Princess Mononoke, where do I begin? This is a movie produced by Studio Ghibli, and created by the most immaculate of anime and manga creators, Hayao Miyazaki. Princess Mononoke is a beautiful two hour movie about a man who is cursed, and though he cannot change his destiny, he can rise to meet it.
It’s set in a place where gods and demons still roam the deep, lush forests of earth, their forms being extremely large and intelligent animals. The gods have the ability to speak and communicate with humans, however they rarely meet one worth talking to.
That is until Ashitaka, one of the main characters, ventures into their forest. On average this forest is impossible to pass, but Ashitaka asks the forest spirits to help guide his dangerous travel and they do not let him down. After Ashitaka miraculously emerges from the woods he encounters a human civilization called Iron Town.
Iron Town is best known for, you guessed it, the iron it produces. Other villages are jealous of the profit made by this town and try to take it for themselves, but with both the men and women of iron town fighting them off it is basically impossible. There is however, like in most progressive situations, a catch to this Industrial long striding.
Sadly, it’s that the environment must suffer for humanities’ progress. The gods of the forest are not happy with the situation, as the iron that the town needs to mine is located underneath the forest, thus the trees and plants must be uprooted and the woods destroyed, all for the sake of the industry. They decide the only way to protect the forest is to go to war, humans are too stupid to talk to rationally with something as important as the future of the woods and the natural world. They fight it out, and at first the gods are doing well. But then the leader of Iron Town, Lady Eboshi, emerges onto the screen, equipped with guns. When fighting a group of people… weapons help. Lady Eboshi drives them off and the forest is safe to destroy once more.
The most beautiful aspect of this anime is that there is no good side and bad side. There never is in a Miyazaki movie. You couldn’t possibly make this a black and white situation whether you’re naturally on the human side of the forest’s side.
For instance, you may hate Lady Eboshi for killing the forest, but it is hard not to have a deep respect for her when you learn she hires brothel girls for her iron company so they no longer have to sell themselves to get by, and that she cleaned, bandaged, and employed lepers to design her guns when no one else would even make eye contact with the people for fear of catching their disease. She’s a great and strong leader, but she cares more for her people than the environment. Then there’s Moro, she’s the main god in this particular forest.
She’s a huge white wolf with strong protective qualities and a dangerous personality. It is her self assigned duty towards the forest to protect and fight for it when it needs her. She could kill a human easily and often threatens Ashitaka. It wouldn’t be that hard to hate her, then you learn about the human child she’s raised since it was just a baby.
Moro came across a human couple and they were stricken with terror at the sight of her, they left their baby behind as a distraction while they ran for their lives. Moro felt sympathy for the child and raised her as her own, she raised her as a wolf. The baby, now adult’s, name is San Mononoke, and with Ashitaka she is the link between the natural world and the world that human’s have created.
This movie contains some of the most beautiful art work I have ever seen, a feat which Miyazaki throws at his viewers time and time again with every movie. The landscape is breathtaking and realistic. Whether you grade this movie for emotion, music, plot, or artwork, this movie deserves five out of five stars.
(Images taken from freewebs.com)
