Meanwhile, Jiro's conflicted relationship with the arms industry is clumsily explored via fantasy sequences in which Jiro converses with Italian engineer, Caproni, whose brilliant designs, too, became synonymous with carnage. Craft vs Conscience; it's all spelt out. The film has provoked outrage in very different quarters (Miyazaki has come under attack for being both anti-Japanese and for being soft on Japanese war-crimes). But the politics aren't the problem. It's the lack of dramatic tension. The hand-drawn animation roars with life (shadows crawl over walls like spiders, an earthquake gobbles up homes). How gutting that the story is so inert. It's being billed as Hayao Miyazaki's last film. He can't leave us this way.
