Fan made passion projects are always a pleasure to watch, such as the reimagining of the iconic fight between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi from A New Hope.
This time, Brazilian filmmaker Chris Tex has spent the past four years with his team working on a short live-action film, Wind Princess, which pays homage to Hayao Miyazaki’s animated classic Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.
Nausicaa first came out in 1984 and is an epic fantasy adventure film featuring the titular Nausicaa, the princess of the Valley of the Wind. The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world, a thousand years after a great war that destroyed civilisation and created a toxic jungle which spawned giant mutant insects. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind explores themes of man vs. nature, as well as anti-war sentiments featured primarily through Nausicaa who prefers talking things out civilly to outright violence.
In the short 40 second trailer, we can see someone similar to Nausicaa traversing through a vast desert, towards a Toxic Jungle. The message, “After mankind ruined nature, one girl must find a way to restore it” flashes on the screen, giving us a good look into what’s to come in the short film.
Chris, who both directed and produced the film, shared that the film is a completely independent, non-profit endeavour, and he hopes that with some luck, he might be able to donate some of his costumes and props to the Ghibli museum in Japan for display.
The film is currently in post-production and in a short video following the trailer of Wind Princess, Chris explains the work that has gone behind the production of the video. From braving a desert’s sandstorm, to spending days shooting in a green screen studio, it is clear how much passion the crew has for this project of theirs.
Through Wind Princess, Chris hopes to reach out to as many fans of Hayao Miyazaki’s work as possible, and maybe even get the chance to premiere the film in Japan. He ended off his video by asking viewers who might happen to know someone that will be interested in helping make his dream possible to contact him via social media.
Germaine is a fun-sized introvert who loves nothing better than sleeping in on rainy days. She can be found reading fanfiction and manga while still waiting for her Hogwarts acceptance letter. It’ll come eventually.
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