Being stuck at home with Netflix gives me time to catch up on the movies I always wanted to watch. When legendary director Hayao Miyazaki made a movie about the designer of the infamous Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter (which tormented Allied pilots), I knew wanted to view it. And it did not disappoint.
Synopsis
The Wind Rises is a fictitious biography of Jiro Horikoshi. Inspired by planes engineered by Italian aviator Giovanni Caproni, Jiro is determined to become an airplane engineer himself. Tasked with the Japanese military to design a warplane that was lightweight, fast and able to take off from a short distance, Jiro and his friend Kiro Honjo (designer of the G3M bomber) were dispatched to Nazi Germany to study. Along the way, Jiro finds love in Naoko Satomi.
Moral questions
Although this movie is about the famed engineer, it focus more about the moral ambiguity that Jiro faced throughout his engineering career.
Should he continue in his projects, fully knowing that that his designs will be used for weapons of war?
Although I was interested in how Jiro advocated for the use of flat rivets to reduce air drag, it was also fascinating to see Jiro struggle with his morality. He is portrayed as hating violence, yet he knows that without military sponsorship he would not be able to fund his dreams.
Conclusion
I enjoyed the film as it reminds us that the Japanese citizenry had mixed feelings about the oncoming war. This is a good war film to show the events leading to World War 2.
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