The Wind Rises
Touchstone Pictures | Release Date: November 8, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 27, 2014
The film is visually sumptuous, morally ambiguous, dramatic and dreamlike, with a narrative as engrossing as any live-action movie of 2013. It’s easy to follow yet hard to shake. Read full review
100
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 26, 2014
This is a gorgeous production, even by Miyazaki's standards. Read full review
100
New York PostLou LumenickNov 7, 2013
Miyazaki offers a vivid, at times fantastical view of Japan between the wars, wracked by the Great Depression, a fearsome earthquake that leveled Tokyo in 1923, a tuberculosis epidemic and the rise of fascism. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 7, 2013
To see The Wind Rises is to simultaneously marvel at the work of a master and regret that this film is likely his last. Read full review
100
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoSep 21, 2013
Even if Hayao Miyazaki's career is complete, a work like this serves to remind us of the shining beacons he's left behind him, the testaments to pursuing beauty in the face of so much ugliness, themselves lasting reminders of the quiet rewards of determination. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterDeborah YoungSep 12, 2013
A very honest film from a great Japanese artist. Read full review
100
VarietyScott FoundasSep 12, 2013
Miyazaki is at the peak of his visual craftsmanship here, alternating lush, boldly colored rural vistas with epic, crowded urban canvases, soaring aerial perspectives and test flights both majestic and ill-fated. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyKeith StaskiewiczNov 6, 2013
As gorgeously animated as any of his previous movies, Wind has Miyazaki trading in his more fantastical impulses for contemplative, old-fashioned drama and period detail. Read full review
91
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonSep 12, 2013
It might not be the director's most immediately accessible films, but it's among his most fascinating and beguiling. Read full review
90
SalonAndrew O'HehirFeb 27, 2014
A work of immense mystery and strangeness, loaded with unforgettable images, spectacular sweeps of color and nested, hidden meanings. It feels to me like a meditative epic about Japan’s traumatic journey into modernity, and a complicated allegory about the innocence, arrogance and culpability of artists. It’s one of the most beautiful animated films ever made, and something close to a masterpiece. Read full review
90
TimeRichard CorlissFeb 20, 2014
It is vigorous, subtle, thematically daring, visually gorgeous. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovFeb 26, 2014
It speaks to both the head and the heart, and it is, in myriad ways, some of the best work the legendary animator has ever created. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 27, 2014
A movie that takes the hallmarks of a great career and elevates them to new heights. In terms of tone, visual beauty, and storytelling, The Wind Rises represents Miyazaki at the apex of his abilities. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesBruce IngramFeb 20, 2014
If The Wind Rises falls a bit short in regard to historical drama, however, it’s still a Miyazaki movie, meaning he casts the same magically beautiful spell. Read full review
88
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 20, 2014
Should you see it? Of course you should. Anything Miyazaki does is worth your time. But the movie’s a gorgeous, problematic anomaly in an illustrious career. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 20, 2014
It's a big story, and in this landmark film Miyazaki is up to every demand. Sit back and behold. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 20, 2014
It makes the dream of flight itself a vehicle for bittersweet enchantment. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 8, 2013
His movie is visually as beautiful as anything he’s ever done. Conceptually, it’s muddled. The collision between poetic fancifulness and grim reality, between peace and war, never falls into focus. Miyazaki has seized on a great theme only to soft-pedal it. Read full review
83
IndieWireEric KohnSep 11, 2013
The grim subtext of The Wind Rises goes largely unacknowledged, leading to a gaping hole in this otherwise beautifully realized narrative that celebrates the power of curiosity as a motivating force. Read full review
80
CineVueHannah LamarqueMay 21, 2014
Unlike many of Miyazaki's previous works, The Wind Rises is a film rooted far more firmly in realism. Although it does have its fair share of fantastical dream sequences and magical flying machines. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinMay 5, 2014
While Miyazaki’s two-hour-long, historical-melodrama swansong is destined to be his most divisive film yet, it is also his most adult and interesting, and never less than visually breathtaking throughout. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 27, 2014
he beauty of The Wind Rises — and it really is gorgeous — does not mask the troublesome aspects of its story, or of human nature itself. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 23, 2014
It’s romantic, tragic, and inexorably strange. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensFeb 20, 2014
Though it’s just slightly over two hours long, The Wind Rises has the historical sweep of a David Lean picture, complete with panoramic shots of migrating populations against a background of disaster and a romantic orchestral score by Miyazaki’s longtime musical collaborator, Joe Hisaishi. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJan 9, 2014
What's on screen is a gorgeous grab bag of notions: ardent love, a salute to Thomas Mann's "The Magic Mountain," a bit of "Camille" and a lot — I mean a lot — of nuts-and-bolts stuff about nuts and bolts. Read full review
80
The New York TimesNicolas RapoldNov 7, 2013
Mr. Miyazaki renders Jiro’s life and dreams with lyrical elegance and aching poignancy. Read full review
80
Village VoiceSimon AbramsNov 5, 2013
An emotionally generous and expansively detailed romantic fantasy. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinSep 11, 2013
There are visual flights of fancy here as glorious as anything Miyazaki’s studio has created, but the story is rooted in a country trudging towards its own destruction. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyFeb 28, 2014
Wind is both benign and ominous. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 20, 2014
The work is more muted than Miyazaki’s more fantastical films, but visually complex and gorgeous, from the rustic mountain scenes to the urban scenes and soaring aerial views. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayFeb 20, 2014
Of Miyazaki’s many gifts as a filmmaker, perhaps the most subtle is the way he honors time and silence and stillness, values that are in lamentably short supply in most modern-day productions. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubFeb 20, 2014
Miyazaki is arguably at the Kubrick/Polanski level, where his lesser films still yield great rewards. Even during the moments that don't soar, The Wind Rises continues to satisfy. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreFeb 19, 2014
The Wind Rises was a dream project for the great Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, and this gorgeous film makes a fine capstone for his career. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 7, 2013
Jiro is a thoughtful engineer and a romantic, not a soldier. And The Wind Rises conveys the visual poetry of its titular reference. Read full review
70
The DissolveTasha RobinsonFeb 20, 2014
While the film’s individual moments and images are often fantastically wrought, the story elements often seem as unintegrated as the moral exegesis. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloNov 6, 2013
While The Wind Rises isn’t top-shelf Miyazaki, it features more than enough gorgeous imagery to make his loss feel acute. Studio Ghibli will surely continue without him, but it’ll never be the same. Read full review
63
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 27, 2014
Typically lovely to look at, with big-eyed young people espousing high ideals amid natural splendor. But outside of their bubble, a prickly history looms, and Miyazaki’s dubious attitude toward the wartime role of his hero makes the movie a mixed blessing. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 28, 2014
Does The Wind Rises represent Miyazaki at the top of his game? No, not really. But it could be Miyazaki at the end of the game, and that alone is reason enough to appreciate the film for the things it offers rather than hammer it too hard for the things it lacks. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 8, 2013
The movie’s spell is solid, even if it doesn’t soar to the heights it could. Read full review
60
Time OutEric HynesNov 6, 2013
Jiro’s genius is godlike, but his personality is nonexistent; time is too-briskly spanned, then ground into blow-by-blow melodrama. Read full review
60
The GuardianXan BrooksSep 12, 2013
A gorgeous yet ultimately frustrating tribute to the Japanese airplane designer Jiro Horikoshi. Read full review
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