Training to become an astronaut, a young man struggles to realise his dream as his country's space program comes under public scrutiny in this deliberately paced animated drama from Japan. 'Wings of Honneamise' is an unexpectedly philosophical film with intelligent ideas thrown about such as space being "a place where all mankind can find new freedom" and the protagonist asked by a reporter to define "a space hero's purpose" and defend the government's decision to "waste our money" by funding space travel. Other curious quips include the notion that "history is just an ongoing game" while the astronaut even questions "do you ever feel like you're a character in a story?". Fascinating as the film may sound with all these elements, it does not flow particularly well as a narrative. There is far more talk than action and a large amount of time is dedicated to an improperly developed romance between the astronaut and a religious fanatic that culminates in a bizarre near rape scene that even more bizarrely is soon forgotten. The film ends a bit abruptly too. There is so much to like in the intelligent dialogue throughout 'Wings of Honneamise' that it remains a difficult film to dislike, but for all its daring to be different as far as space travel films go, it does not spin the smoothest of narratives. An interesting movie, but one to approach with caution.

With its themes of human progress and existential meaning, WINGS OF HONNEAMISE is science-fiction in line with Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY. Beyond the ROCKY-style underdog story, detailed worldbuilding, gorgeous animation, and political intrigue, WINGS is a spiritual film-- not in that it spouts religious dogma, but in that it asks questions about what we are to make of the evil in the world and how we can try to find nobility and meaning through faith in something, even if that faith is in the belief that mankind can change for the better as it progresses into the future.

Shrio himself is at the center of this conflict. He begins the movie numb and depressed, but finds a new lease on life when he meets a religious fundamentalist named Riquinni. Attracted to her beauty and her ability to find purpose in life, Shiro becomes inspired to volunteer to be the first man sent into space, even though this is a risky venture, what with others involved in this quest often ending up dead in accidents. However, Shiro's mission is complicated by the public and political controversy around the space program, viewed as a joke at best and wasteful at worst. When he learns illicit funding has been employed to pay for the mission, he wonders if the ends can ever justify the noble means.

It's all incredibly interesting, though the pace is undoubtedly deliberate. But let me get to the elephant in the room...

The sexual assault scene dominates much of the critical discussion around this film. Some argue it was in character for the frustrated Shiro to attack Riquinni-- out of lust, out of anger, out of fear of dying, whatever it might be. Others find Shiro impossible to root for after this scene, even if he did realize the horror of what he was doing right before he was clocked on the head. While on one hand, I have to wonder if the sudden violence was meant to tie into the movie's themes about man being an inherently violent creature, it is handled clumsily and does distance the viewer from Shiro, especially since the movie expects you to go back to viewing him as the likable underdog right after this.

As for Riquinni's apology, I actually think the detractors take this action too much at face value by assuming the movie agrees with her. Riquinni is a religious fundamentalist. From what we see of her religion's theology, everything is about guilt and mankind is dominated by violent impulses. She takes the idea that the ends never justify the means to a destructive extreme. This is the same woman who wouldn't sue the company that destroyed her home because she hates fighting and thinks it is sinful-- it makes sense that she would view even an act of self-defense as bad. She is an extremist and so blames herself when what happened is not at all her fault.

Still, the attempted rape is in poor taste, handled in so clunky a manner that you wish the filmmakers had opted to find a much better way of portraying the rift between Shiro and Riquinni.

At the very least, you can skip the scene on your bluray player. This is still a fine science-fiction movie, one of the best.

So yeah, I was looking at a list of the best animated films from the 80s and this is on the list. It was hard to find and seems to be noteworthy from being the first anime to deal in a real world setting with adult subject matters; I'm not sure how true that statement is but this anime isn't bad. It drags here and there but you can feel the well thought out philosophy and plot points. I like the opening monologue and how it makes you think you read it wrong until you start watching the film and understand why an aviation program would be harder to get into than a space program. Anyway, the film is about a space program that is just going nowhere and just there to literally waste money until the biggest slacker in the program turns his views around after meeting a strangely religious girl. He ultimately ends up driving those around him and etc, etc there is a lot more to it but I don't want to spoil anything. The film is a good one. It borders on being remarkable but never seems to go over the hump. But still worth a watch.