Wind Rises, The (Kaze Tachinu) (Blu-ray) (2013)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Storyboards Interviews-Cast & Crew Trailer
Rating
Year Of Production	2013
Running Time	126:24
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Hayao Miyazaki
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Hideaki Anno Joseph Gordon-Levitt John Krasinski Emily Blunt Martin Short Stanley Tucci William H Macy
Case	Standard Blu-ray
RPI	$39.95	Music	Joe Hisashi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	Japanese Linear PCM 48/16 2.0 mono English Linear PCM 48/16 1.0
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	1080p
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

'Airplanes are beautiful dreams' - Count Caproni

The Wind Rises (Kaze Tachinu) is supposedly the final film from great Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki. Personally, I am hoping this is a marketing technique only and he will continue to be involved in Studio Ghibli going forward, however I would guess he may not direct another film having now reached the age of 74. This film brings together some of Miyazaki's favourite things such as aeroplanes and magnificent animation with two people who the film pays tribute to, Jiro Hirokoshi, a Japanese aircraft engineer responsible for the Zero, and Japanese novelist and poet Tatsuo Hori. On the surface this film seems like the life story of Horikoshi, however a novel written by Tatsuo Hori, called The Wind has Risen, is intertwined with it as is the lead character of another Hori novel, Naoko. Miyazaki has combined all these influences together to come up with a fictionalised biography of Hirokoshi which is ultimately his tribute to Hirokoshi and Hori. It is a beautiful, bittersweet, poetic and dreamlike film.

     So, the film follows the life of Jiro from his early days as a young boy with eyesight problems who dreams of flying and flying machines. He reads magazines about aeroplanes and grows up wanting to design aircraft. He heads off to University in Tokyo (to study aircraft engineering of course) but along the way is involved in the great 1923 Tokyo earthquake. He helps a young girl, Naoko, and her nurse who gets an injury during the quake. She is later to become his wife. Once finishing University he joins Mitsubishi as an aircraft engineer and soon begins to impress his superiors. He travels to Germany and other places in the world to learn from other aircraft designer like Junkers in the lead up to World War II. He meets up with Naoko again and they fall in love despite her illness, TB. The rest of the film follows his work on the Zero and his romance with Naoko.

     This is a beautiful and poetic film which features wonderful animation. There is certainly a feeling of melancholy about the film especially between the sick wife and Jiro's concerns about what his planes will be used for. The film indicates the destruction that World War II caused without dwelling on it. The film is not one for kids with a slower than normal pace and a reasonably adult subject matter. It was nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars in 2014, ludicrously missing out to Frozen!

     A lovely animated film which will be enjoyed by animation fans, however it is not really one for the kiddies, due to its length and subject matter.

Video

     This is a lovely video transfer; the animation looks marvellous and detailed, the colours are magnificent. The beauty of this film is shown off by this wonderful transfer. The only minor issue was a little bit of shimmer here and there but nothing to complain about really. It is 1080p high definition as you would expect in the original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. There is not much more to say about this transfer except that it is awesome.

     There are subtitles available in English which follow the Japanese dialogue, which is quite different to the English dub (which I will discuss more below). There are also English for the Hearing Impaired subtitles for the English version.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

     The audio on this Blu-ray includes two options both of which are surprisingly in mono but this seems to be an artistic choice rather than a restriction of this release. The choices are the original Japanese dialogue in PCM 48/16 2.0 mono or English PCM 48/16 1.0 mono. Despite the mono sound both soundtracks have significant presence and sound full and detailed although obviously without surround presence. The music by the wonderful composer Joe Hisaishi is delicate and beautiful and a Japanese theme song plays over the credits. The Japanese dialogue is preferable form my perspective, however, the English dub is also good featuring the vocal talents of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, John Krasinski, Emily Blunt, Martin Short, Stanley Tucci and William H Macy.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

     The extras are worthwhile without setting the world on fire.

Menu

     The menu included pictures from the film.

Storyboards

     The full Hayao Miyazaki designed storyboard reel is available as a picture-in-picture extra as you watch the film.

Film Completion Announcement (87:53)

     Despite the strange title this turns out to be a press conference at the studio featuring Miyazaki, the singer of the theme tune and the voice actor who plays Jiro in the Japanese version, Hideaki Anno. The producer, Toshio Suzuki also drops in and out of the conversation. There is lots of interesting discussion (and self-deprecation) here about the character, the use of Hori's novel as a source, the theme tune, the voice work and much more. A real insight especially when Hayao Miyazaki speaks.

Behind the Microphone (10:43)

     US featurette about the making of the English dub for the film hosted by the US voice director and including footage of many of the cast recording and being interviewed. More superficial than the Japanese feature.

Japanese Theatrical Trailers (4:48)

     A collection of previews and trailers.

Japanese TV Spots (2:37)

     A collection of short promos.

Reversible Cover

Booklet

    This Blu-ray is available in the same format in the UK and the US. Draw.

    The video quality is awesome.

    The audio quality is very good but mono.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall