Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Jirô Horikoshi, as represented in Hayao Miyazaki’s final masterpiece The Wind Rises, only sought to create a beautiful thing when he engineered the feared Zero fighter. Sure, he was aware that the fighters would be used for the most violent of causes, but even with that recognition he stayed uniquely focused on his own pursuit of beauty. This willful naiveté is championed by Miyazaki, who recognizes the impermanence of beauty and therefore glorifies the need to create, seek, or hold onto worthy things while they last. Just as Jirô chooses to all but ignore what would become of the Zero fighter in the hands of his government, so too does he find himself so lovestruck that he is unable to realistically consider the severity of his lover’s tuberculosis. Nothing, in Miyazaki’s world, lasts, however what he focuses on is the triumph of being present in the moment–of living to the fullest, with a refusal to allow the inevitability of death and decay to spoil what moments are worth living. While the film approaches such dark territory that even the term bittersweet seems overly-sentimental, Miyazaki’s equally fatalistic and hopeful vision is a touching ode to artistry and the individual’s quest for self-fulfillment.
Leave a Comment so far
Leave a comment
For Reel 