The Wind Rises

I think 'Howl's Moving Castle' was the first feature-length film that was announced as being Miyazaki's last. But ten years and two feature films later, has the great director finally decided to call it a day? With 'Ponyo' since being his second last ever film, now 'The Wind Rises' is the next film to make the claim and, given its subject matter and style, is probably as good a place as any to call it a day.

Telling the story of real-life human: Japanese aeronautics engineer Horikoshi Jiro, designer of Japanese fighter planes used during the Second World War. Now, this is always going to be a touchy subject matter to tackle and would seemingly be a move away from his previous films. However, Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki himself have previously made films as serious and adult in theme as this. But what this does mean is that some of the more mythical elements of his previous films are not present.

With a brief look at his childhood years, the film quickly moves to his time at University before his starting work at the Mitsubishi Internal Combustion Engine Company, where he would start to design war planes. But, fear not. This is not a biopic that could have been made as a live-action film full of dull moments. Looking at his dreams, we follow Jiro's desire to create beautiful flying machines from a young age. But, as the film progresses and the reality of designing planes as an engineer during war time, the dreams become visions of the destruction his creations will bring. Numerous references are made to life's ironies throughout, and this is the one apparent by the film's conclusion.

While all of his film's have an appeal to adults as well as children, 'The Wind Rises' feels more adult: less happy in its ending and more along the lines of Ghibli's other wartime film, 'Grave of the Fireflies'.

But, the magic is still there. 'The Wind Rises' is positive in its telling of a boy's dream to create what he loves and how Jiro's intentions were only ever to do good, rather than a desire to destroy, ending with an emotional finale, feeling an appropriate place for Miyazaki to call it a day. But, as 'Howl's Moving Castle' and 'Ponyo' have proved, never say 'never.'