Thursday, October 8, 2015

風の谷のナウシカ (1984, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Hayao Miyazaki)

As normal European viewer it is at face-value not so easy to understand the hype about animation films in Japan. Viewers like me need to overcome their prejudices against this genre - the shadow of Disney is too powerful in this part of the world.
Film4 had a series with Miyazaki animations - and I realized that they were famous among lovers of fantasy films. Long time ago I had a visitor from Japan, traveling with Japanese cartoons - probably I have seen more Miyazaki films than I realize. Maybe later I will recall what I have seen in the past.
Now this is a dystopian. The earth is largely uninhabitable, large insects roam around and toxic seeds pollute the jungle. Thanks to the winds that make the seeds drift away, one valley is still populated by humans. They live there in rather poor conditions. Of course there has to be a fighting and at last all ends well. Humanity can be rebuilt.
Although the animation is very attractive, the pure fantasy content didn't really appeal to me. It was attractive to see what fuels the Japanese imagination. In short: I see the qualities of this film, but still I cannot be a great fan of it.
5/10





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