Cross posting from the anime thread:
http://neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=71719646&postcount=17617
So I just got back from watching
Kaze Tachinu
It's kinda hard to describe it while avoiding spoilers but I'm going to try my best.
Art and Animation
I'm not gonna spend much time here because this is Studio Ghibli. Everything is lovingly hand drawn with gorgeous backgrounds. There is a famous story about how Miyazaki was berating a Ghibli animator about the kid animating an airplane by drawing on inspiration from movies/TV/other anime. He said something like, you can't draw an airplane unless you've ridden one and had the feel of the wind in your hair blah blah. Well, I can say that, Ghibli must have shelled out some hardcore flying lessons for its animators because the flying is incredible. It is always easier to animate someone flying through the air (like in Kiki) rather than to realistically show a machine with weight doing so and most anime have struggled with that. Ghibli gives us a master class on how to do it here.
For something so serious, you'd think they'd use a more muted color palette but in true Ghibli style, everything is super lush. There are big rolling fields and everything is beautifully done.
If you're not content with airplane sakuga, there's earthquake sakuga, fire sakuga, car sakuga, train sakuga and rain sakuga. You'll need to watch Free! if you want swimming sakuga unfortunately. So yeah, Studio Ghibli is incomparable in terms of art and animation. Nothing comes close.
Music
I love the theme song. Its an old song
Hikouki-gumo "Airplane Cloud" by Yumi Arai (same singer as Yasashihsa ni tsutsumareteru nara from Kiki).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGjRjCyTzys
The main theme also sounds like the main theme from Laputa. Its definitely a very serious work and Jo Hisaishi has done a great job to fit the soundtrack with the events in the movie.
Also, to get it out of the way, Hideaki Anno is fucking awful as the VA for the main character. You're looking at the character and you're expecting one thing and then this weird old man voice comes out of his mouth. Its definitely jarring the first time you hear it. That said, its not THAT bad. Every second sentence Jiro says sounds perfectly fine. Its that first sentence you have to get over every time.
Story and Impressions
Its about the life of one guy, Jiro Horiguchi. The movie follows him from when he was a kid dreaming of airplanes, when he enters college to study engineering, the Great Kanto Earthquake, him joining Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to make planes, his love life, and follows him through the eventual development of the Japanese zero fighter.
For those worried, there is nothing significant in the movie about the war. Outside of some imagery, the war doesn't happen in this movie. The movie is focused on the people developing the airplanes and doesn't even attempt to provide commentary on the war. The war is something that WILL happen, we know it, but the characters of course don't and the movie tells it from that vantage point. To say more would delve into spoilers but I, not being Japanese, had reservations that the movie might glorify Japan's role in the war but rest assured, it does no such thing.
Its a beautiful story through and through. I kinda struggled with the first half of the movie and kept asking myself what the hell Miyazaki was thinking with this but eventually by the 2nd half, I found myself completely into the characters and developments. It kinda crept up on me to be honest.
Its a very adult story though and I think that is what might trip some people up. There are almost no children in the movie and certainly no children that have any important roles. The characters behave like adults, they drink, they smoke, they kiss. This is not Totoro or Spirited Away or Ponyo. There is no whimsy outside of a few dream sequences. I kinda felt bad for the families with kids in the theater. Its a cold hard look at the life of a man, his dreams and the Japan of the time.
I will complain about something that while not really Miyazaki's fault is something I feel at this point in my life an illustration of everything that I feel is wrong with Japanese society. Its the idealism of saying that as long as you are chasing your dream (working), everything else doesn't matter. That consequences aren't really consequences. They are things that happen on the way to your dream.
Its a movie by Hayao Miyazaki for Hayao Miyazaki. It really did seem to me like Miyazaki is putting himself out there as the main character. He devoted his life to his craft, he lived, he loved and in the end work wins out over everything else.
Final thoughts
There's a tweet from Mamoru Hosoda (The Girl Who Leap Through Time, Wolf Children Ame and Yuki) which praised this movie and he said something to the effect of "there has never been a movie like this and there will never be" and I agree with him although I think he's correct not in the way you reading this might think. This is a movie that only someone with the experience, clout and confidence of Hayao Miyazaki could have made. It is a dead serious work that explores what it means to live and chase your dream (or what happens when you fail). The movie panders to no one. There are no cute characters, no marketable sidekicks. I have a hard time imagining how this movie will be merchandised at all. This is a movie that only Miyazaki in his old age could have made. Not Oshii, not Hosoda, not even Takahata would get away with making something as personal, thoughtful and as beautiful as this movie.
You should do everything in your power to find a way to watch this movie (get the dub if at all possible).
