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Message: <blockquote data-quote="D1tchd1gger" data-source="post: 584285" data-attributes="member: 4379">I had previously done a bit of a timeline of the film as there are no timestamps. I noticed a few more bits and pieces that I've marked in orange:[SPOILER="The Wind Rises timeline"]<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiro_Horikoshi?wprov=sfla1">Jiro Horikoshi</a> was born on 22nd June 1903</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The first scenes of the film takes place in 1918 as seen by the magazine he is given. Making him roughly 15, character model seems a bit short seeing he seems quite tall just 5 years later.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Battista_Caproni?wprov=sfla1">Caproni's</a> planes in his dream look like the biplane bombers (Ca. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.1_%281914%29?wprov=sfla1">1</a> through <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.3_%281916%29?wprov=sfla1">3</a>) and the triplane bomber Ca. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.4?wprov=sfla1">4</a> (the passenger plane being a varient). I noticed the one on the front cover of the magazine is Ca. 30, a varient of the Ca. 1, although Wikipedia has it listed as post-war whereas the magazine is dated Feb 1918! Not sure if the mag itself is real, had a quick Google and couldn't find it. The next plane is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.60?wprov=sfla1">Ca. 60</a> which crashed on it's second test, shown a little later in the film, and thus never actually took any passengers.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The next event is the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1923_Great_Kant%C5%8D_earthquake?wprov=sfla1">Great Kantō Earthquake</a> on the 1st of September 1923. We meet <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiro_Honjo?wprov=sfla1">Kiro Honjo</a>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">So the next scenes at university and with his sisters visit. He tells her he last saw Nahoko "over 2 years" ago so would probably be winter 1925.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Next, when he moves to Nagoya, I thought it was the Great Depression (1929-31), but when I found out the date of the plane in the next scenes, I had to go find a different date. Turns out to be the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dwa_financial_crisis?wprov=sfla1">Shōwa Financial Crisis</a> of early 1927.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The plane in the next scene is the <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_1MF9?wprov=sfla1">Mitsubishi 1MF9</a> which had trial flights in July and September 1927.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Next he travels to Germany to visit Junkers. There's a brief shot of a Russian Orthodox Church before they get there, so even there's a lot of planes in the film and passenger planes did exist I guess the best way to get to Germany from Japan must have still been by boat and then railway. I'm guessing it's the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans%E2%80%93Siberian_Railway?wprov=sfla1">Trans-Siberian</a> (I looked it up once to see how viable it was to get to Japan that way, probably a lot more interesting than a plane, but a lot longer). They see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junkers_G.38?wprov=sfla1">G.38</a> which first flew in 1929. The scene with the "secret police" (dub version) or men they saw in the hanger (sub) could also be 1929, a mob of antisemitic men chasing a Jew? The Great Depression saw a rise in violence against the Jews, but the law "was fair" until the Nazis got into power in 1933. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Germany?wprov=sfla1">History of Jews in Germany</a></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The next Caproni plane looks like a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caproni_Ca.90?wprov=sfla1">Ca. 90</a>, but in a passenger carrying configuration.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Jiro is asked how long he's been at the company and replies 5 years making it 1932.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The aircraft carrier is probably the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_aircraft_carrier_H%C5%8Dsh%C5%8D?wprov=sfla1">Hōshō</a>, the first one Japan built and was used for testing. The plane they use to land on it is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_B1M?wprov=sfla1">Mitsubishi B1M</a>. The plane they watch take off is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakajima_A1N?wprov=sfla1">Nakajima A1N</a>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The next plane was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_1MF10?wprov=sfla1">Mitsubishi_1MF10</a> which had its maiden flight in March 1933.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Next Jiro visits the Hotel Kusakaru after the plane crashes. There were 2 incidents July '33 and June' 34. It's probably '33 as it would be too short a time before the next test and Castorp (the name comes from the very book he quotes, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Mountain?wprov=sfla1">The Magic Mountain</a>) mentions <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugo_Junkers?wprov=sfla1">Junkers</a> being in trouble. He resisted the Nazis taking control of his company at first after they took over in 1933.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kiro shows Jiro the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_G3M?wprov=sfla1">Mitsubishi G3M</a>.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"><s>However</s> in the scene where Jiro gets a telegram there is a date stamp which looks like 9.7.13. If the 9 is correct (it's cut in half by the bottom of the screen) it would, possibly, be the 9th year of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sh%C5%8Dwa_period?wprov=sfla1">Shōwa Period</a> with 1926 being year 1. So the date would be 13/7/1934.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The next plane, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_A5M?wprov=sfla1">Mitsubishi_A5M</a>, was commissioned in 1934.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They probably marry in winter 1934/35.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Kiro talks about how vulnerable the G3Ms are, but he's obviously seeing into the future as the action looks like it could be from the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Sino-Japanese_War?wprov=sfla1">Second Sino-Japanese War</a> when they were first used in 1937! He also has a vivid imagination as the proto-X-Wing looking fighters don't exist, as far as I can tell.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The test flight of the Mitsubishi_A5M with its original gull wing design took place on the 5th of February 1935. The design was changed after this to a straighter version.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">So they were married for no more than 2 months at the most :-(</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The next scene is 1945, obviously at the end of the war, where we see the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_A6M_Zero?wprov=sfla1">Mitsubishi_A6M Zero</a> in his final vision with Caproni.</li> </ul>[/SPOILER]Blimey that took longer than I thought. But now a little about the lead up to the war, I think what Miyazaki said it that interview best sums it up 40 years of massive growth and then 40 years to eventually destroy it all. After centuries of self isolation Japan opened up in 1868 and ran to catch up on the industrial revolution for the next 30 years before then running to catch up in imperial terms with a number of wars of expansion starting with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War?wprov=sfla1">First Sino-Japanese War</a> (1894/5) and continuing with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War?wprov=sfla1">Russo-Japanese War</a> (1904/5, anyone who's seen Golden Kamuy will have seen this depicted in anime form!)Japan then actually helped the Russians (British and French) in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_during_World_War_I?wprov=sfla1">First World War</a> against Germany. But then went down much the same route as Germany with the financial crisis' and political turmoil turning the country to militarism, nationalism and totalitarianism.The expansionism also continued including the already mentioned Second Sino-Japanese War until they took it too far by joining the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_during_World_War_II?wprov=sfla1">Second World War</a> and then brought the US into it as well.A more detailed look can be found here:[URL unfurl="true"]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empire_of_Japan?wprov=sfla1[/URL]Right now onto the film. I don't think I can add much to what I said last time, again notes in orange:A good film about the passion of a man persuing his dream interrupted by a romance based on someone elses life (it would make a good film of its own <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wind_Has_Risen?wprov=sfla1">The Wind Has Risen - Wikipedia</a>). He also didn't have a sister! I think the romance could have stayed, but maybe seeded in better. As beautiful as it was done it just halted the film when he went to the retreat. Wikipedia says he had 5 children, so he must have had a wife! If you're going to do a film on someone's life don't add someone elses into the mix. Or make a completely fictional character doing similar things in a fictional war and avoid being accused of being pro-war!Although some characters talk about how bad war is/was I would have liked more of Jiros (the real one) thoughts on it from his diary: "We were convinced that surely our government had in mind some diplomatic measures which would bring the conflict to a halt before the situation became catastrophic for Japan. But now, bereft of any strong government move to seek a diplomatic way out, we are being driven to doom. Japan is being destroyed. I cannot do [anything] other but to blame the military hierarchy and the blind politicians in power for dragging Japan into this hellish cauldron of defeat."Back to the present with more thoughts: After reading the Miyazaki article I can see that the film isn't supposed to be pro-war, I think he's just very enamoured with a genius aircraft designer who just happened to live at a time when war planes were what the government wanted. Miyazaki calls the policies stupid and numerous times the characters say Japan is bit backwards and money could and should be spent elsewhere. This is shown visually by the same Oxen team that pulled out the first failed plane still pulling out Jiro's now ultra modern plane.Another thought I had was about Miyazaki saying his dad witnessed destruction of Tokyo both in the earthquake and at the end of the war:Now Jiro was at Tokyo University at the time of the earthquake so may well have witnessed it, but wasn't there at the end of the war, he was in Matsumoto. So maybe a nod to his father, I assume it was Tokyo at the end. Also grabbing that quote I reread it, maybe the story of his father taking his sister's hand and fleeing was the inspiration for Jiro leading Naoko through the crowd?Phew done.</blockquote>

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