My journey to watch every Hayao Miyazaki film continues with Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and man was I emotional about this one. The film is the story of Princess Nausicaä as she tries to save her village from both invading dictators and poisonous insects/forests. As with most Miyazaki films, there is a strong connection between man and nature, with the poison forest being the direct result of man. Spoiler Ahead. In the end, the village is almost destroyed, and Nausicaä is killed but brought back to life and everyone begins to grow new forests.
This film really angered me, and probably not for the reasons people may think. This film is great; as always the visuals are amazing, the female lead is a very strong character and the story is very well though out and sweet at times. The reason I am so angry are the secondary characters, mainly the people of Tolmekia and Pejite. These people are f*#king idiots (pardon my language). If it wasn't for them, nothing in this film would have happened, which would be fine. The Valley of the Wind was a peaceful place, albeit that there was a poison forest not to far away, but the princess had solved the problem and seeing how the people of the valley listened to her, they forest would probably eventually go away. But no. The queen of Tolmekia had to come along and f*#k it up for everyone. If the Tolmekian's just stayed where they were and minded their own business, the village, and countless number of people would have been saved. But she had to just try to destroy the forest which she did not understand anything about and ruin every one's lives. And don't think the people of Pejite are much better. Why send the Ohums through the valley, killing all the villagers in the process, just to kill all the Tolmekian soldiers? That seems extreme, just outright genocide to kill one army. Man.
Ok, I calmed down a little. Basically this film is really good. I like to think that Miyazaki films fall into 2 categories; the cute children films and the epic fantasy action films. This is definitely an epic fantasy, along the lines of Princess Mononoke. It is a good film, but you can see that it is early in Miyazaki's film career, with it being a little rough around the edges, which he has smoothed out with each film he directs.
Final Score: 8/10
Great Film Aspect: Makes you want to look away.
Recommendation: I recommend this film again if you like Miyazaki films, and anime films of this nature. Also if you really want to get angry at some people.
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