Miyazaki Madness, Part 14: "The Wind Rises," and a career (almost) ends
Miyazaki's 'final' film didn't wind up being the end, but it was great
On Thursdays, I’m publishing reviews of classic movies, including pieces that have never appeared online before taken from my book 200 Reviews, available now in Paperback or on Kindle (which you should really consider buying, because it’s an awesome collection!). In this series, we are examining the filmography of my all-time favorite movie director - and newly minted two-time Oscar winner with his win for The Boy and the Heron - Hayao Miyazaki! We will be looking at all of his theatrical feature films along with the movies he wrote but did not direct, for a total of 15 weeks of Miyazaki Madness! The series continues today with what was originally intended to be Miyazaki’s final film, 2013’s The Wind Rises. Enjoy…
The Wind Rises
2013, Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Originally published December 2nd, 2013 for We Got This Covered
Until I actually watched The Wind Rises, I could not believe Hayao Miyazaki was truly retiring.
(He did not, in fact, retire, as we all know now in 2024 on the heels of The Boy and the Heron. I did not know this at the time, though given Miyazaki’s history of false retirements, perhaps I should have suspected it, no matter how convincing a goodbye The Wind Rises seemed to be. In any case - on with the original review from 2013).
It isn’t necessarily that I refused to believe it. Miyazaki may be my favorite filmmaker, and one who I would love to see many more films from, but everything, including great artistic careers, is finite, and that is a fact I can accept. No, what prevented me from truly accepting the notion of Miyazaki’s filmmaking days coming to an end was that he has, simply put, said all this before. His post-Princess Mononoke and post-Spirited Away retirements may not have been as ‘official’ as this one, but his intention to walk away from filmmaking was clear and understandable. In both cases, it was the desire to create that brought him back, the allure of a great idea that led him to make art once more. So while I fully believed Miyazaki was being honest in intending The Wind Rises as his swan song, I also felt equally sure that, if another compelling idea came to him, he would surely come back to see it realized.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Fade to Lack to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.