となりの宮崎: Arms Outstretched

There're few things more exhilarating than the feeling of being engulfed in wind. It's among the deepest experiences we have as humans within the natural world. Some of my most vivid childhood memories are with an enchantment with the wind. I remember seeing one of those mini-tornados twist through and kick-up leaves in my Kindergarten, and all the kids chasing it. Or how about the first time you felt a wind so strong you thought you could just lay into it and not fall down? If you're like me, you just couldn't help but hold your arms outstretched like bird wings lifting your spirits into flight.

I suspect that if you ask random people what comes to mind with the image of outstretched arms it'll be something like that special feeling of being engulfed in wind. Or something else spiritual or religious, possibly the image of Jesus Christ dying for humanity's sins on the cross. When you google image search "outstretched arms" you get page after page of images along these lines.

Nausicaa assumes this pose twice in the film. Once when she appears as a (telepathic?) vision to Asbel compelling him to stop his attack.

Then once again as she descends upon the hovercraft hauling the baby omu. She's in this position as she conjures up an image of Lastelle for the Pejite man firing at her. She's also in this position as she's crucified by bullets that rip through her shoulder and ankle. It's interesting to note, too, how much her body mirrors the highly stylized image of a bird adorning her Pejiteian tunic.

Wind is a component of flight, and flight is a theme used throughout Miyazaki's catalog. Perhaps he reserved this iconic pose of the human body in Nausicaa for some of the most dramatic moments to help get across this sense of what wind and flight represent. The wind in the valley is a source of purity from the toxins as it blows in from the sea. In that sense it's literally a lifeline to the small civilization. In that sense, arms outstretched in the wind would be a literal embrace of life.. Peace? Freedom? Hope? When you consider what Nausicaa means for humanity - perhaps she is that pose, and that pose is Nausicaa.

The position is also seen at the children's peace memorial at Hiroshima. Here Sadako's arms are in clear reference to the wings of the paper crane, and the crane represents a wish for peace in the world. This message of hope is juxtaposed with the unbearably sad story of Sadako Sasaki. I can't help but notice a certain parallel with Nausicaa and Lastelle: a post apocalyptic shojo wise beyond her years becoming a martyr for peace.

During the nadir of the film, when it seems all hope is lost and Obaba laments to the children that death may be immanent, it's worth noting that wind is completely gone and the air is still and "heavy with anger." Perhaps it's Gaia or the Wind God Nausicaa prays to disapproving of or abandoning the scene? Leaving the fate of humankind in the hands of only those who can control it? Perhaps it's just an artistic way of expressing there's no room at all for the high spirits wind and flight evokes? Or perhaps all the wind in the valley at that moment is lent to Nausiccaa?

At the risk of reading into it too deeply, if spreading your arms like wings is freedom and elation, having one's arms shackled is an incredibly depressing contrast. Is such symbolism at work when Nausicaa releases Lastelle's dead arms? Further does that lend more meaning to the pose as she presents herself as a Lastelle lookalike to Asbel and the other Pejite man with outstretched arms?

After just one viewing of Nausicaa, the image of Nausicaa with outstretched arms stayed with me. It might have been some of the most overt cinematic language placed in the film. But it wasn't until repeated viewing that I begin to consider it in the context of the role wind plays in the film as well as Nausicaa's role as a Massiah who dies for humankind and is then resurrected.

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One other device I'd like to mention is the role Teto plays in helping us gain insight into Nausicaa's character. The first exchange with the fox-squirrel early in the film makes us think Nausicaa has a way of disarming animals.. But later when she says to Kushana, "What are you afraid of? You're just like a scared fox-squirrel." We understand that Nausicaa has insight into not just animals but humans as well. How often is human aggression an act of fear/insecurity rather than something more selfish and sinister? Do we bear a fruitless resistance to change/reality/nature rather than a courageous flexibility and harmony with whatever comes our way? If a viewer had thought that her act of saving Kushana from the crashing airplane was a foolish and possibly treasonous act of aiding and abetting of the enemy, we realize instead the omnipotent wisdom behind that act, with just the analogy of calming Teto.