Princesa Mononoke

A few years ago I would have tossed this film into a collection of movies I like to call the rubbish pile. Recently, however, I have forced myself, with great difficulty, to open my mind and look at the entire picture. Instead of focusing on one or two aspects of the movie I do not like and formulating a biased opinion based on my hasty and clouded notions, I can now decipher both the good and bad points of a given flick. Upon watching Princess Mononoke, I must say I first thought it would be very difficult to look past the animation style and see it for what it was- a dynamic film directed be the highly acclaimed Hayao Miyazaki. After about ten minutes of dwelling on the follies (and there are, in my opinion, many) of the "anime" style of art, I became enthralled with the quickly unfolding plot and the subsequently dire fate bestowed upon Ashitaka, the protagonist of the film. After Ashitaka leaves his village to search for a treatment to remedy his affliction, I no longer cared that this was an animated feature; I was on the edge of my seat, wondering what would happen next. I no longer disliked that every character had abnormally large eyes (though not over-sized to the point of utter absurdity) or that the English overdubbing was a little choppy. In fact, I even began to enjoy the accomplished yet subtle computer generated effects interspersed throughout. By the last half hour I was hooked to the screen, eagerly awaiting the conclusion I wanted so badly to end the bitter conflict of the plot. By the end, I realized that this movie carried a powerful moral with it: man's continuous tampering with nature brings about as much savagery as it does progress, as much suffering as it does good, and that a sound compromise must be struck between nature and civilization. I do not harbor any negative feelings towards those who rated this movie poorly, as I used to be one of those people. All I have to say to them is this: look at a both the visual and symbolic attributes of a movie before rating it harshly. If, after observing all these features and idiosyncrasies, you still wholeheartedly hate the film, then by all means give it a one. After all, what would the world be like if we were all did not criticize or question our surroundings?

Im a Big fan of Miyazaki... This movie is Definitely in his top 3...

Princess Mononoke's story is very in depth and it grabs your attention. Time after time. You may have to watch it a couple times to catch everything but you will fall in love with the characters and story every time you sit down to watch it

As for the art... Its Visually stunning yet again. Everything is depicted so well in Miyazaki's artwork from the humans to the Forest gods and everything in between

this definitely worth watching.

And if you like it you should definitely check out some of his others like Castle In The Sky, Howls Moving Castle and Spirited Away

This seems to be Miyazake's most personal work, clearly a serious design. It is set in an imaginary time which blends the time of the ancient gods (Shinto style, gods of place and nature) with the settlement of humans and the coming of metalworking and war. The world is not in balance, and a distant conflict between industry and nature has wounded one of the gods of the forest, which is then killed by a sentry boy as it rampages into farmland he guards. The evil controlling it transfers to him, beginning a slow takeover, and he must journey to the origin of the conflict to find a way to cure himself and incidentally, as he will learn, to try to restore balance. But this is not a simplistic tale, he finds there are other characters in play, and there is good and evil in everyone, and no easy balance. The Princess (Hime) of the story is a mysterious human who has been raised by wolves (which are themselves powerful forest gods, a little reminiscent of the Amerindian Coyote myth), who becomes both his ally and his enemy. The story is not easy to understand. It has many Japanese mythic elements but even then, it is a work of Miyazake's unique imagination, and is not intended to be simple or to have a clean resolution.

The animation is spectacular, and unusual, with new elements even for Miyazake and marks a new departure for style which you can see continued in his next film, Sen to Chihiro - more nature, more wild, more jamming on elements from Japanese myth and folklore. And, continuing the trend to be more personal, concerned with ethics and character, and less sci-fi. There are at least half a dozen well developed characters threaded through the story, and their animation is wonderful in displaying subtle character.

The original Japanese soundtrack has some amazing singing and draws upon some of the best talent available for voices - in Japan, Miyazake is universally known and this was a masterpiece carefully crafted. Japanese television documented a lot of the production. The English translation drew on some good talent but they seem not to have "gotten it" quite so intensely as the Japanese crew.

If you haven't seen Miyazake, give it a try (but maybe look at Sen to Chihiro first, or even Laputa or Kiki's Delivery Service, for easier and lighter introduction to his work). Some say he is the Japanese Disney, but I don't like that. His work has a depth and sophistication that goes beyond Disney cute. There is no other animation like it. This is truly an adult work: children might like some of the visuals, but I doubt that many kids below teen age will have any idea what it is all about, and even adults will get more out of this each time you see it again.

I saw Mononoke Hime on its USA release back in late December 1999 under its U.S. title Princess Mononoke. I had read quite a bit about this film and its director but was still totally overwhelmed by the beauty and brutality of this movie. The complexity of this movie is something never seen in the United States in an animated movie and even exceeds that of most live action movies as well. It combines love and hate, war and romance, nobility and deception in ways rarely seen in movies today. Lines of good and evil are anything but clear cut and in the end is hope but no guarantees, no promises. This is truly an adult movie but my children, ages 12 to 15 all loved it and talked about it for days later. Even my wife who holds a strong prejudice against Japanese animation enjoyed this movie.

Go and see this movie. You won't be disappointed.

I saw this film in Japan, in Japanese with no sub-titles, I don't speak a word of the language and I was still enthralled! It is Miyazaki most visually intense (surpassing, at long last, Nausicaa) and is alive with color and movement the like not yet seen in anime.

The story is complex, and after talking with Japanese friends, it is clear that much of it went over my head (particularly that relating to specific Japanese myths), but the important elements came through. Miyazaki's long infatuation with technology verses nature and man's relation to God (or gods) weave throughout the film as does his trend for strong women characters.

Even with the language barrier, the film is of such intense emotion that it caries you through to the end. The change in dynamic between the crashing fight scenes and the quiet scenes of healing by the lake is so broad and so well paced that I can't remember a film where my emotional state was so expertly varied.

If you have a chance to see this film, in any language, I recommend you do.