Japanese out lashed over the depiction because they don’t want to be connected with such a dark part of their history. Koreans and Chinese dislike the film because the workers used to create the A6M were forced laborers from both countries. On the other site, the right purveys Miyazaki as a “traitor” and “anti-Japanese” because his movie also shows the futility of war.
Miyazaki expected such backlash for his film, but he had a rebuttal. A pacifist himself, Miyakazi had “very complex feelings” about the war, and saw the Japanese endeavors as “foolish arrogance; however, Miyakazi clearly states that he was making the movie because Jiro Horikoshi created the one thing Japan could be proud of. As the movie itself states, the A6M not only brought Japan to the forefront of aeronautical engineering, but Horikoshi’s creation surpassed all other planes. Miyakazi saw “Jiro Horikoshi (as) the most gifted man of his time in Japan. He wasn’t thinking about weapons – really all he desired was to make exquisite planes.” Robert K. agrees with Miyakazi and doesn’t see the film as Japanese’s World War II aggression, but “a creative endeavor of a man trying to be the best.” Hilary R., an anime enthusiast, sees the film as a “tasteful way of making art, and not nationalistic whatsoever.” I believe the biggest question Miyakazi asks his critics is “should (Horikoshi) be liable for anything just because he lived in that period?” No, in the end, the passion of one man should not be criticized because of what others did with his passion. Horkoshi’s only became a byproduct of Japan’s arrogance.
Geoffrey Wexler, the international chief at Studio Ghibli, sees the film as “a love story, between two people and between a creator and his invention.” After watching the animated film, that is my final view. The film is simply following Horikoshi as he passionately works to create a masterpiece. That same passion can be seen with his wife, and all you want in the end is for both Horikoshi’s life and marriage to live on.
Miyakazi’s inspiration for the film was a quote from Horikoshi who said, “All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful.” Besides being his inspiration, the quote also embodies how Miyakazi wants to depart the industry by creating something beautiful.
Work Cited
Barnes, Brooks. “Swan Song Too Hawkish for Some.” NYTimes.com. NYTimes.com, 5 Nov. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
Fujii, Moeko. “Miyazaki’s Film ‘The Wind Rises’ Spurring Mixed Emotions.” Japan Real Time RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
Keegan, Rebecca August. “‘The Wind Rises’: Hayao Miyazaki’s New Film Stirs Controversy.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
McCurry, Justin. “Japanese Animator under Fire for Film Tribute to Warplane Designer.” The Guardian. N.p., 22 Aug. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2013.
“News Hayao Miyazaki’s The Wind Rises Opens Today in Los Angeles, New York.” Anime News Network. Anime News Network, 8 Nov. 2013. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.
