![]() ![]() ![]() The Wind Rises is much more a tragedy (Horikoshi’s young wife also dies of tuberculosis during the film) and the assertion that Jiro’s plane was “beautiful” irrespective of how they were used rings hollow against the destruction of post-WWII Japan. After years of study and hard work, the plane he designs ends up being a prototype for the infamous Zeroes flown by the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II. In The Wind Rises, it’s 1918, and young Jiro Horikoshi is too nearsighted to be a pilot, so he turns his passion toward creating aircraft instead. In this way, it’s far more kid-friendly than 2013’s The Wind Rises, which uses historical non-fiction to create a more challenging companion piece to Porco Rosso - although both, interestingly, are set primarily between World War I and World War II, and are highly focused on aviation, one of Miyazaki’s personal loves. ![]() The firefights between the various planes are visually exciting but never feel particularly dangerous. Porco is grumpy in a pretty adorable way, and the 14-year-old mechanic he gets foisted on him after his plane gets shot down is as spunky as a Ghibli character can be. The movie ends with a very cartoonish fistfight between Porco and a dashing but extremely egocentric American pilot named Curtis. It begins with Porco rescuing a gaggle of adorable schoolchildren so rambunctious that their sky-pirate captors are completely overwhelmed by them. It’s as bright and colourful of any of the animator’s work, and often just as whimsical. The 1992 movie is one of his lesser-known works, and if you’ve only seen a few images, clips, or the trailer, you’d be forgiven for thinking Porco Rosso is just another one of Miyazaki’s films for kids. The movie begins 30 years later, just before World War II, but long after Marco has become a flying bounty hunter in the Adriatic Sea with the titular epithet Porco Rosso, for his piggish appearance and his crimson seaplane. He accidentally cursed himself when, as a pilot in the Italian Air Force during World War I, he saw the futile carnage and was so disgusted by humanity he didn’t want to be part of it anymore. Admittedly, the 40-something Marco Pagot is not exactly a man, but an anthropomorphized pig. Porco Rosso is nearly unique among Miyazaki films in that its main protagonist is an adult instead of a teen, tween, or little kid. It’s pretty safe to say that if you’re an Gizmodo reader, you’ve probably seen at least one. ![]()
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