Hello, everyone! ♥

A few days ago, I finally watched one of Hayao Miyazaki's most recent films, The Wind Rises! It was nothing like what I expected!

"Inspiration is what unlocks the future... Technology eventually catches up." - Giovanni Caprno, The Wind Rises

"In "The Wind Rises," Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world's most innovative and accomplished airplane designers." -- (C) Studio Ghibli

The movie started off a little slow and I was like, wow this movie goes for over two hours? I got a bit confused between a few of the characters since the main guy, Jiro, seemed to not age at all but the little girl he meets completely changed, haha! I feel a little silly that I didn't realize who was who now that I look at them again.

But I got into it so quickly, and it wasn't long before I realized that this has got to be one of Miyazaki's most realistic films, since it was based on historical themes, and it hardly contained any of his usual fantasy elements. 

Here I was thinking I was going to get a cute love story and the characters will successfully chase their dreams with ease, from what I saw in pictures on the internet, but I was a little wrong. 

"Le vent se lève! ... Il faut tenter de vivre!" ("The wind is rising! . . . We must try to live!") - Paul Valéry, Le Cimetière marin

This movie was harshly realistic, really sticking to the previous quote, as the characters pressed on despite difficult times. The message of this movie is "Sometimes the outcome to your dream is not always what you expect.". This movie really showed that sometimes it takes a lot of time and sacrifices have to be made to reach your dreams, and when you, make the most of what time you have.

It's because of this I give it a five out of five! I wish I watched this sooner, and I'd recommend it to anyone who has an interest in animated films! The plot deepens, the characters are realistic and the themes probably caused a bit of controversy. It's because Miyazaki isn't afraid to touch on several social, political and environmental issues in his films that make me love them so much!

I would have liked it to be a bit more thorough as I wasn't aware that some things happened towards the end, a few things were a bit unclear.

What do you think of Studio Ghibli films? What's your favourite? I have yet to see Porco Rosso, I'll have to watch that next!

Enjoy life!

Nina

"The story takes place in a technologically advanced society in which robots can be programmed to behave like a complete human. A robot is asked to replace "Hal", who died in an accident, to help Kurumi, Hal's girlfriend, move on with her life. "Hal" struggles to understand the real Hal's past, Kurumi's affections towards Hal as well as the meaning of being alive." -Wikipedia

So, I recently watched the anime movie "Hal", and wow, it was a great movie! I have actually been on a bit of an anime hiatus but this caught my eye as I remembered I wanted to watch it before, and I'm so glad I did; I enjoyed it and it brought me off of my anime hiatus!

 The Story and Characters: 

Now, I'm the kind of person who can usually predict what will happen in a movie, so I thought I was following along with the story line, and then bam! there was a huge plot twist.

The movie got straight to the point at the beginning, and then it started to be a bit slow so I thought it would drag out and then end the way I thought it would, but just like almost every anime movie I watch, everyone was turned around and it was so unexpected, sad but interesting!

The characters were quite realistic with how they deal with different situations and the female lead, Kurumi was so pretty! Hal is quite cute too. Haha.

It was a good story and something new I haven't seen before!

The Animation:

 One thing I seem to have forgotten, was how pretty the animation of anime can be. And this movie definitely shows that. The animation didn't was simple and beautiful when it needed - not overshadowing the story line or characters. 

Overall Rating:

 

Overall, I would give this a 4/5 totoros. I loved the story line and characters, but I feel like they should have developed it a little more as it had so much potential as since the world is so futuristic and some of the characters had a dark past, I would have liked to find out more about that. Of course, this could be left up to the viewer's imagination but 

it would have been nice to see.

I would definitely recommend this movie, it was interesting and has a bit of everything: it was cute, had sci-fi and a bit of action, it had romance, all with visually appealing animation. Give it a go!

Sorry, my review is quite simple as I don't want to give much away or spoil it :)

Enjoy life!

Nina