The Curse of Dreams

Hayao Miyazaki’s final film The Wind Rises presents a story of dreams. It is in some ways his most grounded story. It is a biographical piece that imagines the life of Jiro Horikoshi with many fictional embellishments. It does not seek to tell his story, but rather tell a story of dreams, their power and their curse. The movie begins with a quote from the French poet Paul Valery that reads: “The wind is rising! We must try to live”.  The movie goes on to explore how dream affect the way we live our lives. In this movie they are very powerful forces that Miyazaki often lets visually seep into the waking world. The movie also asks the question of what it means to try to live, a problem that becomes immediate to Jiro later in his life. In his childhood though, at the beginning of the movie, Jiro is dreaming.

The first sequence of the movie is a dream. A plane, appearing more bird like than mechanical, flies Jiro across a beautiful sky. Suddenly, cruel and animate looking bombs appear as the clouds part. Jiro looks to stop them from hitting below, but sees them with a blurred double vision. This first dream sequence is immediately used to show to the audience, and Jiro, that his poor eyesight will forever stop him from being a pilot. This is important because it shows how Jiro’s dreams are connected to the real world. The dreams are not an escape from his problems, but rather offer insight that might not be obtainable without the dreams. The young Jiro’s dreams are very revealing of his character and also very powerful. In a scene where he and his younger sister, Kayo, sit on the roof, Jiro is unable to see the stars the same way his sister can. Instead though, an amazing dream appears to him. The fantastic colors used to depict the planes as they rush across the sky rival any stars that he might see. His dream here gives him wonder that he might not have had without them. In this dream the figure of Count Caproni appears. He is an Italian aeronautical engineer that appears to Jiro many times throughout the movie, and according to him, shares this dream. Later on, Caproni would call their shared dream, The Kingdom of Dreams, a place that proves immensely important to Jiro. During this first encounter, Caproni says to Jiro: “Airplanes are beautiful dreams. Engineers turn dreams into reality.” This is the driving force of the story, as Jiro embarks on a life that seeks to turn the airplanes of his dreams into a reality.

Jiro doesn’t just see airplanes in his dreams at night, he sees them everywhere. They appear in the sky at random moments. When eating lunch, he picks a fish bone out of his mackerel and wonders how its structure might be applicable to a plane part. Jiro sees, and is open to, inspiration in every aspect of his life. Miyazaki brilliantly works dreamy images of planes into small moments, letting the dreams seep into the real. The character of Honjo, Jiro’s friend, offers a good contrast to this. Honjo is a grounded man, obsessed with how Japanes technology seems to be decades behind other nations. Jiro is equally obsessed though. That appears to be something shared between him and every plane designer. Jiro’s obsession is with making a beautiful plane. This goal drives him, and it is shown several times, when Caproni appears and asks Jiro “Is the wind still rising?”. Jiro always replies affirmatively and moves forward towards his goals.

Dreams aren’t just used to show Jiro’s hope and aspirations though. They are also used to warn and remind him. Jiro and Honjo travel to Germany at the bequest of their employer to study German flight technology. While they are there Jiro has a dream, one that envisions a large Japanese bomber plane burning up and crashing to the ground. This vision offers him a sight into what won’t work, guiding his path once again. Jiro never wanted to build bomber planes to begin with though, so this dream doesn’t impact him as much. However a later dream, that shows the failure of his own plane’s design is much more relevant. It is later implied that this failure actually did happen to one of his designs, meaning that the dream haunts him with problems of the past. In this way the dreams really push him to innovate.

After the failing of his prototype, Jiro was sent to a mountain retreat for some rest before tackling the design again. It is here that he runs into Naoko, a girl he had helped earlier in the movie and his future wife. The character of Naoko presents a grounding element to Jiro’s ambitious and dreamy personality. She is sick with tuberculosis which greatly impacts Jiro’s life. It is a cold hard truth that her lifetime is limited, something that the couple cannot ignore. No amount of dream driven inspiration can solve this. His love for her is real and it keeps him tied to the world outside of his work. Still, his relationship to her can only be described as neglectful. While at first she had decided to try and get better at a facility far removed from Jiro, the two decided that they wanted to be closer to each other while she still lived. But even when she is living in the same house as him, they spent the majority of the day away from each other. Jiro worked all day, and often worked at home as he pushed to design the famous A6M Zero plane. While their commitment to each other can’t be questioned, the reality of Jiro’s work was responsible for a distance between them. Eventually, Naoko decides to leave the house, claiming that she would go away to try and recover once again. This was on the day that Jiro’s prototype was being tested. She stayed just long enough for him to finish his plane. As the test flight is occurring, and Jiro is witnessing the fruition of all of his dreams the wind stops. Everyone else in the scene is celebrating, and the test pilot is screaming by at an astounding speed. Jiro isn’t even looking at the plane. He looks off towards the distance and the camera does a slow pan to follow his gaze. It passes over a wind kite, which shows that the wind has stopped. Jiro does not watch the success of his dreams, instead he stares towards the distance into which Naoko is going.

The fate of Naoko is left unknown. The movie ends in The Kingdom of Dreams. Jiro is talking to Caproni, when Naoko appears and tells him “You must live” and then fades away. The ending feels unsatisfactory. The resolution of the A6M Zero being designed is sour when mixed with Naoko’s leaving and Jiro’s sudden uncaring. In the Kingdom of Dreams, Caproni calls airplanes “cursed dreams”. Perhaps this curse extends to all dreams. They drove Jiro to a wonderful success, the creation of a truly beautiful plane. But, the plane was used for war and death. But, in his mission he lost the time that he could have had with Naoko. Perhaps, this is the message Miyazki wishes to tell after his career. That our dreams and passion can lead us to great things, but it’s important to make sure that those are the things you truly want.

A Poem From Ireland

I wrote this poem in Ireland. There were so many beautiful lakes and hills that I felt I needed to write at least one poem.

Between The Oaks

In the summer
the island was our home.
Stark against the wind-tossed
waters of the lake,
great oaks, rose into a thick copse.
The water was never warm
but the August Sun
was just enough, for us to swim.

In those kinder months
we’d make our way to the oaks
nearly every day,
sun against our skin,
and warmth in our chests
as we raced each other, and the failing
of our youth.
And on that island, sanctuaried
by the gnarled oak trunks,
and the green that sprouted
through their roots,
we would play and love and smile.
Within our wooden castle
we escaped, coming in times of need
and boredom alike,
always with each other.

Once time grasped us,
the we that fled into the oaks became I,
and the grasp grew even stronger.
I delayed until inevitable,
and then, in winter, I returned.
Rowing through the frigid water,
I did not face the island.
I watched the lakeshore,
where the waters lapped
in rythym with my breath.
As I breathed and saw the air of my lungs
mist upon the cold,
I remembered our warm, labored chests,
as we swam through the lake,
and lie at dusk, our bodies spent.
But now I arrive on the island
unexhausted and forlorn.
There, before the thick bark of the oaks,
I stopped.
I could not enter.
Even though the world between the oaks
was a part of me and I a part of it,
no, it was ours, and therefore never mine.
Alone, I could not breach the threshold
of the oaks, and so I left,
the island and memories of summer.