This impressive work from acclaimed Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki represents a significant departure from traditional anime.
Foregoing the gritty storylines, extreme violence, and adult content found throughout many anime, Miyazaki’s works borrow as much from fairy tales as they do from science fiction.
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind is no exception.
Centuries after war has devastated the earth, Princess Nausicaa leads the people of the Valley of the Wind.
Feuding clans fight with planes and tanks as well as swords in a world that is both primitive and futuristic.
In addition to her people’s conflicts with other factions, Nausicaa must also contend with the insects of the jungle including the Ohmu, a race of giant, intelligent bugs that poisons the surrounding atmosphere – and is spreading rapidly.
The setting of this 1984 animation owes much to the post-apocalypse genre spawned by Mad Max and other films, and the political subplot is often compared to Frank Herbert’s Dune.
However, the heroine here has more in common with the female protagonists of the Disney musicals such as Pocohantas and Mulan; Nausicaa is more concerned with harmony and communication than with conquest and revenge.
Sympathetic to the Ohmu, she learns she must approach them with understanding to achieve peace and restore the dying world.
This film is beautifully animated and written, and the moral to this ecological fable is difficult to miss.
The film was dubbed into English in the mid-2000s, hence the presence of such actors as Shia LeBoeuf, who wasn’t born yet when the film was originally made.
~ Jonathan E. Laxamana, Rovi
Final Thoughts
Years ago I remember seeing this film appearing in many top anime lists and when I heard about it being re-released in English I had to see it, I remember trying to buy it in stores but it was not available at the stores yet, but I eventually got to watch the movie.
Here is a short video that mentions a bit about this film’s re-release in English:
It was a good movie as expected, maybe not quite as good as I had expected but it was still pretty good, and it was good seeing good classic animated films like this (especially hand drawn) because Hayao Miyazaki films usually do not disappoint so you know that his films will probably be good.
It is a shame that there are not that many high quality videos on YouTube about this film.
Late last night my brother GC and I watched a low-budget somewhat lesser known (in my opinion) film called Beasts Of The Southern Wild (for some unknown reason(s) I keep wanting to call it Beasts Of The Southern Wind :D), a few years ago I had heard that it was a good film but I had never seen any trailers or reviews of it or even knew what it was about, and so when I shelved it at work at my shelver job at The B Parish Library this week I decided to check this film out and watch it this week so I did.
I did not know what this film was about and I had no idea what to expect but I was assuming that it would be like a combination of the film Beasts Of No Nation and a Hayao Miyazaki film or a Studio Ghibli film, I assumed that the film was going to take place in either Africa or Australia (I ended up being wrong about this), and I assumed that I would be surprised by this film like I was with the film Beasts Of No Nation which had good cinematography and good acting (like the main character Agu played by the actor Abraham Attah) and that almost seemed real at times (almost like a documentary at times) and it was like/felt like how I expect films to be/feel like (if that makes any sense).
Beasts Of The Southern Wild was not as good as I had expected and the cinematography was not as good as I had expected (but the giant ancient beasts looked very good, especially for a low-budget film) and it did not have that feeling of how I expect films to be like I got when I saw Beasts Of No Nation, it is a low-budget film so I can understand so this film did a great job on such a low budget, but it was still a good film with good acting (like the main character Hushpuppy who was played by the actress Quvenzhané Wallis) that almost seemed real at times and more like a documentary and I teared up a few times and I had to stop myself from crying during some emotional scenes in the film.
Like Beasts Of No Nation, Beasts Of The Southern Wild is a film that deserves/needs to be more known/popular and seen by more people, and like Beasts Of No Nation this film is among the best films that I have seen this year so far.
Beasts Of The Southern Wild covered topics like family and community working together, living a more natural life and having some happiness even in poverty while also showing some of the struggles, surviving natural disasters and the effects/affects that natural disasters can have on an area and on the people and things living there, perseverance, dying and death, suffering from illness, imagination, and more.
Beasts Of The Southern Wild might not be the greatest film and it may have not been as good as I had hoped, but I still liked the film and I think that it is a good and sometimes emotional and well-acted film (especially for a low-budget film) and I would recommend that people watch it (I wish that our parent’s would have watched it with us) and watch the film Beasts Of No Nation at least once.
I barely remember part of two dreams from last night with the first dream taking place inside of a house or one-story apartment building, and this dream slightly reminded me of the two Japanese animated (anime) films by Hayao Miyazaki called Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle because of the way some of the characters looked/acted/their powers/et cetera; but I forgot most of the dream unfortunately, but it was a magical dream literally & figuratively.
There were other dream characters in the dream but I can not remember them or the parts of the dream that they were in but I know that other dream characters were in the dream, but I only remember the parts of the dream with two of the main characters of the dream who both had magical powers; and the most powerful of them was a very large being/man, I do not think that he was Human or looked Human usually but he could probably change his appearance so I can not remember, and he was the antagonist/bad guy/villain.
The other main character was a normal sized man who possibly was Human but I am not sure, he was less powerful, he was the protagonist/good guy/hero, and I helped him in the dream.
They both seemed to be magicians/sorcerers/wizards or just powerful beings/people who knew each other, but who both were enemies now for some reason(s); and they both lived in different parts of the house/apartment.
The house/apartment had several people living inside of it sharing halls & various other rooms but each person had their own room/apartment inside this shared building, the walls/ceiling/carpet were mostly a whitish/grayish color I think, and I probably lived somewhere in the building; and at some point in the dream the large powerful being/man probably did something negative to some people/some people I knew and/or me, and maybe the smaller powerful being/man helped us but I am not sure.
Whatever happened caused me to join the smaller powerful being/man as we tried to help other people & defend against the large powerful being & try to stop the large powerful being/man, but he was too powerful it seemed; and so it seemed that the best that we could do was to defend against his attacks & hope for the best.
The two powerful beings were in a constant battle where the smaller powerful being was not powerful enough to really do offense against the large powerful being, but he was just/barely powerful/smart enough to usually avoid getting killed/defeated/to defend himself; and so their battle did not seem like it would end, but during the dream the large powerful being probably started to get more powerful after using some new tactics that might have involved absorbing energy/power from other people who lived in the apartment/house (maybe he absorbed the energy/power of some people I knew in the dream earlier and/or tried to until the smaller being helped us, and later he probably absorbed the energy/power of some people who we could not save but we tried to save).
At some point the smaller being and I went to the room/apartment of the large powerful being to attack him instead of defending all the time since the situation was getting bad, inside his room/apartment he had a lot of open space & tall ceilings since he was so large, and we fought him but we lost; and we had to run back to the smaller beings room/apartment.
The smaller being felt that the large powerful being was now too strong to even properly defend against now, he felt that the balance was broken & that it would safer for us to avoid fights & maybe leave the apartment/house, but I did not want to leave the other people to get killed and/or have their energy/power absorbed; and so I tried to convince him to continuing fighting with me because I could not do it alone, but I woke up.
Dream 2
The second dream took place in the LC Mall and I was walking through the mall noticing that there were some new stores, there was a Ryan’s Buffet or Piccadilly restaurant in the open that was along the sides & middle areas of the mall from shortly before the Food Court until the other side of mall, on the right side of the mall at the end almost all the stores were closed with metal garage-like doors covering them, before the food court was a small open library on the right side of the mall, et cetera.
I saw lots of people eating at this new open restaurant/buffet as I walked past people eating/drinking at the tables that were scattered in the open around the mall & I tried to find the counter/cash register so I could ask them about the restaurant but I only found the area where the dishwasher was (an older woman who did not see me standing there waiting to ask her a question), and so I kept walking & exploring the mall wondering how did so much change so fast & how did so many stores close on one side of the mall at one time.
I stopped at GameStop because I remembered a probably past forgotten dream where I thought about buying something that goes inside of a VCR (videocassette recorder) Player from GameStop, in that dream it costs $80 but they were going to give me a discount to where it would only cost $40 but that was still expensive & so I told them that I would think about it & I left, and so in this dream I went back to buy it; and AJ (if that is his name) was at the counter/cash register, and he remembered me & what I wanted to buy from that past dream.
He showed the object to me, it looked like a VCR cassette tape that might be for cleaning VCR players maybe but I am not sure, and he added a hard case & several VCR cassette tapes with it for free; and he put them in a bag, and I bought them before I decided to change my mind (I almost changed my mind still & I even mentioned this out-loud to AJ); and then I left to glance at the new small open library in the mall.
In the library area I noticed a small wooden bookshelf that looked familiar like a bookshelf from my parent’s house, and on it were photo-albums/school year books/books/cards/signatures/personal items for my family with most of it being for my mom & dad but some of it was for me & maybe my brothers; and I was shocked/surprised, and I stopped to look at some of our photographs (mostly of my mom & some of her classmates when she was younger & still in school).
I wondered how did this get in the mall and I saw this as a huge privacy/security blunder/blooper/accident/incident for my family & I (but at the same time I stopped to look at the personal items & think of old memories, which was nice/fun), this bookshelf was in the open area of the mall where anyone could have taken it/bought it/stole it/rented it, and so I started gathering everything what was ours so that I could tell the librarian(s) that it belonged to my family and I & ask how did it get in the mall & so that I could take it all back home but I woke up.
John Jr's Blog 