Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind
Review
This is an early Miyazaki movie, which is one thing I needed to keep in mind as I did this review. The colors, for one thing, are very pale compared to later films. Granted, the world pictured tends to lack many colors, but still the film seems to have a sort of washed-out tone to it.
This is another ecology-oriented film. In this one, the world has become horribly polluted and apparently there was a seven-days war which pretty much ended any advanced human civilization there was. Now there are pockets of peopled areas and lots of wasteland, especially an area called the "Sea of Decay" which is really a type of forest.
Nausicaa is the Princess of an area called the Valley of the Wind, an area where wind-power seems to be the primary source of energy although they also seem to have various types of gliders like the one she uses which is rather advanced. Two other areas are referred to in the film, one primarily military flying huge planes, and the other defensive, flying one-man jets.
There is also a constant danger of spores from the Sea of Decay infecting their regular plants which would lead to starvation and death of the remaining humans, and there are also gigantic insects, especially the Ohmu, whose eyes glow red when they are angry.
The story concerns the remaining countries fighting over the dwindling resources, their willingness to use ancient, horrible weapons, and their idea that they can still conquer nature, in this case the Sea of Decay. (I remember the Klingon saying from a Star Trek episode; "Only a fool fights in a burning house." Obviously, some of the countries hadn't learned that lesson yet.)
Nausicaa, on the other hand, lives as much as she can in harmony with nature, representing the idea of cooperation with nature rather than domination of nature.
This is a very violent film, more along the lines of Grave of the Fireflies or Princess Mononoke, quite unlike Ghibli's Whispers of the Heart or Totoro. I think the nature and scale of the violence put me off some since I'm used to the more peaceful Miyazaki movies. The film is good, granted, but it will not be my favorite Ghibli film. It is worth watching, though.
Synopsis
The bizarre world of the future.
An animal called an ohmu.
One of the creatures chasing someone.
She meets an animal that will become her companion.
There are still small areas that are inhabitable.
A strange airship comes to their valley. Their valley is located near the ocean, and it's the ocean winds that keep the Sea of Decay, an area of land taken over by mutant plants and animals, from claiming them as its victims.
The plane, attacked by some insects, crashes.
She leads one of the insects back to its forest. Apparently, if the townspeople had tried to kill the insect, it might have called others and then their village would have been in severe trouble.
Other planes. These are Tolmekian, a warlike group of people to the west of the valley.
The crashed plane carried the Princess of one area (she died), and also carried some form of giant warrior from the "Seven Days of Fire."
The Tolmekian planes land and the warriors attack the village. Nausicaa is Princess and the warriors kill her father.
The Tolmekians easily conquer the valley. Their plan apparently is to attack the "Sea of Decay" (really a mutant forest area). An old woman warns the Tolmekian leader that if the "Sea of Decay" is attacked, the Ohmu insects will in turn attack the humans as they have done in the past.
The Tolmekians plan to take over another area. Meanwhile a friend of Nausicaa's discovers her secret lab. She has discovered that the plants themselves are not poisonous; it's the soil they're grown in. She can grow normally poisonous plants in good soil and water and they are totally harmless.
They are attacked by a gunship from the nation they are planning to invade. The attacking plan shoots down all but one of the other planes before it, too, is shot down.
The Princess escapes in one plane, and some hostages from her village escape in another. They land in some water but it turns out to be an Ohmu's nest. The evil woman leader of the attacking country is also still with them.
Nausicaa rescues the guy who attacked the planes but her glider crashes and they fall through into an area under the Sea of Decay, an area that has pure air and water.
The insects have attacked one of the countries and destroyed a city.
Meanwhile, in the Valley, spores from the Sea of Decay have invaded one of their forests. The people set the forest on fire to stop the spread of the spores and also attack the Tolmekian invaders, then flee.
The Princess tries to stop the enemy from using an insect for bait to get all the other Ohmu to attack the valley. Meanwhile, the evil princess plans to get the ultimate warrior-type thing awake.
The Giant Warrior has been revived just as the insects are attacking. The tank fire has no effect on the insects.
The giant warrior was brought to life too soon and is falling apart, though it's still capable of a deadly attack on the insects.
The Ohmus finally stop their attack. The Princess saved the baby being used as bait, but in their rage the Ohmus ran her and the baby over. The Princess died, but the Ohmu brought her back to life again. She ends up fulfilling a prophecy.
Back to start of Anime Reviews section
My Index Page
| 
