Review of The Wind Rises (2013) by Dawdlingpoet — 20 Nov 2021

This is a mostly family friendly animated film, an imaginative one featuring depictions of dreams and the like. Animation aside, it is a drama, a fictionalised biopic drama. It covers themes such as love, passion (in a non-sexual way) hope and determination (to succeed).

I like the detail in the animation - the animation itself is quite charming in being 2D based, like most Studio Ghibli films are but I've always liked and enjoyed this. I feel that such films have more authenticity to them somehow, whereas CGI technology tends to seem, or feel, quite a bit artificial and slap dash. I like that characters are shown in quite a lot of detail, with them shown to run from place to place at certain times for example - the detail in the animation is good and makes it seem surprisingly realistic yet obviously not artificial. I like that shadows are well animated - lots of fairly small seeming details are well portrayed. There are some surprising scenes which feature extremes of colour, with bright yellow and oranges shining brightly against the white of the cloudy sky. There are also beautifully colourful sunsets and the like - I thought the quality of the animated visuals was really very impressive. I also noticed the sound effects are quite detailed as well, with the sound of individual foot steps being clearly audible at times and even the sound of the wind itself via bushes and trees blowing in said wind etc. I felt its quite an indulgent film in a way (such as the visuals/animation and the themes) but I genuinely mean that in a good sense. I felt it was quite an engrossing film, with me enjoying following Jiro's life. The plot is a bit confusing in parts, in terms of establishing which scenes are set during a dream and which are actually reality and in terms of the chronology. I noticed the film makes good use of a classical soundtrack, including some light and airy pieces that go well with positive scenes, when Jiro is in his element and as the old saying goes 'daring to dream'. I thought that the good use of the classical pieces combined with the impressive use of perhaps slightly old fashioned 2D animation and moreso the attention to detail it featured, really made it quite charming and a very enjoyable watch. I should perhaps point out that there are some moments of peril present in the plot - plot wise its not all happy as such, although I won't go in to any details so as not to provide any potential spoilers but suffice to say that the film features both joyously optimistic, dreamy type sequences and scenes of a war setting, in a much more uncertain time. I suppose it could be quite thought provoking in a sense, although currently I prefer to watch films for the escapism side of things nowadays.

As far as content is concerned, there is relatively little likely to scare or particularly offend people, although there are some scenes depicting natural disasters and war - one features a relatively long drawn out natural event, in which many tens of citizens are shown fleeing. I suppose this could disturb or frighten very young children. There is little in the way of direct violence shown on screen, although there are scenes featuring war planes clearly visible but people with injuries aren't really shown or certainly not in much detail anyway. The closest equivalent is when an illness becomes widespread and people obviously suffer from it, the depiction of which could seem a bit harrowing for young kids.

Also, I noticed Jiro is shown smoking in various scenes, which may put some parents off showing their children it but to be honest its probably more of an adults film in a sense - not in terms of the content but in terms of the length (it being just slightly over 2 hours long) and the historical context of the plot, I'm not sure if young kids would stay interested in it right to the very end. I very much enjoyed watching this - I couldn't help but feel like the film was very well made, featuring a good mix of both endearing animation and a lovely classical music soundtrack score.