Hayao Miyazaki's latest (and likely last) feature film has been making waves in both his home of Japan and here in the United States. Labeled as traitor by some in Japan for criticizing the country's recent push to grow its military, he's also been taking some heat in the States for what is perceived to be the "glorification of someone who made war machines that ruined lives." Many American viewers have expressed displeasure at his "glossing over Japanese war crimes," or the negative impact of the machines protagonist Jiro Horikoshi created - namely the infamous Zero fighter plane.
People who make those claims though have missed the point a bit. They're essentially admitting that they expected and wanted the film to be something else. Those American viewers who are upset with his "glossing over" war crimes are trying to attach a larger scope to the film than Miyazaki. The film is not an epic like Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or Princess Mononoke or Howl's Moving Castle. Though it lacks the same kind of innocent charm that Kiki's Delivery Service or my Neighbor Totoro had, it's more in line with those films. It's smaller, more personal in scope. There's the backdrop of terrible times in Japanese history: the great Kanto earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, and the tuberculosis epidemic. There are also references to the building military might of Japan. Jiro and is friend Honjo are sent to Germany to check out the fighters and bombers in their Air Force.
Jiro occasionally asks who Japan is going to use these bombers and fighters on. "America, probably. Not that they can," Honjo responds. Later he answers they'll probably attack China or Korea. We're given the historical backdrop, but we don't see it because it's not that kind of a movie. We're focused on this one character. We don't hear much about the greater atrocities or the war itself because Jiro wasn't there. He didn't send troops there. He didn't fight there. He simply wanted to build efficient and beautiful airplanes for the world. He makes several cracks showing complete disinterest in war. In one meeting with other engineers, he lays out an innovative new design. "But then we have a problem with weight," he tells them. "We'll just have to remove the guns!" Obviously, this isn't going to please the Army. He even winds up subject to Secret Police surveillance. These conversations show though that he's just an engineer doing what he loves to do: design airplanes.
I admit to knowing pretty much nothing about the real life Jiro Horikoshi (as I'm sure is true of every American viewer). Still, Miyazaki has said that the inspiration for the story was on a real Horikoshi quotation. "I just wanted to make something beautiful," he said.
The film is almost tragic in this sense. Airplanes were one of the greatest innovations of the 1900s. It revolutionized the world and connected us in a way that hadn't yet occurred. For the first time, you could actually travel across the country in a day! The world opened up. Like most technologies though, it wound up commandeered for power hungry warmongers. It's not unlike all the physicists recruited to work on the atomic bomb (arguably a worse tool that only existed for destruction). The contributions to science made by those physicists can never be undervalued. Our understanding of the universe we live in has never been better, in large part from them. Their studies yielded many, many positive things to the world. However, the US Government harnessed their knowledge and passion to create the ultimate weapon of mass destruction; a weapon that would change the world.
The point is this: a lot of good people were asked to make terrible things during the war. J. Robert Oppenheimer was a good man and a great scientist, but he was still a critical figure in the development of the worst weapon the world had seen. If this film had been about Charles Lindbergh, who similarly helped the United States build bombers that would devastate Japanese cities, would there still be murmurs of "glossing over wartime atrocities"? (Let's be real here, no one's bombing campaign during the war was anything other than an "atrocity.")
I think most people like to oversimplify things, especially war. Japan certainly did have a lot to answer for after the war. And certainly, their government's steadfast refusal to admit any wrongdoing at all is still the source of contention in the region. Still, World War II was a very complicated and messy war for everyone. It's easy to sit here now, over half a century later in a drastically different political and technological climate, and judge the actions of particular individuals. It's easy to ignore atrocities committed against the German people or the Italian people or the Russian people or the Japanese people because those nations also committed atrocities against other nations. We like to make every German or Japanese individual from that time period a monster. Fact is though, that's not true. At the end of the film, a distraught and dreaming Jiro stumbles upon a field of destroyed planes where he then sees the spirit of his deceased wife who urges him to go on living. These destroyed fighters imply a destroyed dream. Where once he dreamed of beautiful and elegant airships, now he sees nothing but destruction. His admirable and important dream has been killed and turned into a nightmare. His guilt is noticeable as he needs to be urged to keep living.
In this way, The Wind Rises feels more tragic and subsequently more poignant. It's not enough that he loses his wife far too soon to tuberculosis. His other love - engineering - is being taken advantage of by an abusive, militaristic government. This is the unfortunate and challenging reality of most scientists and engineers. They set off to do something good, but it doesn't take much before the new technology gets appropriated for war. There have also been critics who expressed displeasure in Jiro's oblivious attitude towards the world around him, but that is also a bit unfair. It's not so much that he doesn't notice anything wrong around him. Indeed, he is often aware of things amiss. At one point, he angrily objects to the idea of the Secret Police opening the mail of any Japanese citizen. I'm not really sure what American viewers wanted to see Jiro do though. The thing about these overly nationalistic, militaristic governments was that they didn't give you a choice. It was do what they ask or be imprisoned (and probably killed). A lot of good Americans were asked to do terrible things in the war too.
For this reason, the film is deeply controversial. It's heavy hitting, but not in the typically obvious way. It's such because - if you're willing to watch it with an open mind - it forces you to reexamine your preconceived beliefs. You really can't go into the film with this idea that everyone in Japan was a monster, or wanting to see Miyazaki tackle the issue of Japan's wrongdoings. The former isn't true and the latter isn't the point.
As a film though, it's probably one of Miyazaki's weaker efforts. It feels a bit choppy and clumsy at times. Time seems to pass without any representation that it has, which can make it a little difficult to follow. The characters are also a bit simplistic. Unfortunately, one of Miyazaki's greatest strengths - writing female characters - doesn't show. Jiro's wife Naoko is sick with tuberculosis and serves as little more than inspiration (or a distraction) for Jiro. She is dealing with conflicting feelings of staying with her husband or returning to a remote facility to deal with her tuberculosis (ultimately, just a place to go and die). His sister also shows up throughout. She is fast on her way to becoming a doctor, which seems like it should be a bigger deal than it is presented, being the 1930s and Japan. She has an attitude and challenges her brother constantly, but not enough to really impact anything.
Jiro is the character that gets the most focus. Zeroed in on his dream of designing planes, he handles a world growing out of whack. Miyazaki regularly deals with the theme of remaining pacifist in a world that doesn't appreciate pacifism. Nausicaa and Ashitaka are characters who just want to help people, but sometimes are forced to momentarily "take a side." In reality, they aren't taking sides. They're just trying to be good to everyone. This confounds the people of Tolmekia and Pejite in Nausicaa as well as the people of Ironworks and San in Mononoke. Jiro is presented the same situation, but in a different way. He's not necessarily a pacifist, but he's still ultimately not on anyone's side. The difference here though is that he isn't really presented any alternatives to begin with. Additionally, he might not be aware of the implications of designing planes for a government not yet engaged in full scale war. It's interesting, but less compelling than previous works.
Another misstep is some of the animation. Mostly gorgeous, as is the norm for Miyazaki, there is some CGI utilized in the film. Like with Spirited Away, the CGI stands out like a sore thumb. The animation from computers is noticeably different from the two dimensional line work of the regular animation. It's primarily used for movement, so it goes by quick, but you do notice it when it shows up. It's a bit bumpy.
One other thing though, and I'm not really sure if this is true, but it sounds as though the sound effects of the planes are done by people. The planes don't sound mechanical. They sound like a group of people making sound effects with their mouths. I can't say if that's true or not, but that's what it seemed like to me. If that's true though, I kind of love it. It sounds a bit silly at first, but if you start thinking about it, eventually it almost seems to suggest a silliness of using airplanes for tools of war.
The Wind Rises is ambitious and perhaps Miyazaki's most poignant and important film, but it's not as smoothed over as previous works. It suffers a bit in its characters and a lack of complexities. Some of the plot elements seem to just dangle throughout the film without ever fully getting the attention they deserve. Still, it is a great film that should challenge you. Perhaps some of the ambiguity of his message is causing people to jump off the wagon here as typically, Miyazaki hits you with his messages pretty clearly. Personally, I love the fact that it's not necessarily spelling anything out for you; that it seems to challenge you to reexamine your feelings on the war. It tries to put a human face on a people that we tend to paint as overall monsters. And it shows a tragic fate for people with a passion for great things that are easily abused by warmongering governments. It's not an easy film in this way.
And for the idea of "glorifying someone who built war machines" though, I'm not so sure I think it really glorified anything at all. Jiro ends up without his wife and without his planes. His pursuit of his dream ends up contributing to the destruction of Japan. He loses both of his loves. Yes, he's presented as a great person, but he doesn't come out on top. He ends up with profound guilt that his dream has turned into a nightmare. I'd also argue it is strange for American audiences to complain about this film "glorifying someone who advances war" when that's a large chunk of American cinema. We have a tendency to glorify war itself and those involved in it. (But again, this film doesn't really glorify anything.)
As an aside, I do kind of think that if you don't know anything at all about Japanese history, or you are someone who simply breaks the war down into "Axis vs. Allies," you might not necessarily appreciate it as much. Additionally, the film is very poignant in regards to the political climate of Japan and eastern Asia today, so it might be wise to read up a little bit on that before seeing it too.
Miyazaki doesn't make bad movies though. This film probably falls to the middle of the pack, but it is still a good movie.
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