Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Ella-May O'Brien Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

SquigglyCrunch The Wind Rises follows Jiro Horikoshi, a man who designed fighter planes during World War II.As per usual, Studio Ghibli creates a beautiful looking movie here. The animation is breathtaking, with the scenery being gorgeous to gawk at and the animation itself fluent. More importantly, the first half of the story and almost everything revolving around planes is really well written. The main character, Jiro, is interesting and well-written. The way he acts is realistic, and it's easy to believe that this guy actually existed. I went into this movie not knowing it was about planes. By the look of the poster art, I thought it was a romance. For the whole first hour and a bit I was just waiting for that to start. The first bit wasn't bad by any means, but I felt like there was more waiting, like we were wasting time or developing characters to make a more effective last act. Then the romantic aspect started and I remember audibly telling the movie "no stop, go back!" It was awful. The characters don't spend nearly enough time together on screen to form any chemistry or relationship, and then suddenly they're getting married. It's out of nowhere and I really didn't care at all for their relationship. After that it keeps switching between romance and planes. Again, the planes stuff is cool, but the romance is awful. And this is where the movie gets particularly stupid. Characters make decisions that make no sense whatsoever. I get it, this is based on true events and maybe these decisions were actually made for these reasons, but I don't care about the source material. Make it less accurate for the sake of making a good movie, I don't care. Don't paint this character as a genius then turn him idiot for the last act, it just doesn't make sense. Also the voicing acting is pretty bad. Now I watched the dub, shoot me if you want, I don't care. It's the official dub, so it should hold to the same standard of quality as the original. And it doesn't. Go ahead and tell me to watch the sub because it's 'so much better', but I prefer to watch my movies instead of read them, especially when that option is available professionally. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is awful as Jiro. He's so dull, it's like he's literally reading the script for the first time, not processing a single line and just saying it all. Moreover, John Krasinski as one of his friends is overly excited all the time. And I mean, ALL THE TIME. Yet his character's face looks constantly unimpressed or bored. It's like the voice actors should've been switched. Overall The Wind Rises is not the movie I hoped it'd be. Despite expecting one thing, I enjoyed the other part much more. Only about half this movie is good, and the rest is still littered with no-so- great aspects. In the end I wouldn't recommend this movie.

Tweekums This film, Hayao Miyazaki's last, tells a fictionalised account of the life of the aircraft designer Jiro Horikoshi. From a young age Jiro dreams of flying although his poor eyesight means he will never be a pilot. After reading a magazine article he dreams of meeting Italian aircraft designer Giovanni Battista Caproni; after this he decides to pursue a career in aircraft design. As he travels to college by train he is caught up in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923. On the train he meets Naoko and after the earthquake he helps her and her injured maid. After graduating he finds work at Mitsubishi and it is clear that Japanese aircraft design is far behind that of the west but he and his friend Kiro Honjo are determined to help them catch up. After an early setback Jiro takes some time off and bumps into Naoko again and a romance soon blossoms. She tells him that she has tuberculosis but after some time in a sanatorium they are married. He continues to work and makes great advances… there are storm clouds on the horizon though; Japan is on the road to war and Jiro's planes are destined to play a key part in that self-created national disaster.I had put off watching this film for a long time as I didn't want there to be no new Miyazaki films to watch; having finally watched it I can say it was not in any way disappointing. This is Miyazaki's most grown up work and it doesn't shy away from tragedy; either personal of national. As one would expect from Studio Ghibli the animation is amazing. There are no static background characters; everybody is moving in a vibrant but not overly exaggerated manner. Not surprisingly the flying scenes are beautiful. The characters are interesting as are their stories; the fact that many items of Jiro's life as depicted in the film don't match reality doesn't matter as it doesn't claim to be a true record of what happened. This is one of Ghibli's more emotional films; only Isao Takahata's 'Grave of the Fireflies' is sadder at the end as this story doesn't shy away from showing the consequences of Jiro's aircraft designs or give us a happy ending to Naoko's story. Overall I'd say this was a great film; it might not have the universal appeal as Mayazaki's other films but it is a must see for older fans of his work and a fitting farewell to this master animator.

kirkranium My expectations made this film a little less thrilling than it might have been; still I am pleased to have seen it.Jiro, a plane designer, lives a rather mundane and ordinary life. He dreams of becoming a creator of planes, and takes inspiration from those before him. The Wind Rises captures the will and person of Jiro as he learns what it means to be an artist of planes. Characters in this movie are sparse and mostly undeveloped, but they are still endearing and easy to understand. I watched the English dubbed version of the movie and so some of the acting was (I know it can't be helped) a little offsetting. It was tolerable. I can say i grew attached to the simple characters whose role was not so much to describe certain people but to characterize certain attitudes about the history and culture. Perhaps I watched this movie hoping for more permanent, particular people, but I understand that the movie did not serve to show them in that way.The most incredible part of the film was the artistic choices Miyazaki dared to make. I didn't like the movie too much because it was slow and very quiet-- this however creates an effect much like the wind. The wind heavily influences the flow and dynamic of the piece, and so it became a canvas moved by the delicate hands of life. What I wanted to see in this movie, however, was a little more depth of narrative. The movie is not for those who come to see a mentally riveting production, and I think that is perfectly fine. The point of the movie is to posit a historical piece of information, and like all history, lay down a thesis of life. Life is passing, quick, and cannot be seen so much as it has to be felt. But we know when we feel it.Miyazaki's "The Wind Rises" is a diligent piece of art.

siderite The film is an interesting melange of Japanese literature, culture and history. It will also disappoint many of Miyazaki's fantasy fans, as this is a biographical movie. In truth, it is based on two different works, one is the diary of the aeronautical engineer who designed the famous Japanese Zero fighter, and the other is a story of two girls in a tuberculosis sanatorium (in truth, Jiro's wife did not have TBC).Yet the details capture also some of the things closer to Miyazaki's heart: a commentary on the current state of Japan, a hopeful dream for a person who is losing his sight and his passion for flying and for kind independent young women. All in all it might feel a little dry sometimes, but only until you understand that the source material was a diary that has 80% of it containing aeronautical design ideas and calculations.Perhaps a two hour film about a quiet dreamer of plane designs is not what I would have chosen for Miyazaki's last animation movie, but it wasn't my choice after all. While his artistic expression cannot be stopped - he is still drawing manga and doing other stuff - he publicly announced that this would be his last film, the reason being his worsening eyesight. Considering the first scene of the movie is of a myopic boy who dreams of flying a plane and then crashing because he can't see well, I would say that's a pretty direct statement from the genius animator.It doesn't matter if I recommend this movie or not. If you are a fan of Ghibli and Miyazaki you will watch it anyway, while if you are not, you can try some other stuff of his, become a die hard fan, and find yourself in a situation already solved previously (that's engineering humor, BTW)