Template:Featured film (Week 35, 2006)

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (風の谷のナウシカ) is a 1984 film by Japanese writer, illustrator, and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, based on his manga of the same name. The movie has an environmentalist undertone and was presented by the World Wildlife Fund when it was released in 1984.

The story takes place 1,000 years after the "Seven Days of Fire," an event which destroyed human civilization and most of the Earth's original ecosystem. Scattered human settlements survive, isolated from one another by the Sea of Corruption, a lethally toxic jungle of fungus swarming with giant insects which seem to come together only to wage war.

The title character, Nausicaä, is a charismatic young princess of the peaceful Valley of the Wind. Although a skillful fighter, she is normally humane and peace-loving.

The Valley of the Wind becomes threatened when another state, Pejite, unearths a God Warrior which is then stolen by a more powerful state, Tolmekia. The God Warrior is one of the lethal giant bioweapons used in the ancient war. Pejite and Tolmekia hope to use the God Warrior against each other and, ultimately, against the Sea of Corruption. While transporting the Warrior back to their realm, the Tolmekians are attacked by insects and subsequently crash-land in the Valley. The very next day, the Tolmekians invade the Valley to secure and revive the Warrior, eventually forcing the peaceful people of the Valley into armed resistance. The situation deteriorates as the fight to possess the God Warrior escalates out of control and the inimical fukai strikes back against those who attack it.

View entry &raquo;