Princess Mononoke Film Review
2006-10-30 03:05 PM | Posted by Tejvan Pettinger | Permanent Link | video, good films
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0 votes)
This is a digital animation about a young warrior, Ashitaka, who is forced to flee his home town because of a curse he gets from fighting an evil demon. The film deals with the conflicts between humans, animals and the ancient Gods and Spirits. The hero of the film, Ashitaka, seems at times to be the only voice for promoting harmony, peace and understanding between the conflicting forces.
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Princess Mononoke (San)
The thing I like about the film is that we are placed in the perspective of all 3 groups. We have sympathy with the humans, trying to protect themselves from the aggressive animals. We then have sympathy with the animals who are trying to protect themselves from the destruction wrought by humans. It is not a simply case of good v bad like many stories get reduced to.
An interesting character is the leader princess of the humans based in Iron Town, Lady Eboshi. We admire her many good qualities. Saving women from prostitution, giving hope to Lepers, protecting her people from attacks from the wolves. At the same time we are critical of her wanton destruction of the forests. It is also ironic that it is Lady Eboshi who seeks to kill the tree spirit who gives both life and death. This is perhaps the most wicked action of the film. But we understand that her motives are not all bad. She is doing it partly out of ignorance and partly out of a false belief that this will protect her tribe. The very good thing of the film is showing how conflict can arise merely from a failure to look at the other sides points of views. Both sides seem to have a justification to fight. At the same time both sides are wrong to fight, this is so often the experience in actual conflict.
There are some parallels with epics like Lord of the Rings. In particular the hero in this case has to succeed not through using brute force but through seeking to use peaceful means to bring people together. There is also a similar use of tree and animal spirits. Like the Lord of the Rings the princess of monokoke is set in a world where humans are only 1 of several peoples. In a way the film can be seen as an attempt to show the potential destructive capacity of humans on animals and the environment, even if our motives aren’t wholly bad.
Although you can draw many allegories from the story you can also just enjoy the film as an adventure story. If there are any lessons from the film they are not forced upon the viewer, but you are often in the position of wondering which side to support. The film moves at a good pace, there are also moments of humour which considerably add to the film. The group of former prostitutes who live in Iron Town are great characters, they have a wicked sense of humour, and it is quite funny the way they mock their husbands. At the same time you admire them for their loyalty and honour. I also really like the depiction of the boars, a proud and stubborn race who willingly fight an impossible battle. You can identify their behaviour with many humans.
If I had a criticism of the film I would mention The little spirits in the forest which just look kind of weird, but that is a minor point.
Well worth watching although like most animation I can’t help thinking it deserves to be a real film with real people.
by: r.pettinger 29/10/06
