Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind | |
|---|---|
 Region 1 DVD cover |
|
| Directed by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Produced by | Isao Takahata |
| Written by | Hayao Miyazaki |
| Music by | Joe Hisaishi |
| Cinematography | Hideshi Kyonen |
| Editing by | Naoki Kaneko Tomoko Kida Shiyoji Sakai |
| Release date(s) |  March 4, 1984 |
| Running time | 116 min. |
| Country | Japan |
| Language | Japanese |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ Kaze no tani no Naushika?) is a 1984 film by Japanese writer, illustrator, and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, based on his manga of the same name. The movie has environmentalist undertones and was presented by the World Wide Fund for Nature when it was released in 1984. Nausicaä is ranked as one of the 50 greatest science fiction films by the Internet Movie Database.[1] While created before Studio Ghibli was founded, the film is considered by some to be the studio's first film because of the involvement of Studio Ghibli's Hayao Miyazaki, Isao Takahata, Toshio Suzuki[2] and Joe Hisaishi. It is often included as part of the Studio's works, including the Studio Ghibli Collection of DVDs.
The movie won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1984.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The story takes place 1,000 years after the "Seven Days of Fire," an event which destroyed human civilization and most of the Earth's original ecosystem. Scattered human settlements survive, isolated from one another by the Sea of Decay (腐海 fukai?). Literally translating as the Rotting Sea or the Sea of Fungus, or Toxic jungle in the English release, the Sea of Decay is a jungle of giant plants and fungi swarming with giant insects, which seem to come together only to wage war. Everything in the Sea of Decay, including the air, is lethally toxic.
The primary protagonist, Nausicaä, is a charismatic young princess of the peaceful Valley of the Wind. Her name comes from the princess Nausicaa in the Odyssey who assisted Odysseus, and is transcribed into Japanese as ナウシカ, pronounced [naɯɕika]. In English, the Greek name is normally pronounced /nɒˈsɪkeɪə/, but in the soundtrack for the film it is /ˈnɔːsɨkə/. Part of her character comes from a Japanese folk hero known as "the princess who loved insects", while another part was inspired by the writings of Bernard Evslin, as he had written a more in-depth extrapolation of character of Odyssey's Nausicaa. [3]
Although a skillful fighter, Miyazaki's Nausicaä is humane and peace-loving. She has an unusual gift for communicating with the giant insects (particularly with the Ohmu, the gigantic, armored, caterpillar-like insects who are the most intelligent creatures in the Sea of Decay). She is also noted for her empathy toward animals, humans, and other beings. An intelligent girl, and inspired by the mentor figure Yupa, a wandering samurai type possessed of great wisdom, Nausicaä frequently explores the Sea of Decay and conducts scientific experiments in an attempt to define the true nature and origins of the toxic world in which she lives. Her explorations are facilitated by her skill at "windriding"; flying with an advanced glider-like craft with a jet assist called a möwe. Yupa is searching for the mythological man in blue who, according to the legend, will appear surrounded by a sea of gold and reunite the people and nature.
One day, an airship (a kind of large cargo airplane) crashes onto the cliffs near the Valley of the Wind. Nausicaä tries to rescue a hand-cuffed girl of her age from the burning wreck, but she dies after telling that she is Princess Lastelle from the kingdom Pejite and that the cargo of the airship must be destroyed. The airship is from Tolmekia and the cargo turns out to be a God Warrior (kyoshinhei embryo, Giant Warrior in the English release), one of the lethal, giant, biological weapons used in the ancient war.
It is later revealed that the God Warrior embryo was unearthed by Pejite, but it was stolen by the more powerful state of Tolmekia (Tormekia in the manga). While transporting the Warrior back to their realm, the Tolmekians were attacked by insects and subsequently crash-land in the Valley. The very next day, the Tolmekians, under the leadership of princess Kushana, invade the Valley to kill the Valley king and to secure and revive the Warrior. Kushana explains that the God Warrior will be used to burn the Sea of Decay, although Obaba, an old and blind Valley woman warns that attempting so will only enrage the Ohmu and lead to more deaths.
Kushana attempts to return to Tolmekia, with Nausicaä and several others as hostages. Before their departure, Nausicaä reveals to Yupa a hidden garden of jungle plants, that are not toxic because they are growing in sand and water from a deep well. Nausicaä explains that the jungle is only toxic due to the toxic soil that is everywhere on the surface of the earth. The airships with Kushana and Nausicaä are attacked by a Pejitan gunship and several of the ships are forced to make an emergency landing in the Sea of Decay. There, Nausicaä communicates with several ohmus and discovers that the pilot of the Pejitan gunship is still alive. With the help of her glider, Nausicaä rescues the pilot from a swarm of enraged insects. However, they crash and end up in a strange, non-toxic world that is below the Sea of Decay; the plants in the Sea of Decay purify the polluted soil, and in this way produce clean water and sand, which remains hidden in this underground world. The pilot turns out to be Asbel of Pejite, the twin brother of princess Lastelle.
Nausicaä and Asbel return to Pejite, which turns out to be destroyed after the Pejite people lured the insects from the Sea of Decay into their town in order to kill the occupying Tolmekian forces. The Pejite people reveal that they will do the same thing to the Valley of the Winds in order to recapture the God Warrior. To prevent Nausicaä from alerting the Tolmekians, they capture her, but she escapes with the help of Asbel. With a gunship, she returns to the Valley, but along the way they encounter a enormous herd of enraged Ohmus who are on their way towards an injured baby Ohmu, which is used by the Pejite people to lure the Ohmus to the Valley. Nausicaä releases the baby ohmu and gains its trust.
In the meantime, the Tolmekians try to use the God Warrior to stop the ohmu herd, but the Warrior, woken too early, dies in the process. However, Nausicaä, with the baby ohmu, is finally able to stop the ohmu herd, but she is overrun and slain in the process. In front of the Valley people and the Tolmekian forces, the ohmus use their gold-colored tentacles to revive Nausicaä, whose dress has turned blue by the baby ohmu's blood; thus Nausicaä turns out to be the mythological "man" in blue mentioned in the beginning. The film ends with fragments of a future where people and insects live in peace with each other.
The story holds deeper meaning than its depiction of war; there are both humanistic and ecological subtexts in Miyazaki's narrative. Even the insects seem to be working toward some secret harmony and the lethal fungal forest seems to have a vital role in Earth's new ecosystem.
[edit] Releases
The film was originally released in Japan on March 4, 1984, and sold almost a million tickets.[4]
[edit] Warriors of the Wind
A heavily edited and English-dubbed version of the film was released theatrically in North America, shown on HBO and released on VHS by New World Pictures & Orion Pictures in the 1980s as Warriors of the Wind. According to Nausicaa.net, the voice actors and actresses were not even informed of the film's plotline and more than 30 minutes of the movie were cut from the film because New World felt that "the parts were slow moving"[5]. As a result, part of the film's narrative meaning was lost; some of the environmentalist themes were diluted as was the main subplot about the Ohmu, altered to turn them into aggressive enemies. Most of the characters were renamed (for example, Nausicaä became "Princess Zandra"). The cover for the VHS release featured a cadre of male characters, who are not part of the film, riding the resurrected God Warrior — including a still-living Warrior shown briefly in a flashback. It was released around the world under various different titles, such as Sternenkrieger (literally "Star Warriors") in Germany. It was rumored that June Foray provided the voice of Zandra, though this has been proven as untrue.
Many fans of Nausicaä, along with Miyazaki himself, dislike this version; Miyazaki suggested that people should put it "out of their minds." [6] Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki have asked fans to forget its existence and later adopted a strict "no-edits" clause for future foreign releases of its films. On hearing that Miramax co-chairman Harvey Weinstein would try to cut Princess Mononoke to make it more marketable, one of Studio Ghibli's producers sent an authentic katana with a simple message: "No cuts".[7]
[edit] 2005 English re-release
| Ratings | |
|---|---|
| United Kingdom: | PG |
| United States: | PG |
An uncut and re-dubbed version of Nausicaä was released on DVD by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on February 22, 2005 for Region 1. This DVD also includes the Japanese audio track with English subtitles. Optimum Home Entertainment released the film in Region 2, and the Region 4 DVD is distributed by Madman Entertainment. The 2005 DVD version made it around the world uncut.
[edit] Production
Nausicaä was produced with animators hired for the one movie and paid per frame.[4] One notable animator was Hideaki Anno, who later produced Neon Genesis Evangelion. Anno was assigned to draw the challenging God Warrior's attack sequence, which according to Toshio Suzuki is a "high point in the film".[4]
[edit] Cast
The film stars the following voice actors in the 1984 Japanese and 2005 re-dubbed English versions:
| Character | Japanese | English 2005 dub |
|---|---|---|
| Narrator | (none) | Tony Jay |
| Nausicaä | Sumi Shimamoto | Alison Lohman |
| Lord Yupa | Goro Naya | Patrick Stewart |
| Kushana | Yoshiko Sakakibara | Uma Thurman |
| Kurotowa | Iemasa Kayumi | Chris Sarandon |
| Mito | Ichirō Nagai | Edward James Olmos |
| Lastelle | Miina Tominaga | Emily Bauer |
| Asbel | Yōji Matsuda | Shia LaBeouf |
| Mayor of Pejite | Makoto Terada | Mark Hamill |
| Prince Milo | Cam Clarke | |
| Obaba | Hisako Kyōda | Tress MacNeille |
| King Jihl | Mahito Tsujimura | Mark Silverman |
| Muzu | James Arnold Taylor | |
| Gikuri | Jōji Yanami | Jeff Bennett |
| Lastelle's Mother | Akiko Tsuboi | Jodi Benson |
| Gol | Kōhei Miyauchi | Frank Welker |
- Children's Voices by Paul Butcher, Ashley Edner, Molly Keck, Richard Miro, Jordan Orr, Aimee Roldan, Grace Rolek
- Additional Voices by Newell Alexander, Rosemary Alexander, Tom Amundson, Stephen Apostolina, Mitch Carter, Robert Clotworthy, David Cowgill, Wendy Cutler, Ike Eisenmann, Jean Gilpin, Nicholas Guest, Bridget Hoffman, Sherry Hursey, Rif Hutton, Edie Mirman, Peter Renaday, Lynnanne Zager
[edit] Manga
Miyazaki's manga version of Nausicaä was written over a period of 13 years, with breaks taken to work on Studio Ghibli films. Serialized in Tokuma Shoten's Animage magazine, the first chapter was published in February 1982, and the last chapter in March 1994. As can be expected, the story of the manga is far more complex than that of the film. The tale depicted in the film roughly corresponds to only the first quarter of the manga (which is all that had been written at the time the film was produced), with significant differences in plot.
In addition to the plot, there are other significant differences in the story – the characters are more developed and the environmentalist tone is more sophisticated, echoed in the complex worldview of Princess Mononoke. Nausicaä herself is portrayed as being much more potent, with abilities that are not always explained.
The Nausicaä manga is published in English by VIZ Media. Earlier editions of the English manga and fan translations often used the title Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind, omitting the definite article.
[edit] Möwe
The Möwe (メーヴェ Mēve?, sometimes transliterated as Mehve) is a fictional one-person plane/glider. Möwe is the German word meaning seagull, and refers to the vehicle's form and color, as well as the proximity of the Valley of Wind to the Sea of Decay.
It is unarmed, though the pilot can deploy non-lethal flash grenades to disorient pursuers. It can store a rifle/shotgun on the back. It does not provide any protection from the elements for the pilot, who is completely exposed to the wind. Although its performance specifications are not clear, it is slow enough to allow the pilot to hold onto and control it with nothing more than his/her arms and body weight. The möwe also possesses V/STOL capabilities.
The möwe has an approximate wingspan of 5.8 meters (1/20 model measured to be 29cm), and is only 12kg according to the design notes.[8] In 2004, the Japanese-led OpenSky Aircraft Project began attempts to build a real-life, working Möwe.[9]
[edit] See also
- Editing of anime in American distribution
- Ohmu
- Nausicaä of the Valley of Wind (video game)
- Nausicaä Kiki Ippatsu (video game)
[edit] References
- ^ SciFi chart, IMDb.
- ^ Ghibli 101 FAQ // Studio Ghibli // Nausicaa.net
- ^ First volume of English manga of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind published by VIZ Media, back cover.
- ^ a b c Studio Ghibli, The Birth of Studio Ghibli video, c. 2003 (included on UK Nausicaä DVD)
- ^ FAQ, Nausicaä.net.
- ^ FAQs, Nausicaa.net
- ^ Brooks, Xan. "A god among animators", The Guardian, 2005-09-14. Retrieved on 2007-05-23. "There is a rumour that when Harvey Weinstein was charged with handling the US release of Princess Mononoke, Miyazaki sent him a samurai sword in the post. Attached to the blade was a stark message: 'No cuts.' / The director chortles. 'Actually, my producer did that.'"
- ^ Möwe with Nausicaä 1/20 scale model, Studio Ghibli Plamodel Collection, Bandai, 2004, Copyright: 2 horsepower(二馬力)
- ^ Opensky Project
[edit] Further reading
- Napier, Susan J. [1998]. "Vampires, Psychic Girls, Flying Women and Sailor Scouts", in Martinez, Dolores P.: The Worlds of Japanese Popular Culture: Gender, Shifting Boundaries and Global Culture (in English). Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0521631289.
- Anime and Academia: Interview with Marc Hairston on pedagogy and Nausicaa
[edit] External links
- Kaze no tani no Naushika at the Internet Movie Database
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia
- Info and review of Warriors of the Wind with audio clips
- Review of Warriors of the Wind
- 風の谷のナウシカ (Kaze no tani no Naushika) (Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved on 2007-07-19.
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
