What Will You Do If The Wind Rises?: Dialectical Cinema by Miyazaki Hayao

Abstract

Miyazaki Hayao, a celebrated humanist and pacifist, is responsible for some of the best animated fantasies produced in Japan since the 1980s. In 2013 his fans were baffled to hear that his next feature-length film, kaze tachinu (The Wind Rises), tells the story of Horikoshi Jirō, the chief engineer of the Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter of the Pacific War. Even before its release, the film was accused of propagating militaristic ideas, reproducing fascist fantasy, and ignoring the devastating consequences of Japan’s imperial regime. But the film, which develops like a chronicle of terrible disasters foretold, does nothing of the sort. Instead, Miyazaki’s most personal film offers a philosophical examination of human nature. Using the concept of dialectical cinema and McKee scriptwriting theory as theoretical frameworks, this article demonstrates how this film can be interpreted as posing profound ethical questions on the meaning of personal responsibility as it transcends the spatial and temporal boundaries of the Pacific War. Instead of providing the expected trajectory for an ethical resolution, the film offers a rather pessimistic (albeit compassionate) view of humanity, meanwhile demanding the audience engage in their own critical soul-searching.

Keywords:

• Japan
• dialectical cinema
• collective and individual responsibility
• The Wind Rises (kaze tachinu)
• Miyazaki Hayao
• cinematic mythmaking
• Robert McKee
• film and philosophy

Notes

1. Following the convention used in the film, from now on I refer to the real life Horikoshi Jirō by his full name and to the fictionalised character who appears on screen by his first name, Jirō, only. This unusual convention (usually older men are referred to in Japan by their surnames) is used in the film as a means of endearing Jirō to the audience.

2. See a discussion of the legacy of Eisenstein’s montage theory in several art forms in Japan, particularly in manga and anime, in Ōtsuka (2015).

3. The character of Naoko is inspired by Setsuko, the woman protagonist in Hori Tatsuo’s novel who is modelled after Hori’s real-life love, Ayako, who died of tuberculosis. The name Naoko is also a reference to another book by Hori, which was published in 1941 and entitled Naoko after its female protagonist (Studio Ghibli, 2014, p. 9).

4. Giovanni (Gianni) Battista Caproni, granted the title of count by Mussolini, was condemned as a fascist after World War II and forced into hiding (Ishida, 2014).

5. In his book on comparative mythology Joseph Campbell (1956) offers a structuralist analysis of mythological quests, the first step being the call for adventure: “The first stage of the mythological journey – which we have designated the ‘call for adventure’ – signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual centre of gravity from within the pale of his society to a zone unknown” (p. 58).

6. Honjō is also inspired by a real person with the same name, an aeronautical engineer in the field of modern bomber design who worked for Mitsubishi during the 1930s (Tagaya, 2001, p. 7).

7. For example, Natsume Sōseki’s (1867–1916) early masterpiece Kusamakura (1906) was an inspiration for Miyazaki in this film (Hidaka Nao, “‘Sōseki villa’ that inspired Miyazaki now on the map”, Asahi Shimbun [English edition], 27 September 2013). In the first chapter of Kusamakura (Natsume, 2015), the protagonist remembers and recites a poem by Shelley, as well as poems by the Chinese poets Tao Yuan-ming and Wang Wei – all in their original languages. He recollects Faust and Hamlet and also refers to Japanese Noh theatre, Haiku poetry by Bashō, and the contemporary Japanese writers Tokutomi Roka and Ozaki Kōyō.

8. One inspiration for the character of Castrop is Richard Sorge, a Soviet spy who gathered information in Japan and Germany to determine whether the two nations were planning to attack his country (Akimoto, 2014, p. 59).

9. Hugo Junker was a German aviation engineer credited, among other things, with pioneering the design of all-metal airplanes. He was forced out of his own company by the Nazi government in 1934 and died mysteriously while under house arrest in 1935.

10. The common interpretation of the quote is: “Even if no wind seems to be blowing on the ground, great winds (Buddha’s benevolence) are blowing high in the sky”. The two calligraphic works were created by the film’s producer, Suzuki Toshio (Ghibli Tavern, 2012).

11. For example, in German Holocaust literature for children, there is a recurring theme of “the good Germans” who risked their lives to save Jews, themselves becoming victims and paying the ultimate price for their choices (Shavit, 2005, p. 190).

12. Hannah Arendt was of German-Jewish descent.