Ghibli Quest - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

2024-01-22

Yesterday I began my quest of seeing all of Studio Ghibli's films. My plan is to watch them in the same order in which they were released, so I started with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind[1] [^nausica-first].

=> 1: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind_(film)

While reading about the story for this film I found out that Hayao Miyazaki was having a hard time selling his movie ideas to studios, so he ended up creating a manga of this same story, which became so popular that his publisher asked him to create a movie. During this time his producer also enlisted the help of Joe Hisaishi[2], which would go on to become the composer for many of the future movie scores for Studio Ghibli!

=> 2: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Hisaishi

The movie itself is wonderful. I don't know if maybe I'm biased in my appreciation but all of Miyazaki's movies have something that really sets them apart for me. While watching it I kept coming back to this idea, trying to pinpoint what it was that made it special. It's like there is a level of intimacy with the characters and story that is not common, but at the same time there is enough distance with them so that I can position myself firmly as a viewer. I don't know, maybe I just have this idea in my head and it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Regardless, I had a good time with the movie and I heartily recommend it.

Spoilers below!

I wanted to comment on some points that I found interesting:

• Nausicaa and the valley where she's from are special, they're out of the ordinary in many dimensions. But most notably they're different because she and her people have a semblance of harmony with this new world. From the very beginning we're told how she's attuned to the wind (an expression of the natural energy).
• They also have magic (as in awe) and don't consider themselves above nature. All other civilizations we meet are all pretty similar, trying to get one up on each other, squabbling, and most importantly, trying their best to subjugate nature, to enforce their will on the world.

• This contrast reinforces our perception, as viewers, of how good the protagonist is, and how bad everyone else is. We frequently see Nausicaa's attitude of acceptance and respect also extending to the antagonist figures, in turn gaining their respect as the story progresses.

• This also highlights an important point in the story which is that of balance. Beings are defensive because there is a lot of aggression and ill-will going on, but if you remove the aggression then you'll find that everyone just wanted to be happy in the first place, and to avoid suffering. You'll find their defensiveness disappear. * Sure, it might be a romanticized version of nature, but I think it's one that speaks deeply to our yearning for communion with it.

• The world itself plays a special role in that it is basically another character. It's mainly represented by the forest, and the insects with the mighty Ohm as their figurehead. As the movie progresses we learn that these don't want to destroy humans completely, and instead their desire is that of re-establishing a balance between all beings. A balance which the humans, in their avarice, have destroyed (as indicated by the toxic soil and water, and the purifying role the forest plays).

• I found it a pretty genial plot point that the rebalancing effect happened because these organisms co-evolved to be like this due to environmental pressures caused by humans. I can totally buy that.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It speaks to our shared experience as beings that are oppressed, and sometimes oppress others. It also reinforces the connections that we have as part of nature, one that is often forgotten, underappreciated, in our over-industrialized world.

[^nausica-first]: Technically this was released before the studio was founded, but it is the movie that made it possible and from what I've read online it's often considered the first Ghibli movie.

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