The Wind Rises
Film Synopsis
A lifelong love of flight inspires Japanese aviation engineer Jiro Horikoshi (Hideaki Anno), whose storied career includes the creation of the A6M World War II fighter plane. Based on a real historical figure.
Climate LENS
There are other Miyazaki/Studio Ghibli films that are more directly on-target for climate topics, but this one is a great introduction. Visually stunning. Themes of technology and its use for good or evil, for progress and corruption. And themes of loss, beauty, the natural world, human communities, love.
Climate Discussion & Reflection Prompts
Caproni asks Jiro, “Would you prefer to live in a world with or without pyramids?” Caproni then states that he prefers a world with pyramids. Jiro does not answer his question, he simply says, “I just want to build beautiful planes.” From a climate perspective, what are our “pyramids?” How do we see those pyramids today? What are some examples of technology that we originally marveled at that we now - with the benefit of hindsight marvel at how naive we were? Think about our history of weapons, trying to control nature, modern tech companies, etc. When we consider their original designers and engineers, how did they see them? What went right? What went wrong? Why?
Jiro enters his professional career as Japan is suffering from economic turmoil and the fallout from a devastating earthquake. What did that economic turmoil do to the people of Japan and what did it force them to focus on? Think about how we respond to natural disasters and adversity. Where are we compared to the Japan of the film if the disaster is climate change? What will climate change force us to focus on as a country?
Jiro mentions to his team that by removing the guns from the aircraft, they could save a meaningful amount of weight (to the uproarious laughter of his colleagues), and then acknowledges that he discarded that design. How often do we acknowledge the work/effort/changes it will take to address climate change, yet take no action to do anything about it? What are some specific examples?
Jiro never deviates from his goal of designing and building a better aircraft, to the point of a kind of tunnel vision where his work informs every part of his day and his life. He succeeds and accomplishes his goal. How inflexible are our decisions as a society in terms of what we decide “must” be done? How flexible must our required solutions to climate change be?
Caproni tells Jiro, “Airplanes are beautiful, cursed dreams, waiting for the sky to swallow them up.” What are our equivalent to airplanes today - the desirable objects of our affection that we give up so much of our lives to at the cost of our loved ones? How do we rationalize our actions - or put another way, how do we justify our “airplanes?”
The Japanese and Germans form an agreement to work together on designing airplanes, yet competition, political pressures and their differences in industrial capabilities all make the agreement much more difficult for both the organizations and the individuals that are supposed to be working together. Because of the added difficulties, the pressure on Jiro to focus on his work instead of those around him intensifies. What are some examples of climate agreements that work on paper but in reality are suffering from competition, political pressures and differences in industrial capabilities? How could we have more empathy for the realities of these agreements so that the paper agreements themselves could be improved?
Is The Wind Rises an allegory for those hoping to design and build climate solutions, or for those who designed and built the fossil fuel industry? Why?