The Wind Rises review: A fitting finale for animation's greatest visionary

Goodbyes are never easy. For legendary establishment in Japanese animation Studio Ghibli, The Wind Rises represents the loss of Hayo Miyazaki, one of the most visionary directors of all time and co-founder of the studio, as he retires after 35 years at the forefront of animation. For everyone else, Miyazaki's retirement begs the question of how Ghibli will continue to produce pictures of equal innovation and intelligence, after the loss of the mind which created the beautiful My Neighbour Totoro, the awe-inspiring Princess Mononoke and the Oscar winning Spirited Away. But while we wait for this question to be answered, there's Miyazaki's swansong to enjoy in The Wind Rises, a film every bit as intelligent, compelling and powerful as the finest of his vast pedigree of work.

The Wind Rises is, in many ways, a departure from the usual structure of a Ghibli film, primarily in its biographical nature. The film follows the life of Jiro Horikoshi, a brilliant and pacifistic aeronautical engineer responsible for the creation of  the Mitsubishi Zero Fighter, an aircraft used to deadly effect in the Second World War. Through this close study of a single character, Horikoshi becomes one of the most detailed figures in Ghibli history, as the mental conflict between his own love of aircraft and a frustration at the use of his creations for slaughter is portrayed to great effect in character development. His close relationship with his wife Naoko receives equal exploration, buliding a tragic emotional connection between the couple. The cast of supporting characters puts the studio on more familiar territory, almost to the point of homage, with a number of faces being remarkably similar to past Ghibli favourites. These references don't end at the characters either; there are a number of subtle references to Miyazaki's past work throughout the film; my favourite being an image of a distant blaze which appears as a near-identical shot in the 1984 classic Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind; albeit with the fires replace by hundreds of giant insects known as the Ohm. Fortunately, past references don't push the film too deep into Ghibli history, as in fact the animation here is perhaps the studio's best since Spirited Away, with a number of glorious new techniques employed (look out for a phenomenal heat shimmer) in addition to some truly masterful shot selection. It all makes for a fitting to end a career dominated by truly stunning art.

Never one to skimp out on deeper meanings, Miyazaki has outdone himself here. Rather than stick with his usual pro-natural, anti-industrial ideals, more measured and complex ideas has been opted for in The Wind Rises. Instead of starkly juxtaposing natural imagery with human constructions as he has so many times before, Miyazaki blends Horikoshi's aircraft designs with the natural world in order to defend technological innovation and development, a standpoint rarely taken in Ghibli pictures. It's made all the more effective when images of warfare are introduced, as the futility of battle becomes even more shocking when both the carcasses of Horikoshi's planes and the tatters of torn plants and animals lie slain together. It's unfortunate that what really lets the film down is not ambition failing to deliver, but basic filmmaking error. The Wind Rises is, without a doubt, one of the worst edited of all Studio Ghibli films, resulting in an uncharacteristically poorly paced picture featuring an excess of throwaway scenes and characters. An often less than chronological structure also does no favours for a movie in which the events are occasionally left unexplained, rendering it at times difficult to follow.

It's certainly a same that Miyazaki's farewell film is let down by problems which have rarely plagued him before, but these issues don't take too much away from an animation stuffed with poignant meaning and brilliant art. It's not quite the finest of his pictures, but The Wind Rises is still a touching ending to one of the greatest careers in cinematic history.

8/10