Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984) – H. Miyazaki

Was this Miyazaki’s first big success?  It led directly to the formation of Studio Ghibli (which we all know is famous for Totoro, Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and others directed by Miyazaki but also Grave of the Fireflies and others directed by his colleague, Isao Takahata).  In keeping with Miyazaki’s strong environmentalist beliefs, Nausicaä takes place in a post-apocalyptic dystopian future where the Earth has been destroyed and a great Sea of Decay has devoured much of the usable arable land.  The Sea is home to gigantic (mutant?) insects who go on rampages as well as plants that emit toxic spores and gases (humans must wear gas masks to enter – and Miyazaki’s masks make them look like dogs with floppy jowls).  Nausicaä herself is a princess from one of the remaining safe places, a valley tucked away between mountains near the ocean, home to powerful winds.  She has mastered the skill of riding a sort of glider that allows her to travel far and wide across the Sea of Decay, where she has learned to communicate with the insects and derive some of the secrets of the Earth.  Unfortunately, some of the other remaining humans (living at some distance from the Valley) have become (or remained) warlike and seek to take over other countries and also to destroy the Sea of Decay to regain ownership of Earth from the insects.  They seek to resurrect a giant war god in order to do this. Don’t ask me to understand the plot – it is based on a longer manga that Miyazaki himself wrote and the film undoubtedly contains ellipses that make it hard to truly grasp its details. But it isn’t necessary to “get it” all – instead, you can let the amazingly creative and bizarre imagery wash over you, knowing that it was all hand-drawn back in the early 1980s.  The landscapes/seascapes are hauntingly beautiful, filled with expressionistic flowers and scary but sympathetic bugs.  The “message” is never didactic, always implicit – even in 1984 we knew about the coming environmental collapse.  If you love Ghibli and haven’t seen Nausicaä, then it is a must, certainly ranking near the top of Miyazaki’s oeuvre.  (For the record, I watched the Japanese version).