New Hayao Miyazaki movie: Kaze Tachinu

[greg]

Kaze Tachinu is the new Studio Ghibli movie by Hayao Miyazaki himself. It will premiere July 20th, so that will be next Saturday. I just bought advanced sale tickets at 7-11 for me and my daughter. The discount regular ticket cost 1300 yen and the junior ticket cost 800 yen. This is the best way to pay for movie tickets, because theaters are so expensive here in Japan. My wife has to work that day, so it will be a special day just for the two of us. We'll ride the train to the Aeon Mall in Fujinomiya to watch it. My daughter is 5, and this will be her first movie theater experience.

I don't know much about this movie, really. I just came across a small promotional poster of this movie at the bookstore a week ago and nabbed one (I can't remember where I put it, though!). Music is by Joe Hisaishi as usual. This movie is all about airplanes. Nausicaa.net says that the English title for this movie is The Wind Rises and that the main character will be voiced by none other than Hideaki Anno of Evangelion fame (although I like Nadia way better).

[_D_]

Hmmm...period piece on Japanese fighter plane (WWII) designer.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2013293/

Might be a bit much for a 5 year old. The 5 year olds here are pumped for this:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1691917/

Me? This is Pacific Rim weekend!

[llj]

I'm looking forward to Takahata's film a little more, actually. It was supposed to be released at the same time as Miyazaki's. Of course, Takahata is late as usual.

[_D_]

More info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro_Horikoshi

[greg]

I watched the movie today with my daughter. To my relief, she stayed quiet and enjoyed the movie, for the most part. My friend's daughter fell asleep on his lap towards the end. I'll share with you all about this movie, without revealing any spoilers.

Okay, so this is a more serious Miyazaki movie, to be sure, along the lines of Nausicaa and Mononoke Hime, but without the action. The movie is still full of beautiful fantasy imagery. When I first saw Sen to Chihiro in the theater in Japan, I described it online to those outside of Japan as a cross between Totoro, Mononoke Hime, and Alice and Wonderland. If I must compare Kaze Tachinu to other Miyazaki movies, I would liken it a bit to Mimi wo Sumaseba, with some flavors of Kurenai no Buta.

I compare Kaze Tachinu to Mimi wo Sumaseba because just like Shizuku, the protagonist Jiro often escapes into a fantasy world of soaring into the skies. As a young boy studying about planes, in his dreams he is approached by the airplane designer he idolizes, Caproni. Caproni is his inspiration, and the spirit of Caproni interacts with Jiro throughout his life, calling him "Japanese lad." Jiro wears glasses, so he knows that he could not become a successful pilot. He asks Caproni if he can fly a plane, and he says no, he actually can't fly a plane. He can only design the planes. Jiro decides to become an airplane designer. These floating dreams in which he has conversations with Caproni are very imaginitive and full of fantasy. This is where I liken the movie to Kurenai no Buta, because of the Italian setting and the grandiose flying machines.

After graduating, Jiro realizes his dream of becoming an airplane designer. While traveling one day by train, he meets a beautiful young girl named Naoko, who rescues his hat when it blows off his head. Later, the train halts as an immense earthquake occurs, which I believe is the Great Kantou Earthquake of 1923, considering the horrific damage that is dealt to Tokyo. Naoko's mother (at least I believe it's her mother) breaks her leg, and Jiro carries her on his back to their home. He then leaves without even telling his name.

Jiro goes on to be an airplane engineer at Mitsubishi and gains respect of his supervisors. Several of them visit Germany to study and observe at the Junkers aircraft factory. Throughout all this, he is still visited by Caproni in his dreams, inspiring him. Jiro shares with him the concept in his head he has had all along, which is actually what will eventually become the Zero.

By chance, Jiro again meets Naoko and her father while vacationing at a summer resort. The play together with a paper airplane and fall in love.

I guess I won't say much more, because I don't want to spoil the movie for anyone. So I'll instead just speak of the spectacular beauty of this movie. The hand-painted backgrounds are breathtakingly spectacular, and it speaks volumes of how soulless the modern, computer-animated anime has become. It always looks too clear and too sharp, and that's not how life is. It's like comparing the original Star Wars movies' matte paintings to the Star Wars Prequels' computer generated crap. The original movies make it look like the actors are standing in front of realistic surroundings, while the prequels make it look like the actors are standing in front of computer desktop backgrounds.

The level of detail in Kaze Tachinu, I wager to say, tops any other Ghibli project before. I always thought Mimi wo Sumaseba was the top, but this new movie is even more beautiful. From the ornate hotel room to the weathered advertising poster for Morinaga caramel candy in the kiosk at night, this movie is full of such beautiful detail! Even when the characters are in the back seat of a car having a conversation, I could see outside the car window telephone poles silhouetted against the twilight sky. Jiro's visions of airplanes are wonderful. As a child, he dreams of flying in his own plane, and giant flying warships descend from the cloud, with shadowy figures astride each. It was certainly classic Miyazaki through and through.

Jiro is voiced, as you may know, by Hideaki Anno, the creator of the excellent Nadia and some obscure garbage called Evangelion or something. (Just kidding. I'm being facetious.) His voice seemed somewhat out-of-place for Jiro as a younger man, but I soon forgot about this because his voice is really one that makes you want to pay attention to. His voice really commands attention.

Lastly, the ending theme is a song by Matsutoya Yumi, aka Yuming. None of my students know her name at all, even though they certainly have at least heard her two songs that were used in Majou no Takkyuubin. I was very happy to hear Yuming's song in this movie. I love her unique voice.

[llj]

My original concern with this film was how the WWII stuff would be handled. As airplane historians know, Jiro designed some of the most famous (infamous?) fighter planes for Japan which were used in the war. While Jiro may or may not have been reluctant about designing planes used for war, I was wondering how something like this would play to western audiences. Or does Miyazaki simply sidestep all this by ending the film before the war?

What are your thoughts on how the film handled this, Greg?

[_D_]

My original concern with this film was how the WWII stuff would be handled. As airplane historians know, Jiro designed some of the most famous (infamous?) fighter planes for Japan which were used in the war. While Jiro may or may not have been reluctant about designing planes used for war, I was wondering how something like this would play to western audiences. Or does Miyazaki simply sidestep all this by ending the film before the war?

What are your thoughts on how the film handled this, Greg?

Yes, I wonder about this as well. Other than perhaps Italy, will this have a chance outside of Japan? If its a fantasy piece, who knows? Period piece? Maybe, maybe not. How well did your daughter understand what was really going on onscreen? Doesn't seem like a kid's film at any rate. Oh, if you want obscure Anno films, try "Love and Pop". Finally got to see this after so many years. Wonder why Anno left live filmmaking? He had said after Evangelion he was through with animation...

[greg]

Yeah, so this is the point where I start needing subtitles to understand everything. To the best of my comprehension, it was brought up that Japan was at war with China. There is one air battle scene that lasts only about five seconds or so, but that's it. I understand that Jiro's motivation was to build the best plane he could, and that he was doing what he felt best for his country. And frankly, I think that will suffice for me. He made the Zero, which was one finely built fighter plane. I imagine he made it for his own pride and the pride of his country. There's no reason to vilify the man in anyone's eyes. I'm sure he took pride in doing a major service to his country. His motivation was to make a finely engineered aircraft. It's not like he was doing it so that Unit 731 could perform live vivisections in Korea, or soldiers to bayonet babies in Manchuria. Similarly, your average Nazi soldier was just fighting for his country, and was led to believe that what he did was right. In a world bereft of stupidity, ignorance, and prejudice, there really is no reason why such a film should not be appreciated. It is a biographically-based, somewhat fantasy-oriented, film about a man from history whose great achievement was designing one of the most capable fighter planes ever made. Yes, so his country was on the wrong side of history. The film focuses on his desire to engineer the best aircraft he could, and that was his motivation. It's not like it's a movie about the man who designed the Nazi gas chambers made to look like showers or something.

Gosh, I can't remember if the movie ends before the attack on Pearl Harbor or not. The movie ends right where its emotional impact is the strongest (I won't give anything away more than that, but it is very moving, and it pertains to the movie's subtitle slogan).

My daughter enjoyed the visuals, and I think she could understand the plot of him falling in love, getting married, etc. Towards the end, she was ready to play in the indoor playground next to the movie theater and game center. She was a good girl, and she kept her pinky promise to be good in the theater.

I'd like to take her to see Monsters University next, but unfortunately I'd have to take her to Tokyo to see it in English. I want her to see American movies in English, since I just can't stand dubs of any sort.

[gaijinpunch]

I guess I should go see this, as so many would love to.
Might do that during the week next week.

[usamimi]

I heard Miyazaki's been getting a LOT of hateful comments towards this movie about comments he made about the war in interviews for the film. I was kind of surprised that it shocked people, because Miyazaki's always been very vocal about how much he hates wars and such (it's been a theme of several of his movies, for crying out loud).

It sounds great though, and I definitely want to see it!