REVIEW REDUX

You may not have noticed it, but there’s a new review of “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” over at The Sur-reel Life. I think it’s far superior to what came before, which I was never confident in. What can I say? I was under a self-imposed deadline, and it took me an extra couple of days to come to terms with what Miyazaki was trying to do. At any rate, I like the new review, which you can read at my other blog: A Princess Stuck in the Valley of the Suck. Regarding its predecessor, rather than erasing it completely, I am posting it below, where it may serve as a teaching tool to aspiring writers (despite its tendency to paraphrase and that awful, awful first paragraph) about the significance of multiple drafts.

Happy post-Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, everybody!


Master Miyazaki’s ‘Valley’ Girl: A Peerless Princess Fighting for the Future

I think there are two criteria for judging an animated feature. First, aesthetically: Rate the art style, mise-en-scene, colors, etc. Secondly, one must critique the story itself. Is it compelling, mediocre, childishly simplistic?

As it turns out, Hayao Miyazaki’s “Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind” scores very high on both fronts. The film is beautiful to look at, while the premise is imaginative to say the least. Like “Castle in the Sky,” “Kiki's Delivery Service,” and “Princess Mononoke,” it tells a tale that will appeal to science fiction and fantasy fans. “Nausicaa…” certainly features many of the trappings of those genres; it might be the first movie to combine giant insects, an enchanted forest, airships, and both medieval and contemporary warfare.

In the tradition of great sci-fi, however, the story also reflects the climate of its time. And during the 80’s, the world was really starting to worry about nuclear war, and how cutting down the rain forests could end up eliminating life on Earth. Indeed, one of the movie’s overriding messages is how man thinks it can dominate Nature through science. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that two major plot points involve preserving a mysterious jungle, and keeping a man-made weapon of mass destruction under control.

“Nausicaa…” takes place one thousand years ago after a great cataclysm, which decimates mankind. No one knows exactly what happened. But there are hints that a group of man-made titans called the “Giant Warriors” ran amok, setting the world ablaze. The surviving pockets of humanity are now scattered across the land, and much of the planet remains untamed wilderness.

But certain kingdoms—one called Pejite, the other Tolmekia—are trying to raise mankind back to its former, loftier position. They have embraced technology, and rebuilt man’s great cities. All that stands in their way now is the “Toxic Jungle,” an ancient forest that stretches high up into the clouds. No hand can harm this strange land, however, for the Ohms, elephantine mollusks whose partially-translucent shells reflect their emotions, guard the forest with the other insects. In the past, those who tried burning down the “Toxic Jungle” were destroyed by Ohm stampedes (They definitely move much faster than traditional mollusks).

Pejite, however, thinks it has a solution: Awaken the last surviving “Giant Warrior,” who happens to be slumbering beneath their kingdom. Unfortunately, Tolmekia, having caught wind of this plan, invades the country, steals the “Giant Warrior,” and even takes the princess of Pejite as a hostage.

But the Tolmekian airship carrying them gets attacked by insects, and goes down in the Valley of the Wind. The explosion doesn’t appear to harm the cargo, but the princess of Pejite, who is found by Nausicaa, princess of the kingdom of the Valley of the Wind, dies from her wounds. A short time later, the Tolmekian army arrives. Led by yet another princess named Kushana, they decide to hatch the “Giant Warrior” right where they find it, as well as take Nausicaa back home—the start of a terrific adventure. Initially, Kushana seems merely ambitious, but she has personal motives (though not much else) hidden up her sleeve.

Nausicaa’s journey brings her into contact with a reckless youth named Asbel, whose sister was the kidnapped princess of Pejite. He tends to shoot before he thinks, which makes our heroine wary. But fate makes them partners, and inevitably, they stumble onto the secret of the “Toxic Jungle.” Nausicaa, who knows a thing or two about the age-old forest, having made regular trips there looking for a cure to its poison spores, quickly realizes that this unexpected discovery could have dramatic implications for mankind.

Naturally, whatever she finds out will be useless if the Tolmekians reactive the “Giant Warrior.” Luckily for her, she has help from a swordmaster named Yupa, whose wants to know the true nature of the “Toxic Jungle” himself. She can also count on her people, who are inspired by her gallantry and kindheartedness. Indeed, Nausicaa is a true rarity—both beloved national symbol and a tough cookie to boot. This type of princess can rarely be found in American animation, where the roles seem limited to trophy (“Aladdin”) or perpetual nuisance of a much-suffering lord (“The Little Mermaid,” “Mulan”).

And yet, Nausicaa herself is a paradox: Deadly with a blade, top gun with a glider, but someone who believes in respecting all living things. This philosophy gets tested throughout the movie, mostly by the invaders, whose aims are selfish. Like the main character of “Kiki's Delivery Service,” Nausicaa’s challenge is staying true to herself. Miyazaki’s bright, cartooney art style actually serves this type of fable well. Above all, “Nausicaa…,” is about the triumph of empathy over cruelty. It skims the darker regions of the human heart, without necessarily wallowing in grit and shadow.

In hindsight, there is probably more plot to “Nausicaa…” than some other Miyazaki films (Though “Mononoke” still tops my list of beautiful movies that I cannot begin to describe). The director deserves credit for somehow pulling this eclectica together into a cohesive whole, without once jarring the audience. In fact, by the time the towering red Gumby with the partially-visible backbone and laser-shooting maw makes his dramatic appearance—behind an antiquated-looking tank, to boot—we the audience simply roll with it, the same way the aforementioned monolith’s skin rolls off his mal-formed face.

Why doesn’t exotic image after exotic image cause our eyeballs and brains to explode? Part of the reason, I think, is that “Nausicaa…” is a cartoon. The medium inherently lacks a certain level of realism, which blunts a lot of the movie’s impact. An audience might find it distracting to see a live-action Nausicaa cavorting with realistic mollusk beasts, but cartoon renditions look cute enough to be family. I mean, what hunter in his right mind could kill a deer that resembled Bambi?

It also helps, I think, that cartoonists can leave out certain details which live-action filmmakers cannot. Imagine if Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” crew had omitted some scales, took grime off the claws, or made other oversights that lessened the believability of those CGI dinosaurs? While this might prove disastrous in the realm of live-action cinema, those same occurences might be dismissed as mere “artistic direction” in an animated feature. Heck, they might even be appreciated. After all, losing the visceral qualities that go hand-in-hand with moving photography also means gaining the freedom to abstract, and this can be just as powerful. Stylishly-interepreted reality, though not as believable as photographed reality, can still be accepted—not to mention lauded—by a willing audience.

For the record, Miyazaki’s hand-drawn creatures did not upset me in the least. On the contrary, I found them fascinating, and quite beautiful to look at. I could have spent hours staring at them, the same way I could spend hours staring at paintings in a museum, pondering the strength of their colors, the artist’s sense of detail, the framing. All that aesthetic criteria stuff.