Just came home from seeing Hayao Miyazakis latest (and hopefully not last) film, THE WIND RISES at the Alamo Drafthouse in Kalamazoo (a gorgeous new theater chain to this part of Michigan with food you can order to be brought to your table while you watch a movie and a VERY strict no texting/talking during the movie policy...which I LOVE). My friends, you have...to...see...this...film. Miyazakis anime might not have the fluidity of a Pixar or Disney animated film, but there is a soulfulness and beauty in his images and his characters that I have not seen in a Pixar film since TOY STORY 3 or any classically animated feature film produced in this country since THE IRON GIANT years ago. This story about the man who loved flying (but who could not actually become a pilot himself due to poor eyesight) but who worked diligently on designing an aircraft that could-in the historical timeframe of the film-do anything he demanded of it is so human and so gripping that after a while you are no longer thinking you are watching an animated film. To take a real historical figure and tell their story in such a way that live action would not have done it justice takes cinematic genius, and that is what is on display here. This film lost the Animated Feature Oscar to FROZEN. While I take nothing away from that film, which contained some truly stunning 3D computer animation and some truly beautiful artwork, Miyazakis film feels a bit more emotionally and cinematically resonant to me than the film that won. This film has stirred up some controversy in Japan amongst those who have strong nationalist feelings and some of them have condemned the film for having a mild condemnation of war at the end, and of course there are some there who have a problem with the film supposedly making a hero out of the man who designed the Japanese Zero fighter, perhaps the deadliest plane of WWII, and perhaps that conundrum is what kept it from winning an Oscar (not really being released widely until now probably did not help, considering that FROZEN is still playing in some theaters). I sincerely hope that this will not be the last film we get from this master of his craft, but if it is, I can truly say that he went out at the top of his game, and perhaps what one of his characters says in the film about artists having about 10 years of greatness before losing their touch is advice he felt he needed to take, even if he actually waited many years more than that. Bravo, 巨匠 Miyazaki.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Mar 2014 04:34:41 +0000
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