Flight

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Continuing on my journey of exploring Hayao Miyazaki's works, I recently watched The Wind Rises, his latest film. It's a first for Miyazaki, in the sense that for the first time he made a movie about a real, historical person.

The main character, Jiro Horikoshi, was a plane designer emerging in the 30s. His greatest design, the Mitsubishi A6M Zero was Japan's most advanced fighter during WWII.

Horikoshi built planes as a way of realizing his greatest dream: the dream of flight, of building beautiful machines. Yet, as we all know, his work essentially became a killing machine.

To me, the film asks a few important questions: What's worth doing? Is every dream worth pursuing? Most importantly: what if evil triumphs over good?

There is no balance without darkness. We cannot escape human nature. Duality, ambivalence, short-sightedness, they are inertly human traits. What one can do, solely, is not deny them; rather, treat as companions of the journey. Look at them closely, see the evil in its purest form. Learn its tricks, methods of spreading through humanity. That way, you will be much better equipped to fight it, to let the good triumph in the end.

Jirô Horikoshi: Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling, The wind is passing through.