Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984)
Written & directed by Hisao Miyazaki
Dubbed into English
by Ken Cornwall
Anime, the Japanese style of
animation that’s become
increasingly popular in the U.S. in the last 20 years, is a genre I’ve generally overlooked. But I decided to give it a try by starting with the filmmaker many believe to be the master of the form, Hiyao Miyazaki, and found myself enraptured by his imagination, storytelling skill, and magical vision. An Oscar winner for Spirited Away, and nominee this year for Howl’s Moving Castle, Miyazaki’s first film was 1984’s, Kaze No Tani No Naushika, or Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds, a story of a young girl in a post apocalyptic world.
Set sometime far in the future, “a thousand years after the collapse of industrial society,” small pockets of humanity have survived some kind of catastrophic event. Known as the “Seven Days of Fire,” the planet was nearly destroyed by a destructive weapon of immense power. A strange new world has developed, one in which the air is poisonous and vast deserts lie between dangerous toxic jungles filled with thousands of varieties of deadly giant insects. Dying from the poison in the air, water and soil, living in fear of the giant insects, and warring with each other, human kind is on the verge of extinction.
Nausicaa (Allison Lohman) knows the stakes. Her own father, the leader of her people, is dying from the toxins. For years they have survived, tucked away in a valley protected from the poisons by steady and constant winds. But this protection is starting to fail and people are getting sick. Although just a young girl, Nausicaa, wise and capable beyond her years, has taken it upon herself to find a cure by studying the plants and the insects that everyone fears. In the process she develops an ability to communicate with and understand them.
Her affinity with insects kicks the plot into motion as Nausicaa saves visiting warrior and wise man, Lord Yupa, (Patrick Stewart) from an angry bug. Yupa brings news of war and strife between city-states that lie beyond the desert, a dangerous conflict that threatens even this little valley. The conflict soon falls right on their doorstep when giant airships arrive, led by Kushana (Uma Thurman), a warrior princess who forces the people of the valley to help her in her scheme to unleash an ancient weapon that could bring about the final destruction of the world. Nausicaa must find a way to save her people from the weapon and the angry insects, and restore the health of her father. In the process, she makes a discovery in the jungle that may hold the secret to saving humanity.
It may sound like an impenetrable sci-fi epic, but Nausicaa is actually quite accessible. Miyazaki’s brilliance lies in his ability to create both complex, compelling characters and his memorable design work that brings this strange world to life. There are some fascinating creatures like the giant Ohmus, huge armored insects with eyes that glow red when they get angry and slender, flying centipedes that circle and swim through the air. I also loved the giant airships that travel though the skies. They have the worn look of something cobbled together, as if they had to be created out of whatever material remained after the holocaust.
The movie successfully mixes adventure with an environmental message that remains as timely today as it did 20 years ago. It’s obvious that Miyazaki is making a statement about the potentially devastating outcome of our need to create weapons of mass destruction and our wanton disregard for the world around us. But it’s seamlessly integrated into the action. Several sequences leave you on the edge of your seat, including the opener in which Nausicaa distracts an Ohmu from trampling Lord Yupa; and a later scene, in which Nausicaa makes a daring mid air rescue only to seemingly fall to her doom, leaves you breathless.
Nausicaa was originally released in the U.S. in 1986 in a re-edited version called Warriors of the Wind that made substantial changes to the story. Miyazaki was understandably upset by how his film was handled and vowed to keep tighter control over foreign versions. This lead to an agreement with Disney, which now releases all of his films with their original stories intact, but voiced by popular English speaking actors. Luckily, we are now able to see Nausicaa as Miyazaki intended, the film’s thrilling story and powerful message intact.
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