Redheaded Jill

I had never heard of this movie, but I have only seen a handful of the Studio Ghibli creations.

**SPOILERS AHEAD**

This movie is beautifully done, and I can see why it’s won some awards. The English dubbed version includes the voices of John Krasinksi, Joseph Gordon-Levitt (sp?), Emily Blunt, Mandy Patinkin and more.

It tells the story of the man behind Japanese fighter planes in WWII, Jiro Horikoshi.

He is portrayed as a child genius with a strong sense of right/wrong. Jiro grows up to studying engineering. He survives the Tokyo Fires while rescuing a girl and her maid. This becomes his love interest and they are separated only to reunite years later.

I have zero interest in flight, but this movie was endearing. Jiro is shown to be a character with great imagination. He is worried because Japanese planes were twenty years behind the west. He travels to Germany to study their engineering only to be stopped by the secret police. After he is sent home Jiro meets a German gentleman who warns Jiro about the insanity of Hitler and the impending war.

Jiro gets permission to marry his love who reveals that she is suffering from tuberculosis. The secret police start hunting for Jiro after he met with the German gentleman. He marries his fiancee who eventually succumbs to the tuberculosis.

I enjoyed so much about this movie. The purity of Jiro and his love for flight. The love he shows his friends, family and fiancee. He is a diligent worker with a strong sense of right and wrong. He doesn’t ask for much out of life, he just wants to make airplanes. And be with his love.

I looked up some history, wondering how accurate the movie was. According to wiki Jiro was opposed to the war, married and had five children. (I don’t know if his wife did have TB but in real life she lived long enough to have kids! So that’s good…)

This movie was so touching, even if the love story was semi-fictional. It made me think about all the talented men and women who have their ideas taken and used for evil. I’m not sure I’d watch it again, but it was definitely worth seeing. 3/5 stars (because I’m not a fan of sad endings).