Hayao Miyazaki Double Feature

Kaze No Tani No Naushika (1984)

(Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind)

In the far future, a thousand years after a nuclear war left the Earth as a nuclear holocaust. The Valley of the Wind, a small kingdom ruled by King Jil struggles for survival as the community tries to defend the Valley from gigantic Ohm creatures and toxic plants that live beyond the Valley in the Sea of Decay, whilst Jil's daughter and heiress to the throne, Princess Nausicaa tries to understand and feels it is wrong to destroy the toxic jungle. The Valley is attacked by the Tolmekian people who plan to destroy the Sea of Decay by using the giant warriors that started the holocaust. After Nausicaa is taken prisoner, she escapes and goes beneath the Sea of Decay where she discovers the toxic plants are not poisoning the air but are purifying the world by draining the air of radiation and toxins. With everything at stake, Nausicaa unites with the Ohms and set out to the Valley to foil the Tolmekians plan of unleashing the Great Warrior before they start another holocaust. Hilarity ensues.

Trivia: After the original, heavily re-written and edited 1980s release of this film in the United States (as "Warriors of the Wind"), which substantially changed the movie, Hayao Miyazaki demanded that any new licensor for his films be contractually bound to do no edits whatsoever aside from a straight translation and dub. Disney (who bought the rights to all of Miyazaki's films except Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro (1979)) has honored this stipulation. Nausicaä is the name of a character in Homer's Odyssey. Ohmu means "king of the insects" in Japanese. The "Nausicaans" from Star Trek: The Next Generation were so named because the Star Trek writers were big fans of Japanese manga and anime, and Nausicaa in particular.

This one of Miyazaki's first features and it is a wonderful little film. There are normally three things you can count on in a Miyazaki film. Nature overcoming man, flying machines, and very strong female characters. You get all of these in Nausicaa. The princess, Nausicaa is a warm, kind hearted person adored by all of her fellow countrymen. She is strong, smart, daring, beautiful, and tough. Her compassion for all things living is amazing. She flies a glider with great skill, and the other humans all fly planes. The flying sequences are so vivid and beauitful. The forrest with it's defending insects and deadly spores really is a good way to show what could happen after we destroy our world. This is a wonderful movie and I would highly recommend it and Miyazaki's other movies...and speaking of his other movies...

Kurenai No Buta (1992)

(Porco Rosso)

In Early 1930's era Italy, air pirates, bounty hunters and high flyers of all sorts rule the skies. The most cunning and skilled of these pilots is Porco Rosso, a man cursed with the head of a pig after watching the spirits of the pilots killed in the last air battle he fought in rise to the heavens. He now makes a living taking jobs, such as rescuing those kidnapped by air pirates. Hilarity ensues. Donald Curtis, Porco's rival in the air and in catching the affections of women, provides a constant challenge to the hero, culminating in a hilarious, action packed finale.

Trivia: Porco Rosso was originally planned as a 30-45 minute in-flight movies for Japan Airlines. Director Miyazaki eventually expanded it into a feature-length production. The name of the production studio (Ghibli) is embossed on the engine Piccolo installs in Porco's new plane. Marco Paggot (Porco Rosso's real name) is named after an Italian animator who had worked with Hayao Miyazaki earlier in his career. Miyazaki mentioned in a chat room that the ghost plane scene was inspired from a passage in a Roald Dahl story. Hayao Miyazaki has stated that he prefers the French language cast (in particular Jean Reno as Porco Rosso) over the Japanese cast.

Wait, I bet you are saying, "Will, you just said Miyazaki movies normally have 3 things, that nature stuff, airplanes, and strong female characters. I only see the airplanes." And that is mostly true. Porco Rosso is just about the only exception on the nature vs man part, but...Miyazaki frequently works in pigs as a show of the dark side of man and Porco Rosso is no exception there. Miyazaki does a good job in showing the callous nature of Porco, but on the other hand, he also shows a soft side to Porco. As for the strong female characters? Well, it has them too, in the forms of Gina, an old flame who isn't quite out, and Fio, the 17 year old daughter of Rosso's Italian friend and who redesignes Rosso's plane and, with the help of her many female relatives rebuilds the plane as well.