A celebrated director upsets some fans and angers conservativesWinds of change
A SOMBRE exploration of love, responsibility and death, "Kaze Tachinu" ("The Wind Rises") is being described as Hayao Miyazaki's first animated film for adults. After half a lifetime making exquisite fantasy films for children, such as "Princess Mononoke" and "Spirited Away", Mr Miyazaki, now 72 and viewed as the reigning genius of Japanese cinema, has tackled the true story of an aeroplane maker in the second world war.
The title comes from a Paul Valery poem: "The wind is rising! We must try to live." The wind is a portent for the disasters that anchor the film: the 1923 earthquake that levelled much of Tokyo and Yokohama, killing over 100,000 people; and Japan's terrible war nearly two decades later.
Despite its real-world setting, the film is saturated in fantastical Miyazaki flourishes. It is book-ended with dreams. It starts with a ten-year-old Jiro Horikoshi imagining flying above his provincial home before being wakened by bombs from a hulking aerial warship. The film's denouement sees him walking through the ruined landscape of wartime Japan, a nightmare partly wrought from his boyhood dreams of flight.
A brilliant but naive engineer, Jiro is based on the real designer of Japan's Mitsubishi A6M Zero. Once considered the world's best aerial fighter, the Zero had a feared reputation among American pilots during the second world war. The plane helped launch the war against America when Japanese pilots used it to attack Pearl Harbour in 1941. By 1945 the Zero had lost its technical edge; teenage Kamikaze pilots used them as suicide bombs against the approaching American maritime fleet.
The film follows Jiro as he pursues his childhood fantasies by building a plane. His love of flying is depicted as pure and uncomplicated. There is a sensual, erotic quality to the air scenes; his budding love for his fiancee, Naoko, is conveyed through the soaring flight of paper aeroplanes. Regret comes only in the final scenes.
Born in the year of the Pearl Harbour attack, Mr Miyazaki is imprinted with the pacifism of many Japanese from his generation. His films are often paeans to the natural world and warnings about its perilous state. His heroes tend to be children who warn others about the dangers of greed and militarism, only for their pleas to fall on deaf adult ears.
Fans have questioned why the great pacifist has made a film that appears to lionise a weapons maker. Mr Miyazaki says he was drawn to the story of one of Japan's great eccentric geniuses. "It was wrong from the beginning to go to war," he explained in June. "But it's useless…to blame Jiro for it."
In a country where politicians regularly rattle the ghosts of the past, this film has sparked debate. Mr Miyazaki recently published an article in which he said he was "disgusted" by government plans to upgrade Japan's army and "taken aback" by the leadership's ignorance of history. Though he did not mention him by name, the attack was clearly aimed at Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister. Conservatives have responded by telling Mr Miyazaki to stay out of politics. Worse, some have called the film's slow-moving style and lack of digital fireworks "boring".
Mr Miyazaki's film feels personal. His father directed a company that made rudders for the Zero. And like Jiro, the director grew up obsessed with aeroplanes. A swansong, artistically and politically, "Kaze Tachinu" may soar past its critics. It has been a box-office success in Japan since it opened this month, and it has been chosen to compete for the main prize at the Venice film festival later this summer.知名导演宫崎骏令部分影迷失望，同时惹恼日本保守派。
风起而变
《起风了》是以探索爱，责任以及死亡及其情节忧郁的影片，被称之为宫崎骏首部面向成人的动画电影。在经过半生的时间里宫崎骏为孩子们制作了精美绝伦的动画电影，其中包括《幽灵公主》和《千与千寻》。如今年近72的宫崎骏已被视为是日本电影界颇具影响的天才人物。此次他将发生在二战时期一位飞机制造者的真实故事搬上了荧屏。
该片片名取自于保罗 瓦雷里的一诗句：”起风了！只有试着活下去一条路！”。风寓意着灾难，也是本片的主线：在1923年，地震将日本东京和横滨夷为平地，超过10万死亡。将近二十年后日本又爆发了灾难性的战争。
尽管该片发展背景设定在真实世界，但仍然颇有宫崎骏式的梦幻。影片故事以10岁的堀越二郎梦想翱翔在自己的家乡之上
而开始，以大型空中舰队投放炸弹而使梦惊醒为结束。片尾中堀越二郎穿行在战时日本废墟之间，这场梦魇竟都源自于他童年时候的梦想。
天才但天真的设计员堀越二郎是日本三菱A6M零式机的原设计者。曾今零式机被认为是世界上最好的空中战机。二战期间它的威慑力在美国飞行员中无人不晓。在1941年日本飞行员使用零式飞机偷袭珍珠港，帮助日本发起对美战争。然而到1945年时候零式飞机已经失去了它的技术优势。年轻的神风飞行员将它作为袭击美国海军舰队的自杀式炸弹。
本影片故事由堀越追逐童年梦想制造一架飞机而展开，描述了他对于飞行是纯粹简单的热爱。于此同时影片也描绘出浓浓爱意的画面，堀越通过放飞纸飞机向他的未婚妻尚子表达他青涩的爱意。直至片尾才变现出他对于发生一切的悔恨。
宫崎骏出生于珍珠港袭击的年代。由于个人深受同一时代许多和平主义日本人的影响，他的作品常常以赞颂大自然，对于大自然正处于危险状态而引人警觉为主。电影的英雄往往都是孩子，由他们来警告人们贪婪和军国主义的危险，只是成年人对于他们的呼声充耳不闻。
让影迷们倍感疑惑的是为什么伟大的和平爱好者会去制作一部影片赞颂一个武器制造者。宫崎骏本人曾在六月解释道，那是因为这个日本天才的故事本身吸引了他。同时他说道：”既然开始走向战争是错误的，再来指责堀越二郎已经毫无意义。”
在政治家常常参拜战争亡灵的国内，该影片也引发起了一番争论。近日，宫崎骏在他发表文章中表示，他对于日本政府计划提升军备感到厌恶,对于日本领导人忽视历史感到吃惊。尽管宫崎骏本人并没有明确指出其名字，但是此番话语显然是针对日本首相安倍晋三。日本保守派就此作出回应，要其宫崎骏不要参与政治。更有甚者，发出言论称其电影风格过时且缺乏数码特效，十分无聊。
宫崎骏该部电影也有着个人色彩。他的父亲曾经主管一家专为零式飞机提供橡胶的公司。和堀越一样，宫崎骏的成长中也对飞机着迷。该部影片已成为绝唱，无论是在艺术上还是在政治上都已经盖过了其批评的言论。自该片在日本上映一个月，已经获取票房成功。同时影片已被选入参加夏季即将举行的威尼斯电影节，竞争其主要奖项
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