The Wind Rises

Hayao Miyazaki’s inter-war animation does away with magical and fantastical elements in favour of modest and deeply humanistic drama.

In Tokyo 1918, young Jiro would love to be a pilot but knowing that he is nearsighted he has sadly had to let that aspiration float away. Waking from a vivid dream about his hero, the famed Italian aeroplane designer Giovanni Battista Caproni, everything becomes clear: he must become an aeronautical engineer.

Seven years later, Jiro and his friend are recruited by aeroplane manufacturer Mitsubishi where he is soon tasked to design the perfect fighter plane. And so, his journey to build the most beautiful aeroplane begins.

Curator’s Note

Hayao Miyazaki’s love-filled and lovely drama about a fresh-eyed wunderkind’s obsession with aviation and devotion to the love of his life is a light-filled, wondrous epic with hints of mid-century melodrama (minus the drama). However, there is also a profound darkness creeping around the periphery of this work which is situated between the first and second World Wars. It’s perhaps a knowing darkness that the audience brings to the film, leaving the filmmaker to emphasise the naïve idealism of Jiro.

Invisible devices remind audiences of Japan’s connection to fascist Europe. The orchestral score composed by Joe Hisaishi elevates the film and functions as connective tissue throughout. His prominent use of the mandolin invisibly tethers Jiro to his Italian hero Caproni and connects Imperial Japan to Europe in subtle but masterful ways.

The Wind Rises made its international premiere at the 70th Venice International Film Festival and went on the receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Film.

– Reece Goodwin, Curator (Film & TV)