The Wind is Rising

Watching most of hayao miyazaki’s movies over the last month was some sort of revelation.

There’s something about the style and aesthetic that struck a cord with me.

Partially, I’m sure I’m just being surprised by what is a well-understood aesthetic in Japanese culture.

But it was noteworthy to me to feel a certain level of incompleteness going back to a recent movie by pixar, a production company I would consider on the cutting edge of American animation.

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There’s something about the tone of these Miyazaki movies that seem to strike a cord with me. I appreciate my friend who strongly suggested I watch these movies.

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You can see, perhaps, how much I am trying to understand what it is I love about these movies.. I’m trying to do the same

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The music is phenomenal. joe hisaishi is a revelation. There’s something about the simplicity of his melodies, their playfulness, and their willingness to step to the side and give the film room to breathe.

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There’s something about the stories, that always follow an individual discovering a world or overcoming a challenge.

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the wind rises especially struck a cord with me. There’s something beautiful about Jiro’s struggle to build airplanes. His “beautiful dreams”, despite their potential use as destructive weapons of war.

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I haven’t digested it all, and that’s ok.

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I still think about kiki’s delivery service, about nausicaa, about my neighbor totoro, about spirited away, about howl’s moving castle, abotu castle in the sky, ponyo, princess mononoke, among others.

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There’s something here that’s remarkable, and I’m glad to have delved into this world.

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The wind is rising. We must try to live.

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