Friday, February 28, 2014

The Wind Rises

It doesn't matter what era you were born into. It simply doesn't. Even if it's supposed to be more or less comfortable or safe than other eras, it's not like you actually lived in those eras, so who are you to try and compare them or decide you'd rather live in one than the other? "It's all the same fucking day."

This has been brewing in my mind for awhile, but I feel like seeing The Wind Rises today really solidified that idea for me. It was a beautiful movie (as one would expect from the illustrious Studio Ghibli, of course), but what I found most striking was the way Jiro didn't let the circumstances he was born into dictate stop him from chasing his dreams. He worked with what he had even if it was often less than ideal and never gave up, and it wasn't even in the obnoxiously preachy way a lot of hero-type protagonists do it because he never considered giving up. There was no scene where the film made a big deal of the disadvantages he faced and how it was nearly impossible--he simply kept going no matter what was thrown at him, and did it with dignity and courtesy to boot.

I dwell on the problems of this era a lot. Perhaps more than is healthy, but I figure that's better than not thinking about it at all. Nonetheless, I have a hard time accepting how little power I have sometimes, and an even harder time accepting the amount of effort necessary to accomplish anything at all. But I think I'm finally managing to actually narrow my focus to the present more than I can ever remember being able to do before. Not that the past or future should be ignored, but they're only valuable in the ways that they relate to the present. Even though I've thought this for a long time, I never really managed to push myself into that mindset like I have right now. It's a nice place to be.

Anyway. Go see The Wind Rises. I've already said why I like that specific movie, plus it's Studio Ghibli, so you can't really go wrong.

2 comments:

  1. It sounds good. I kind of got disappointed by a bad English dub of Arrietty, but that probably wasn't the movie's problem...
    About eras... truthfully, you never know what a past era really was like, because in hindsight they get reduced to generalisations. They can be sugarcoated or savaged according to society's moods. It's a good thing to look at what you have and strive to make the best with it :)

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    1. I don't remember being disappointed with the dub of Arrietty, but I do actually remember the movie not holding my attention as much as other Studio Ghibli movies. I wasn't in the best state of mind for taking in a movie at the time, though, so I don't feel like I can express a solid opinion on it unless I watch it again o__o. I don't regret having taken the time to watch it, at any rate.

      I think part of what appeals to me about this movie's treatment of Japan in the 1920s and 30s is the parallels I feel like I can draw between that depiction of that era and this one. At the same time, what you say about past eras is true, and I think our treatment/view of that time period says more about people today than what the world was like at that time. I guess just being able to draw those parallels is comforting to me because things like economic collapse seem less daunting when one thinks of them as things that have happened before (even when one hasn't experienced them directly.)

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