动画大师宫崎骏：人生古稀随“风”起

by Richard Corliss

The news hit the Venice Film Festival like an unexpected death notice： Hayao Miyazaki， the worlds most honored creator of animated features， was ending his movie career.“Miyazaki has decided that The Wind Rises will be his last film， and he will now retire，” Koji Hoshino， who runs the directors Studio Ghibli， announced at a press conference for The Wind Rises.

The movie has already earned more than $80 million since its July 20 release in Japan， where Miyazaki is a box-office phenomenon as well as a national treasure. His last four films—Princess Mononoke， Spirited Away， Howls Moving Castle and Ponyo—have grossed about$700 million in his homeland， and $871 million including foreign markets.

A 1）somber exploration of love， responsibility and death， The Wind Rises is described as Hayao Miyazakis first film for grown-ups. Having spent half a lifetime making 2）exquisite fantasies for children， Mr Miyazaki， now 72， has returned to tackle the true story of an 3）aeroplane-maker who worked through World War II.

The title references a line from a Paul Valéry poem，“Le Cimetière marin” （“The Graveyard by the Sea”）：“The wind is rising！...We must try to live.” The wind is a 4）portent for the disasters that 5）anchor the movie： the 1923 Kanto earthquake， which leveled much of Tokyo and Yokohama and killed more than 100，000 people； and Japans 6）disastrous 7）imperial war， over a decade later.

Despite its real-world setting， the film is 8）saturated with the fantastical flourishes characteristic of Mr Miyazakis earlier work， book-ended with dreams. At the start， a ten-yearold boy named Jiro Horikoshi imagines flying above his provincial home， only to be awakened by bombs that fall from a hulking aerial warship. By the films 9）denouement， he is walking through the ruined landscape of wartime Japan， a nightmare wrought in part by his own boyhood dreams of flight.

The character of Jiro is based on the real Japanese designer of the 10）Mitsubishi A6M Zero. In its time considered to be the worlds best aerial fighter plane， the Zero enjoyed a terrifying reputation across the wars Pacific theatre. The Zero was on hand to open the war against America， by leading the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941. By 1945 however， it had lost its technical edge. Then teenage 11）kamikaze pilots were using Zeros as suicide bombs， ramming them into the approaching American fleets.

Born in the year of the Pearl Harbour attack， Mr Miyazaki is imprinted with the pacifism that is typical of Japanese from his generation. His movies are paeans to the natural world and warnings about its perilous state. In many， children are the first to warn of the dangers of greed and militarism， which inevitably fall on adultsdeaf ears.

The movie is actually a double bio-pic： of Horikoshi， whose life it follows from youth through university to his work at Mitsubishi， with a brief coda after World War II， and of author Tatsuo Hori， whose 1937 novel The Wind Rises tells of a 12）tubercular girl at a sanitarium. His life and works inform the character of Naoko Satomi， the young woman who becomes Jiros wife.

Miyazaki has long poured his fascination with all things airborne into his movies. The 1986 Castle in the Sky pits flying pirates against the citizens of a magical floating realm. Kikis Delivery Service （1989） gave its 13-year-old witch the job of delivering parcels by broomstick. Another species of air pirates patrol Porco Rosso （1992）， this time doing battle with an Italian aviation ace whom a magic spell has transformed into a pig. The young heroine of Howls Moving Castle（2004） is the portable flying house of a mysterious birdman. All these films proclaim that man， like a bird， was meant to soar， and that the sky， not the Earth， is our true home.

The director has said that The Wind Rises was inspired by a Horikoshi quote： “All I wanted to do was to make something beautiful.”Miyazaki often achieves just that， in a film that parades its beauty from its amazing first scene. The young Jiro climbs to the roof of his home and finds a plane parked there. Lured by its colorful avian design—white wings， blue feathers， a red tail， pink wheels and a yellow nose—Jiro scoots aboard this metallic bird for a lovely jaunt， until shadowed by a huge 13）dirigible carrying dozens of military aircrafts； the boy falls from the sky and awakens in his bed. The whole film is a series of flights and falls， airy ambitions that crash-dive into compromise and tragedy.

In the age of digital animation （and live action）， Miyazaki has remained faithful to the hand-drawn technique—the Disney style—that 14）predated Pixars CGI. Indeed， his human figures are abstracted into giant-eyed doll faces and stiff legs， as if walking clumsily on stilts. Even the adult Jiro looks like any anime child； and when he stumbles to the ground， his hands and feet make no visible impression on the grass.

Most of the directors grace goes into the landscapes： rural 15）vistas rendered in the most delicate pastels， like the watercolors Naoko paints during Jiros courtship of her. In a hard land heading to war， through the sensitive eyes of Jiro， Miyazaki makes sure the views are ravishing. His perfect metaphor for a Japan 16）straddling the old world and the new： the planes he designed are pulled onto the practice field by teams of oxen.

Fans have asked why the great pacifist film-maker has made a movie about a weapons-maker. Mr Miyazaki says he was drawn to the story of one of Japans great eccentric geniuses. Engineers are neutral， he explained in June 2013. “It was wrong from the beginning to go to war，” he said. “But…its useless to blame Jiro for it.”

Whatever the political implications of a movie that glamorizes and elegizes the makers of war， The Wind Rises shows Miyazaki at his most confident. The film betrays no hint of sapping energy， let alone senility； it is vigorous， subtle， daring and gorgeous. May his announced retirement be a brief， dark 17）whim. And may he go on enchanting and challenging moviegoers for years to come.

世界动画电影界泰斗宫崎骏要引退的消息，仿若一则始料不及的讣告，震惊了威尼斯电影节。“宫崎已经决定以《起风了》作为自己的封笔之作，然后引退。”吉卜力工作室的总裁星野康二在电影《起风了》的一个发布会上宣布此消息。

自7月20日在日本上映以来，《起风了》的票房收入已超过八千万美元——在日本，宫崎骏既是票房保证又是国宝级艺术家。他最近的四部作品——《幽灵公主》、《千与千寻》、《哈尔的移动城堡》以及《悬崖上的金鱼公主》在本土总票房达到7亿美元，全球票房收入达到8.71亿美元。

沉痛地探索爱、责任与死亡，《起风了》被视作是宫崎骏首部面向成人的电影。花了半辈子时间为孩子们打造精致奇幻作品，现年72岁的宫崎先生回归到真实的故事：讲述二战期间一位飞机制造者的故事。

电影名字参考保罗·瓦莱里的诗歌《海滨墓园》中的那句：“起风了！……我们必须努力求生。”风是灾难的前兆——整部电影的主旋律：1923年的关东大地震将东京与横滨的大部分建筑夷为平地，超过十万人丧生；还有十年后日本参与的那场灾难性的帝国主义战争。

尽管电影设置真实的战争为背景，但是电影里充满了宫崎先生早期电影里奇想百出的特质，以梦想为故事首尾呼应。影片开头，一个名叫堀越二郎的十岁小男孩梦想自己能够在家乡的高空上飞翔，却被从天而降的重磅炸弹惊醒。电影的结局，他在战时日本的残垣断壁间徘徊，年少的自己关于飞翔的梦想某种程度上造就了这一噩梦。

二郎的角色原型是日本三菱A6M零式战斗机的真实设计师。在那个时代，零式战斗机被视作最好的战斗机，曾在太平洋战场上声名显赫。该战斗机在美日战争的开局中担当重任，主导了1941年突袭珍珠港一役。但是到了1945年，它就失去了技术上的优势。而年轻的神风敢死队就是用零式战斗机充当自杀式炸弹，撞向进逼的美国战舰。

出生于突袭珍珠港那一年，宫崎骏身上带有他们那一代日本人典型的反战情愫。他的电影都是对大自然的赞歌以及对危险现状的警示。在多部影片中，孩子们往往最先警醒人们贪婪和军国主义的危害，然而都不可避免地为成年人所忽视。

这部电影其实是一部双人生活写照：一个是堀越，从其年少到大学再到他在三菱的工作，以及在二战后一个简短的结局；另一个是作家齐藤雄，他1937年发表的小说《起风了》讲述了疗养院里一个患有肺结核的女病童的故事。他的人生和作品反映在里见菜穂子这个人物角色上，这个女孩后来成为了堀越的妻子。

宫崎骏在其电影中一直对天空的一切倾注了无限想象。1986年的《天空之城》突出的是飞天海盗如何对抗神奇漂浮国度的居民。1989年的《魔女宅急便》让一个十三岁的小魔女骑着扫帚送包裹。另一部有关空中劫机同伙的是1992年的《飞天红猪侠》，在一次与意大利顶尖飞行员的比赛中，主角中了魔法而变成了一头猪。在2004年的《哈尔的移动城堡》中，年轻的女主人公住在一位神秘鸟人的口袋飞行屋里。所有的这些电影都在描述人类，像鸟一样，准备一飞冲天，而天空——并非大地，才是我们真正的家园。

宫崎导演曾说，《起风了》的灵感源自于堀越的一句话：“我想做的事情就是要造出美丽的事物来。”宫崎骏总是能做到这点，在电影中，从第一幕起就把美展现出来。年轻的二郎爬到自家房顶，然后发现一架飞机停在那里。二郎为它像鸟一样的多彩设计而吸引——白色的翅膀，蓝色的羽毛，红色的尾巴，粉色的轮子以及黄色的鼻子，他跳上了这只金属大鸟，来了一次难忘的短途旅行，直到被一只运输众多军事飞机的飞船挡住了视线；男孩从空中坠落然后在自己的床上醒来。整部电影演绎着一连串的飞升和坠落，飞天的梦想急坠成妥协和悲剧。

在这个数码动画（及真人实拍）的时代，宫崎骏坚持手绘技术——迪士尼风格——那是未采用皮克斯CGI之前的技术。事实上，他笔下的人物被抽象简化成各种大眼细腿的娃娃脸形象，像踩着高跷般笨拙行走。即便是成年的二郎看上去也像日本动漫里的孩子一样；而当他落在地面上，他的手脚在草地上也不落丝毫形迹。

宫崎导演大部分的功力都反映在景物上：用最细致的粉彩勾勒出乡村远景，就像二郎追求菜穂子时，菜穂子绘出的水彩画那样。在那片准备迎来战争的土地上，通过二郎敏感的观察，宫崎骏设法做到让一切景色都使人陶醉。他采用完美的暗喻手法展现了处在新老时代交替中的日本：他设计的飞机被排设在操场上，在一群牛的旁边。

影迷提出疑问：为什么这位伟大的和平主义电影人要制作一部关于武器制作人的电影。宫崎先生说自己被日本其中一位最伟大的古怪天才的生平所吸引。他在2013年6月的时候就解释道，设计师的角色是中立的。“战争一开始就是错误的，”他说，“但是责备二郎是没用的。”

无论这部电影的政治意蕴是否在美化哀挽战争的操手们，《起风了》都展现了宫崎骏最大的自信。这部电影并没有显露出宫崎一丁点的力不从心，更别提什么老态龙钟了；这是一部有力的、精妙的、大胆并且壮丽的电影。希望他的退休宣言只是一时意气用事罢了，还希望他能继续带给我们既精彩又有趣的电影。