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Review: Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫) (1997)
A lovely movie to start off the year. Princes Mononoke was definitely more mature and serious in tone compared to the other Studio Ghibli films I'd seen, but it was no less touching.
I would highly recommend this movie as a nice drama film.
Spoilers.
Story
Ashitaka is a prince in the east. After fighting a demon boar, he became cursed. He travelled to the west in search of the Deer God who could lift his curse.
In the west were a series of conflicts. There was a conflict between the gods of the forest and the village, run by Lady Eboshi, and there was a conflict between Lady Eboshi and Asano, a local political figure. Lady Eboshi had built a town based on producing iron and guns, which damaged the forest, so of course, Lady Eboshi was not popular with the forest gods. Meanwhile, Asano was taking interest in the village now that it had become such a productive center for iron.
San was a human girl who was raised by the wolf god Moro, and considered herself a wolf. Through the course of the movie, Ashitaka and San had a series of conflicts over the roles of humans in the forest, as well as San's own identity.
At the end of the movie, there was a major battle between the forest gods, the village, and Asano's forces. It resulted in the death of the Deer God (the major forest deity), as well as Moro and Okkoto. Asano's forces were driven back, but the village was destroyed in the battle. But at the end of the movie, Lady Eboshi stated that they would rebuild the village.
San returned to the forest to live with her wolf siblings, and Ashitaka said that he would live in the village with Yakul, but implied that they would remain friends and see each other.
I didn't think the movie was as complete as it could have been with regards to how it handled its themes. For example, the way that Lady Eboshi decided that they'd restart the village with another industry came about rather randomly. As well, I didn't think that San's identity of whether she was a human or a wolf was very well addressed. But there is still enough information for audiences to form their own ideas.
Production
As expected, the amination for this movie was beautiful. The amount of detail that went into livening up the forest was spectacular.
The designs of the beasts were interesting. They were so large and so gnarly and the Deer God in particular had a very odd appearance. But I think that this approach to the gods kind of grounded them. They aren't perfect otherworldly beings, they are simply a different sort of being that also live on this earth.
There were times when the dialogue was extremely quiet, so I would have liked it if the audio was maybe a bit more even, but I'm really just nitpicking here.
Characters
Ashitaka
Even though San is the more recognizable character when it comes to this movie, I consider Ashitaka the hero. Ashitaka had come from the east in search of a cure for his curse, and he stumbled upon this conflict. I think Ashitaka was kind of handled like a godly hero. Jiko had mentioned how warriors from the east were considered something like a myth. With the curse in his arm, Ashitaka also became super strong in times of battle.
The trait that the movie wanted to focus on for Ashitaka was his views of peace. In his mind, he felt that everybody should live together in harmony. We saw that he had a loving relationship with his elk Yakul (baby uwu).
When Ashitaka first went to the village, he saw how much the people loved their community. The worshipped Lady Eboshi for having rescued them from their desolate situations, and it was particularly the women who liked being in the village where they would be respected by men.
On the other hand, Ashitaka also understood the struggles of the forest. The village supported itself on production of iron. They would log the trees to get to the sand below and turn that into iron. And having somewhat of a spiritual background, Ashitaka could understand when the forest was peaceful and when it was in distress.
An important moment was when Ashitaka stopped the fight between Lady Eboshi and San. He made it clear that he was not on either person's side, though of course the townspeople did not feel that way about him.
Admittedly, I don't think that Ashitaka's relationship with San was very well-developed. I felt that the fact that she was human was most important for him, and that was why he was always helping her, rather than because he liked her. Though he did come to respect her choices in the end, I just didn't think that we had a good enough discussion on their differing opinions on this topic.
As Ashitaka was just one man, he was unable to stop the final conflict from happening, but he did his best to stop it from destroying everything. San, Okkoto, and one of the wolves had led Lady Eboshi and Jiko right to the Deer God. Unfortunately, Moro and Okkoto died, and Lady Eboshi decapitated the Deer God. Ashitaka saved Lady Eboshi and Ganzo, and later tried to return the Deer God's head to him, though it happened too late.
At the end of the movie, Ashitaka decided to stay in the village and help with the rebuild, but his relationship with San remained good.
Ashitaka is a pacifist, but I think he does prefer community over solitude in the forest. After all, he was a prince and his strength is guiding people. Admittedly I thought it was kind of sad that Ashitaka wouldn't be returning home. I didn't love that it wasn't addressed, because surely the people back home would be missing him.
I thought Ashitaka was a fun character, but he was a little too perfect of a hero, so for that, I can't say that I loved him.
San
San was the Wolf Princess. She was abandoned by humans, and Moro raised her as her own daughter. I wonder if San was named because she was the third child of Moro. Anyway, San was fiercely protective of the forest. Her life goal was to kill Lady Eboshi.
However, since San was raised away from humans, she didn't really have a concept of what community was like. She had her family, but I think she didn't understand why the village folk cared for the community as much as they did.
San hated humans, even though she herself was a human, and that probably messed with her. Ashitaka was trying to extend an olive branch to her but she would not take it, on the basis that she hated humans.
During the battle, she was of course more involved in the side of the gods. She and her wolf siblings were helping the boars, though it was a losing battle. And at the end, she helped Ashitaka return the Deer God's head, though it happened too late.
I wouldn't say that San overcame her hate of humans by the end. But through the conflict, I think she came to realize that the people in the village were no less loving than she was. I think through seeing how Ashitaka cared for the village people, she started to see that they were also individuals who were trying to protect those that they loved and what they stood for. So I don't think San suddenly became loving to the humans, but she understood that they aren't faceless evil villains. Perhaps the end of the movie was the beginning of human-forest god relations, and San changing her mindset about humans would be part of that.
Moro
Moro was San's mother, a wolf god. She was constantly a thorn in Lady Eboshi's side, being the protector of the forest that was most visible to the people in the town.
Though Moro was acting on behalf of the forest, I also felt that Moro had more self-preservation than Okkoto. Moro cared very much for her children and the forest, but not much else.
Moro died in the battle. Ashitaka found her already weak, but I think she had been weakened in the battle against Lady Eboshi and Jiko's forces. Her three children lived on as the new protectors of the forest.
Okkoto
Okkoto was a boar god. Okkoto had arrived in the forest after another boar god, Nago had died (by Ashitaka's hand).
The village was trying to lure Okkoto into a trap. Though Moro and Okkoto both knew it was a trap, Moro had said that Okkoto would still strike forth, as boars were prideful creatures. We saw that the boars were fearsome warriors, charging head first into the explosives.
Okkoto was heavily injured, and San and one of the wolves was leading him to the Deer God in hopes of healing them. Unfortunately, it was a trap set by Jiko to lead them to the Deer God. As I mentioned, boars were fearsome warriors, and when Okkoto thought that the humans in boar disguises were actually the boars in their clan, he was energized.
Unfortunately, Okkoto had started to become corrupted with the demons, with San caught up in the tendrils. It was the Deer God who helped stop the corruption process, and allowed Okkoto (and Moro) to pass peacefully.
Lady Eboshi
Lady Eboshi was the leader of the village. According to the villagers, she would buy up the contracts of women in brothels, and I assume she did something similar for the men to help them out of poverty. The people of the town were all involved in iron production, so Lady Eboshi had made something of herself.
Lady Eboshi was ambitious, otherwise she would not have started such a successful iron business. Her ambition led her to want to kill the Deer God. In her conversations with Jiko, she came to believe that the Emperor thought that the head of the Deer God would grant immortality. Whether or not that was true didn't matter, she just wanted his head to gain the Emperor's favour.
In the battle, she took the men to the forest to get to the Deer God, and she was the one who decapitated him herself. In the aftermath, she had lost her arm, and if it was not for Ashitaka, she would have died.
When she got back to the village, the infrastructure was all destroyed, but she told her people that they would start anew.
As mentioned, I thought Lady Eboshi's change of heart was very sudden and I wished the progression of thought would have been more visible on screen. But at least she got the point in the end lol.
Jiko
At first, Jiko was simply a man that Ashitaka bumped into on his travels out west. Later on, we found out that he was allied with Lady Eboshi, and was helping her to kill the Deer God. We saw that he was very shrewd. When speaking about killing the Deer God, he said that it was better for Lady Eboshi to kill him herself, just in case the Deer God would be back for vengeance.
In the end, Jiko was very intent on carrying the Deer God's head away. He was convinced that as long as he could keep the head away from the Deer God until day, then he would be safe. Which was technically true, but I thought the way that he gave it up was very wishy-washy. He was simply cornered with the killing muck and he very easily surrendered when Ashitaka suggested it.
In the end, Jiko was spared by the Deer God.
Themes
Environmentalism
The only thing I knew about Princess Mononoke before watching it was that it was a movie with heavy environmentalism themes, and it's true. Ashitaka's ethos in this movie was that the people and the forest gods could live together in harmony. I think the parallels are pretty obvious so I don't think I need to expand too much on this.
Capitalism and Poverty
Lady Eboshi's iron operation definitely gave me some thoughts about capitalism and poverty. Lady Eboshi had rescued men and women from their bad lives. Some of the women worked in brothels where they were never respected. Some of the workers were very ill or injured, and Lady Eboshi was the first person to ever treat them with dignity. Lady Eboshi definitely knew what she was doing to gain the loyalty of these people.
That being said, I initially felt that Lady Eboshi was a bit flippant about her workers as well. When she'd lost four men from the wolf attack, she was a bit cold about it ("well, what can we do but move on?" kind of attitude).
So even though Lady Eboshi did show sympathy to the workers, I did feel that there was an element of her just seeing the workers as tools.
War
I think one of the big points of this movie is that every side had their own reasons for the battle. The forest gods simply wanted their forest to survive. The people in the village also simply wanted the right to live. They were both equally valid, it's just that maybe battle was the wrong way to go about it.
Both sides were unwilling to see the possibility of a compromise. The forest gods deemed humans evil when in fact they were protecting their community out of love. And the people in the village were unwilling to stop logging the forest because they felt the iron industry was the one option they had besides the terrible life they had before.
Not every situation has a good compromise, but in the case of the forest gods and the people in the town, perhaps there is one, and I think Ashitaka wants to see that through.
Gender equality
The women in the town were generally more outspoken, which was probably not as common in historical times. Part of the reason was likely the fact that their leader, Lady Eboshi was a woman. There was a sense of trust among the women, particularly since many of the women had worked in brothels before and were always disrespected by women.
That being said, the women in the community still loved the men, their husbands, their coworkers. Toki and Koroku had a weird marriage where she was always yelling at her, but we saw that she did care for him. And though the women joked about not being able to trust Ganzo, they clearly did trust him to protect Lady Eboshi.
So I think there was gender equality in this town because of two main reasons, which was (1) the fact that their leader was a woman and (2) the fact that women also held an important role in iron production.
Overall
This was a very well done movie. The story wasn't perfect, but it was still beautiful, and of course, the animation was what we can expect from Studio Ghibli movies.
I would highly recommend this movie as a nice drama film.
Spoilers.
Story
Ashitaka is a prince in the east. After fighting a demon boar, he became cursed. He travelled to the west in search of the Deer God who could lift his curse.
In the west were a series of conflicts. There was a conflict between the gods of the forest and the village, run by Lady Eboshi, and there was a conflict between Lady Eboshi and Asano, a local political figure. Lady Eboshi had built a town based on producing iron and guns, which damaged the forest, so of course, Lady Eboshi was not popular with the forest gods. Meanwhile, Asano was taking interest in the village now that it had become such a productive center for iron.
San was a human girl who was raised by the wolf god Moro, and considered herself a wolf. Through the course of the movie, Ashitaka and San had a series of conflicts over the roles of humans in the forest, as well as San's own identity.
At the end of the movie, there was a major battle between the forest gods, the village, and Asano's forces. It resulted in the death of the Deer God (the major forest deity), as well as Moro and Okkoto. Asano's forces were driven back, but the village was destroyed in the battle. But at the end of the movie, Lady Eboshi stated that they would rebuild the village.
San returned to the forest to live with her wolf siblings, and Ashitaka said that he would live in the village with Yakul, but implied that they would remain friends and see each other.
I didn't think the movie was as complete as it could have been with regards to how it handled its themes. For example, the way that Lady Eboshi decided that they'd restart the village with another industry came about rather randomly. As well, I didn't think that San's identity of whether she was a human or a wolf was very well addressed. But there is still enough information for audiences to form their own ideas.
Production
As expected, the amination for this movie was beautiful. The amount of detail that went into livening up the forest was spectacular.
The designs of the beasts were interesting. They were so large and so gnarly and the Deer God in particular had a very odd appearance. But I think that this approach to the gods kind of grounded them. They aren't perfect otherworldly beings, they are simply a different sort of being that also live on this earth.
There were times when the dialogue was extremely quiet, so I would have liked it if the audio was maybe a bit more even, but I'm really just nitpicking here.
Characters
Ashitaka
Even though San is the more recognizable character when it comes to this movie, I consider Ashitaka the hero. Ashitaka had come from the east in search of a cure for his curse, and he stumbled upon this conflict. I think Ashitaka was kind of handled like a godly hero. Jiko had mentioned how warriors from the east were considered something like a myth. With the curse in his arm, Ashitaka also became super strong in times of battle.
The trait that the movie wanted to focus on for Ashitaka was his views of peace. In his mind, he felt that everybody should live together in harmony. We saw that he had a loving relationship with his elk Yakul (baby uwu).
When Ashitaka first went to the village, he saw how much the people loved their community. The worshipped Lady Eboshi for having rescued them from their desolate situations, and it was particularly the women who liked being in the village where they would be respected by men.
On the other hand, Ashitaka also understood the struggles of the forest. The village supported itself on production of iron. They would log the trees to get to the sand below and turn that into iron. And having somewhat of a spiritual background, Ashitaka could understand when the forest was peaceful and when it was in distress.
An important moment was when Ashitaka stopped the fight between Lady Eboshi and San. He made it clear that he was not on either person's side, though of course the townspeople did not feel that way about him.
Admittedly, I don't think that Ashitaka's relationship with San was very well-developed. I felt that the fact that she was human was most important for him, and that was why he was always helping her, rather than because he liked her. Though he did come to respect her choices in the end, I just didn't think that we had a good enough discussion on their differing opinions on this topic.
As Ashitaka was just one man, he was unable to stop the final conflict from happening, but he did his best to stop it from destroying everything. San, Okkoto, and one of the wolves had led Lady Eboshi and Jiko right to the Deer God. Unfortunately, Moro and Okkoto died, and Lady Eboshi decapitated the Deer God. Ashitaka saved Lady Eboshi and Ganzo, and later tried to return the Deer God's head to him, though it happened too late.
At the end of the movie, Ashitaka decided to stay in the village and help with the rebuild, but his relationship with San remained good.
Ashitaka is a pacifist, but I think he does prefer community over solitude in the forest. After all, he was a prince and his strength is guiding people. Admittedly I thought it was kind of sad that Ashitaka wouldn't be returning home. I didn't love that it wasn't addressed, because surely the people back home would be missing him.
I thought Ashitaka was a fun character, but he was a little too perfect of a hero, so for that, I can't say that I loved him.
San
San was the Wolf Princess. She was abandoned by humans, and Moro raised her as her own daughter. I wonder if San was named because she was the third child of Moro. Anyway, San was fiercely protective of the forest. Her life goal was to kill Lady Eboshi.
However, since San was raised away from humans, she didn't really have a concept of what community was like. She had her family, but I think she didn't understand why the village folk cared for the community as much as they did.
San hated humans, even though she herself was a human, and that probably messed with her. Ashitaka was trying to extend an olive branch to her but she would not take it, on the basis that she hated humans.
During the battle, she was of course more involved in the side of the gods. She and her wolf siblings were helping the boars, though it was a losing battle. And at the end, she helped Ashitaka return the Deer God's head, though it happened too late.
I wouldn't say that San overcame her hate of humans by the end. But through the conflict, I think she came to realize that the people in the village were no less loving than she was. I think through seeing how Ashitaka cared for the village people, she started to see that they were also individuals who were trying to protect those that they loved and what they stood for. So I don't think San suddenly became loving to the humans, but she understood that they aren't faceless evil villains. Perhaps the end of the movie was the beginning of human-forest god relations, and San changing her mindset about humans would be part of that.
Moro
Moro was San's mother, a wolf god. She was constantly a thorn in Lady Eboshi's side, being the protector of the forest that was most visible to the people in the town.
Though Moro was acting on behalf of the forest, I also felt that Moro had more self-preservation than Okkoto. Moro cared very much for her children and the forest, but not much else.
Moro died in the battle. Ashitaka found her already weak, but I think she had been weakened in the battle against Lady Eboshi and Jiko's forces. Her three children lived on as the new protectors of the forest.
Okkoto
Okkoto was a boar god. Okkoto had arrived in the forest after another boar god, Nago had died (by Ashitaka's hand).
The village was trying to lure Okkoto into a trap. Though Moro and Okkoto both knew it was a trap, Moro had said that Okkoto would still strike forth, as boars were prideful creatures. We saw that the boars were fearsome warriors, charging head first into the explosives.
Okkoto was heavily injured, and San and one of the wolves was leading him to the Deer God in hopes of healing them. Unfortunately, it was a trap set by Jiko to lead them to the Deer God. As I mentioned, boars were fearsome warriors, and when Okkoto thought that the humans in boar disguises were actually the boars in their clan, he was energized.
Unfortunately, Okkoto had started to become corrupted with the demons, with San caught up in the tendrils. It was the Deer God who helped stop the corruption process, and allowed Okkoto (and Moro) to pass peacefully.
Lady Eboshi
Lady Eboshi was the leader of the village. According to the villagers, she would buy up the contracts of women in brothels, and I assume she did something similar for the men to help them out of poverty. The people of the town were all involved in iron production, so Lady Eboshi had made something of herself.
Lady Eboshi was ambitious, otherwise she would not have started such a successful iron business. Her ambition led her to want to kill the Deer God. In her conversations with Jiko, she came to believe that the Emperor thought that the head of the Deer God would grant immortality. Whether or not that was true didn't matter, she just wanted his head to gain the Emperor's favour.
In the battle, she took the men to the forest to get to the Deer God, and she was the one who decapitated him herself. In the aftermath, she had lost her arm, and if it was not for Ashitaka, she would have died.
When she got back to the village, the infrastructure was all destroyed, but she told her people that they would start anew.
As mentioned, I thought Lady Eboshi's change of heart was very sudden and I wished the progression of thought would have been more visible on screen. But at least she got the point in the end lol.
Jiko
At first, Jiko was simply a man that Ashitaka bumped into on his travels out west. Later on, we found out that he was allied with Lady Eboshi, and was helping her to kill the Deer God. We saw that he was very shrewd. When speaking about killing the Deer God, he said that it was better for Lady Eboshi to kill him herself, just in case the Deer God would be back for vengeance.
In the end, Jiko was very intent on carrying the Deer God's head away. He was convinced that as long as he could keep the head away from the Deer God until day, then he would be safe. Which was technically true, but I thought the way that he gave it up was very wishy-washy. He was simply cornered with the killing muck and he very easily surrendered when Ashitaka suggested it.
In the end, Jiko was spared by the Deer God.
Themes
Environmentalism
The only thing I knew about Princess Mononoke before watching it was that it was a movie with heavy environmentalism themes, and it's true. Ashitaka's ethos in this movie was that the people and the forest gods could live together in harmony. I think the parallels are pretty obvious so I don't think I need to expand too much on this.
Capitalism and Poverty
Lady Eboshi's iron operation definitely gave me some thoughts about capitalism and poverty. Lady Eboshi had rescued men and women from their bad lives. Some of the women worked in brothels where they were never respected. Some of the workers were very ill or injured, and Lady Eboshi was the first person to ever treat them with dignity. Lady Eboshi definitely knew what she was doing to gain the loyalty of these people.
That being said, I initially felt that Lady Eboshi was a bit flippant about her workers as well. When she'd lost four men from the wolf attack, she was a bit cold about it ("well, what can we do but move on?" kind of attitude).
So even though Lady Eboshi did show sympathy to the workers, I did feel that there was an element of her just seeing the workers as tools.
War
I think one of the big points of this movie is that every side had their own reasons for the battle. The forest gods simply wanted their forest to survive. The people in the village also simply wanted the right to live. They were both equally valid, it's just that maybe battle was the wrong way to go about it.
Both sides were unwilling to see the possibility of a compromise. The forest gods deemed humans evil when in fact they were protecting their community out of love. And the people in the village were unwilling to stop logging the forest because they felt the iron industry was the one option they had besides the terrible life they had before.
Not every situation has a good compromise, but in the case of the forest gods and the people in the town, perhaps there is one, and I think Ashitaka wants to see that through.
Gender equality
The women in the town were generally more outspoken, which was probably not as common in historical times. Part of the reason was likely the fact that their leader, Lady Eboshi was a woman. There was a sense of trust among the women, particularly since many of the women had worked in brothels before and were always disrespected by women.
That being said, the women in the community still loved the men, their husbands, their coworkers. Toki and Koroku had a weird marriage where she was always yelling at her, but we saw that she did care for him. And though the women joked about not being able to trust Ganzo, they clearly did trust him to protect Lady Eboshi.
So I think there was gender equality in this town because of two main reasons, which was (1) the fact that their leader was a woman and (2) the fact that women also held an important role in iron production.
Overall
This was a very well done movie. The story wasn't perfect, but it was still beautiful, and of course, the animation was what we can expect from Studio Ghibli movies.