I can honestly say that I tried my best this time to actually pay attention to the movie, get the details, find the facts and even be symbiotic. I was giving Nausicaa my full conscious attention... then things began to slow down.
I'm not going to say that its a bad movie because its not. I really enjoyed the plot and the style. The story of a post-apocalyptic world that is run by nature and insects was quite fetching. I thought, how far are we from getting to the point where nature will reject humanity and grow to purge the contaminant? I've seen many movies where the world is destroyed as a retribution to the humans. I've also played video-games that fit this genre too.
There is one video-game that I can clearly connect to Nausicaa, and that is Chrono Trigger.
Note the monster thing that comes out of the ground.
Now Chrono Trigger is an RPG developed by Square Enix, it acclaimed to be one of the best video-games of all time. With its gripping story line, well paced game play and a beautiful soundtrack Chrono Trigger is definitely one of my all time favorite videogames ever! But enough praising, I need to get to the point before I'm late to class.
If you saw the video, at one point you could see a red monster coming out of the ground. That's Lavos the antagonist of the game, its a virus/alien/insect hybrid that was laying dormant in the earths core until it matured and then pretty much screwed earth over.
The remaining humans are left in a pretty bad state. Not only are plants dead, there is no food, no water, no nature...Outside their safe-houses there are mutants, beings that evolved from the wastes of humans and the a decaying ecosystem. The main characters [who travel through time and find themselves in this wasteland of a future ] make their way through the destroyed earth in order to find a way back home. After seeing the state of the world, however, they decide to do something about it and thus the game plot is revealed.
Now, its not that nature rebelled against humans, the case here is that nature is dead and so the humans are slowly dying too. Nature is an important factor in both the film and the game. In Nausicaa you have nature rebelling against humanity for its insolence. Nature is purging the humans because the just didn't care about flora and fauna. In Chrono Trigger you have a society where plants have not been seen in years, and people are pretty much dying every day. Humans depend on nature, if its eradicated or somehow it decides to kill us, were screwed.
So what can we do? We need to take care of our ecosystem [tree hugger moment]. Little things like not littering and recycling are small steps we can take so that nature grows. We're not really aware of the importance of plants and we wont be aware of it until they're either gone or they decide to just kill us.
On another note, in Chrono Trigger, if you help the people of who are in the future, you find a tiny shrub growing in the depths of a laboratory. The main cast takes the shrub to the people and a glimmer of hope is seen, they take action and decide to help the plant grow so that they survive.
Also, one thing that I found interesting is that the Ohms look kind of similar to Lavos. Maybe there was some inspiration from Nausicaa there. Considering that the movie came first.
"Please lead the mistakes of this rotten world to an end
Now, before this world is gone...What's left in my hand are the ashes of a flower..." Megurine Luka: Corruption Garden
-Xavi
You're right on the money about how we must take care of nature and this planet in general. I think too many times people forget that we are all a part of nature, not just living within. We were created through nature just like every other animal or organism on the planet - we're just more highly evolved. I feel like people don't take into consideration the world's slow deterioration because it's such a slow process. Some people's thought process may very well be "It's not a problem for me, it'll be a problem for future generations, so to heck with it." This kind of thinking is a problem and definitely not rational. We need to try our best to save the planet now so that the world doesn't die earlier than it's supposed to (you know, by the Sun's supernova).
ReplyDeleteAn example of nature enacting revenge on the human population that's stuck in my mind right now is the 2008 M. Night Shyamalan film, 'The Happening'. This film was a piece of crap, but the premise is interesting: A bunch of people worldwide are committing suicide, and no one knows why. It's soon discovered that nature is releasing a worldwide neurotoxin in order to save the planet. It's a scary thought that the human population could be completely annihilated by nature, but that exact opposite is what we must take into account: Nature is being annihilated by us humans, so we must prevent ourselves from doing so.
Xavi! I have to say that the movie really was very slow-paced and that it was hard for me to pay attention too. I also think it's interesting that you compared Nausicaa to a video game. I never would've thought of a connection like that. The fact that nature might turn on us is such a horrible and scary thought. It's entirely possible, but scary. I think it's sad that with everything humans have been trying to do in recent years to save the environment, like the Go Green movement, is almost completely defunct because of the greed of other people. With the BP oil spill, cutting down of rainforests, and even slaughter of animals for sport in Canada, it's like we take 10 steps forward and 10 back again. But in regards to Kent's comment, ALL of M. Night Shyamalan's films are crap. That's just how it is -____-
ReplyDelete