Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind  (1984), directed by Hayao Miyazaki, 4 stars

“Nausicaä” is the first film the renowned Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki both wrote and directed.  Based on his previously published manga (graphic novel), the film was so successful in his native Japan that its proceeds allowed Miyazaki to finance the creation of Studio Ghibli, which was quickly to become a highly-regarded production powerhouse of animation.

Miyazaki’s signature themes are evident from the film’s first sequence.  A lone man whose face is obscured by a gas mask rides on an animal wearing similar protection through a wasteland termed in Japanese the “sea of decay” and in English the “toxic jungle.”  The time is 1,000 years after the collapse of industrialized civilization, and plants exude poisonous spores that kill quickly if breathed for even a short period of time and more slowly over a lifetime of indirect exposure.  No sooner does he gently pick it up from the ground then a doll crumbles in the man’s hands.  Miyazaki’s films have a strong environmental sensibility, and nothing good can result from a state in which man and nature are out of balance.

Fortunately, a custodian of the environment soon appears.  It is the film’s heroine, Princess Nausicaä, sensitive to the world around her, fearless in her pursuit of what she believes is right, fiercely protective of her subjects, and quick to come to the aid of anyone or anything in distress.  Strong women play a critical role in Miyazaki’s films.  Like men, they are skilled fighters and are fearless leaders.  Unlike men, however, Miyazaki’s heroines can also display vulnerability and a far wider range of emotions than is available to traditional male protagonists.  Although the director has often been labeled a feminist, it could be that he is drawn to women simply because they provide him with a larger palette from which to draw when responding to the challenges they invariably face in his films.

And when it comes to challenges, Princess Nausicaä has more than her fair share.  Her father is killed by enemy soldiers during a siege as they attempt to recover cargo from an airship that has recently crashed nearby.  Although there are no human survivors, the ship contains the remains of the last of a race of terrible ancient warriors.  Outnumbered and outgunned, Nausicaä, now the leader of her people, has no choice but to surrender.  She spends much of the remainder of the film attempting to seek peace, not only between warring kingdoms, but between humans and the plant and animal inhabitants needed to preserve the fragile ecosystem increasingly laid waste by man.

The version of the film I saw was dubbed by Disney in 2005, and it features the voices of Patrick Stewart, Uma Thurman, Mark Hamill, Chris Sarandon, and Alison Lohman as Nausicaä.  I usually prefer to watch foreign films in their native language with subtitles, so I was initially put off by the English voices which sounded forced and artificial—at least at first.  Eventually, however, I got used to them, and one major advantage of dubbing, at least for an animated feature, is that it allows the audience to concentrate fully on the visuals, which in this as in Miyazaki’s other films, are simply brilliant.  If you can, see it on the big screen.