starring Yoji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yuko Tanaka
written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki
134 minutes
in Japanese with English subtitles
Prince Ashitaka, is forced to leave his people after he is infected by a curse that had previously infected a giant boar. Ashitaka reluctantly slew the boar when it threatened to destroy his village. He was unable to avoid contact with the beast thus leading to his condition.
Ashitaka travels west on with his steed, a large elk. Ashitaka helps a couple survivors of a convoy headed back to Tatara, a weapons manufacturing town that is coveted by the Emperor. The convoy was attacked by San (aka Princess Mononoke) and her mother Moro, a giant wolf.
Ashitaka is invited by Lady Eboshi, who runs Tatara, to stay and help them. He doesn't have much time to consider the possibility before San, Moro, and a couple other large wolves attack Tatara. Ashitaka helps San escape but gets badly wounded in the process.
She takes him to the forest of the Deer God, Shishigami, who cures him of the wounds he just received but not of the curse which he received from the boar.
The plot is further complicated by the arrival of a tribe of wild boar, led by Okkoto, a giant elderly boar, who have decided to attack Tatara. The humans are ready for the boars. Okkoto is the only board to survive the battle with Tatara. Lady Eboshi and her warriors follow Okkoto into the forest in the hopes that he will lead them to the Shishigami, whom Lady Eboshi hopes to kill.
Thoughts
This is the second time I have watched Princess Mononoke. The first time I watched it on DVD, 20 years ago. This time I saw it on the big screen at the AFI Silver. In both cases I saw the subtitled version with the original Japanese audio track. It is my understanding, based on the Wikipedia entry for Princess Mononoke, that the English language version of the movie is not a direct translation of the original Japanese version although there were no cuts or alterations made to the visuals.
I read the chapter titled Princess Monoke: Fantasy, the Feminine, and the Myth of "Progress" from Anime; from Akira to Princess Mononoke by Susan J. Napier after watching the movie. It is not light reading. Napier is an academic and writes like one. The chapter helped to further explain some things, like the title of the film which is not San's name or her title. It is more of a description. Princess Mononoke translates as possessed princess. Napier suggests that she is possessed not by the spirit of a person but by the spirit of nature.
This movie is very different in my eyes from the other Miyazaki films that I have written about in my blog. It seems to me to be much less of a person's or individual's story and much more of a story about a place and time. In this case it is not a historically accurate place and time but the challenges faced by the people of the world of this film should resonate audiences.
My description may make it sound like Lady Eboshi is the villain but the movie is more complicated than that. Tatara is a town that she populated with lepers, formerly enslaved women, and other rejects. She looks after all of them. Her methods are destroying the forest and the forest's inhabitants (which is heartbreaking) but it is clear to me that Lady Eboshi has also helped hundreds of people to live a decent life, even if it is in the service of manufacturing weapons.
This is a complicated movie, which at it's heart is about a pivotal time in the world. The relationship between people and nature is at a crossroads. San wants to protect the forest. Lady Eboshi wants to destroy it. Things can't go on the way they have been for centuries up to this point but how far should people go? I don't think that the film has a hard and fast answer to this question.
I enjoyed seeing this movie for the second time. I found it to be very moving at times. There were lots of things that I had forgotten. I appreciate the complexity found in it. It was great to see it on the big screen.
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