My Favorite Movies: Mononoke Hime/Princess Mononoke

I decided the other day that there simply aren’t enough movies I wanted to see to write reviews on. Of course, I’d love to watch every movie in theaters and tell you how awesome or how terrible they are but there’s only so much time in a day and only so much money in my wallet. While I will still review new movies, rather than go watch crap like…say What Happens In Vegas or Made of Honor, I thought I’d recommend some of my favorite older films that are a much better way to spend your money. In fact, buying most of my favorite movies on DVD might even be cheaper than finding out how annoying Ashton Kutcher is in theaters.

The first I thought I’d feature is probably one of my favorite films of all time…definitely in my top ten: Mononoke Hime (known as Princess Mononoke to North American audiences). It’s an animated film from Japan by Hayao Miyazaki, whose Studio Ghibli has brought us other classics like Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro. Of course, because it is an animated film, most people will dismiss it as children’s fare since it is rare for Western animated films to cater to an adult audience. While some of Miyazaki’s films are aimed at younger audiences, Mononoke Hime is more adult in tone as there are scenes of gory violence and themes I don’t think children would really understand.

Princess Mononoke takes place in feudal Japan, around the time the Iron Age. The film opens with a guard spotting something moving about in the nearby forest, trees shaking and slowly disappearing. Suddenly, a massive boar bursts out of the treeline…covered in black snake-like appendages, which seem to have a life of their own. The demon speeds toward the villagers, prompting a young prince, Ashitaka, to move to their defense. Ashitaka is able to kill the boar-monster but not before it wrapped itself around his arm, leaving behind a large burn. The burn, a village wise-woman explains, will eventually spread and kill Ashitaka. She also explains that the monster was a result of a bullet, which was found in the boar’s body and was driving it insane. As a result, Ashitaka must leave the village and find out what exactly is going on.

Ashitaka finds that the world outside his village is in conflict, with many battles happening all over the place and some won’t leave him alone just because he isn’t part of the fight. One big side of the war is Lady Eboshi and her ironworks, which is responsible for the production of early rifles and cannons. As such, they are the targets of many of the local ruling samurai. They are also the sworn enemies of all the spirit gods in the area such as the boars and the wolves who have been offended by the ironwork’s rampant destruction of the surrounding environment.

Fighting alongside the wolves is a young, human girl…San, known only to other humans as “Mononoke Hime”. Raised by Moro, the wolf god, she hates humans and swears to kill Lady Eboshi. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also Jigo, a monk hired by the emperor to acquire the forest god’s head, which he believes will grant him immortality.

I know this all sounds very confusing but everything falls into place and intertwines perfectly as the story progresses. The theme, really, is shades of grey. It is difficult to discern at times who is on who’s side as people cross and double cross.

However, there is absolutely no grey in the animation. The best thing about Mononoke Hime and all of Hayao Miyazaki’s work is the lush, intricate and extraordinary world that is created in the film. Although the film is over ten years old now (made in 1997), I have very seldom seen animation this good with a setting so rich. Each individual demon-snake-jello-thingie on the monstrous zombie boars seems to have a life of their own. The wolf gods leap with grace and poise despite looking vicious and bloodthirsty. Miyazaki does an incredible job making the animal gods appear both wild and noble.

The story is beautiful, despite the obvious environmentalist overtones. Although myth and legend is the name of the game here, you can’t help but think the characters, especially Ashitaka and San, are more human than Hollywood. Miyazaki refuses to delve into Hollywood melodrama, even for the sad but rather satisfying final scene. It isn’t a simple movie, by any means, but it is truly a special motion picture achievement.

It shouldn’t be too hard to find on DVD at a reasonable price since all of Studio Ghibli has been licensed by Disney for distribution in North America. Don’t worry about Disney “G-rating” it for America, though. The agreement with Studio Ghibli states that they cannot edit the film in any way, as Miyazaki says doing so to any extent would ruin the movie. However, he did allow Disney to dub the film to English. While I prefer the original Japanese audio (although I don’t understand most of it) with English subtitles, I hear the English dub is done well by the likes of Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Minnie Driver and Billy Bob Thornton.

Seriously, one of the best films ever made…animated or not.

in Entertainment