Princess Mononoke
(1997 movie)
Yet another offering by Miyazaki, this movie takes place in a mythical ancient Japan, which is not long into the iron age, and which still has to deal with actual spirits which exist in the vast forests which cover most of the land. Like every Miyazaki film, there are heavy-handed environmental and pacifist messages, but fortunately these are balanced out by an intriguing story filled with characters that have some actual depth to them, including the people who are theoretically supposed to be the bad guys.
While there is a strong female character in this movie, named San, the protagonist is actually Ashitaka, a young member of an isolated, traditionalist village that sits on the edge of the forest, which we're informed is supposed to be off limits to humans. Ashitaka is sent on a journey into this forest following an attack on his village by a forest spirit in the form of a giant boar that's been covered by black worms. While Ashitaka is successful in defeating this possessed boar and protecting his village, he is wounded by the black worms, which leave a mark on his arm that will spread to cover more and more of his body throughout the movie. He's informed that this will kill him unless he successfully finds the Forest Spirit and is able to talk it into lifting this curse from him. In the interim, though, the evil black mark gives him superpowers that enable him to literally shoot the heads and limbs off of some douche-bag samurai types with a regular bow and arrows, lift a door that normally takes ten men to lift, and survive getting shot through the center of mass by a musket ball the size of a fist long enough to rescue the girl and get healed by the Forest Spirit he's looking for.
San is "the girl" I'm referring to here, who Ashitaka takes a liking to the moment he lays eyes on her, in spite of the fact she and her giant wolf buddies have just finished slaughtering a bunch of humans who are only trying to get through the forest to bring food and supplies to their families in Iron Town, and in spite of the way she and her wolf buddies constantly threaten to kill him and even make a go of carrying out those threats. She is kind of a looker, though, so, hey, crazy in the head, crazy in bed, right?
The main plot of this film is about the conflict between the industrializing humans and nature, actually somewhat paralleling the kind of conflict J. R. R. Tolkien set up in his stories. Actually it wouldn't surprise me that much if this movie was somewhat inspired by
Lord of the Rings (as in the books, obviously), but really that's just an interesting thought and not something I'm actually holding this film up against.
Anyway, the industrializing humans are represented by two different groups – the douche-bag samurai I referred to earlier, and the inhabitants of the island-based Iron Town. The samurai represent a militaristic group of humans who basically want everything they lay eyes on, and they'll kill anyone and everyone who happens to be there. Given that this is a Miyazaki film, this representation of a military force really shouldn't be all that surprising. Not that the samurai weren't douche-bags. Iron Town, on the other hand, exists to create iron and the primitive firearms it uses to defend itself against douche-bag samurais and forest spirits alike. Of course in doing so, they've cleared a significant portion of the forest, and have mined for iron ore, so you can kind of guess where the conflict comes in here.
Iron Town and its leader, a woman named Eboshi, are actually what help to balance this movie out quite a bit, and show that in spite of the fact Miyazaki can be very preachy when it comes to the environment and fighting, he can still keep his films from being completely one-sided, and I respect that. See, Eboshi has basically taken in all of the social misfits that wouldn't be able to find good work anywhere else, like prostitutes and even lepers, so they can make iron. It's hard work and these people are portrayed as more or less good people who are simply trying to make a living, and who owe a lot to their leader because she's taken them in and given them this refuge in exchange for their labor. Ebashi also genuinely seems to care for these people, and will put her own life on the line to defend them. As this brings them into conflict with the forest spirits, San and her wolf family are very hateful toward Ebashi and the residents of Iron Town, and since San and her wolf family are constantly killing their friends and family members, they're naturally very hateful toward San and the forest spirits. This kind of puts Ashitaka in an awkward position, because while he doesn't agree with the industrialization and the stripping of the forest, he still recognizes these as good people and can't bring himself to condemn them, in spite of the revelation that they are essentially the cause of his present misfortune. Then, of course, is the fact that he really wants to slip San the ol' sausage, so he ends up finding himself fighting both groups while trying to befriend both groups. Complexity and depth, I like it.
So as I mentioned earlier, Ashitaka ends up getting shot by a huge musket ball of doom, which is made of iron instead of lead for some reason, and is also responsible for the various forest spirit animals who get shot going crazy and turning into worm-covered demons that want to kill everyone in their sight. Kind of like the samurai-types. Huh, wonder if there's a parallel there or something. Anyway, since San is impressed by what Ashitaka is willing to sacrifice in order to preserve her life, and by his respect for the forest and its spirits, she decides to take him to the Forest Spirit to be healed. As it turns out, he'd actually spotted the Forest Spirit earlier in its day time form, which looks kind of like an elk with a flat, human-like face.
The forest's savior.
Due to its ability to magically heal the sick and wounded, and to literally walk on water, I'm going to refer to the Forest Spirit as Elk Jesus from now on. In any case, this first instance of the audience being shown that Elk Jesus has these abilities also establishes that in order to give life, by healing or otherwise, life must be sacrificed to do so, which is why San grabbed a tree branch and planted it close to Ashitaka when she took him to Elk Jesus's home.
And thus Ashitaka finds himself no better off than he was at the start of his quest, healed of his gunshot wound, but still bearing the curse that has spread even further through his body. And despite San coming around to him, somewhat, she still refuses to accept any kind of a peaceful compromise with humans, or that she even is human herself, having been raised by a she-wolf like Romulus and Remus. He's also told to leave the forest by both the wolves and the leader of a huge pack of giant boars, because the next time they see him they'll kill him. Of course, the samurai douche-bags attack Iron Town while Ebashi and most of the men from Iron Town are away on a hunt in service of the emperor, so he ends up resuming his quest to find a peaceful solution for Ebashi and her group and the forest spirits, and to save San while he's at it.
Ebashi, for all the good that she's done the residents of Iron Town, apparently only had the resources to do so because of the emperor, and now owes the old bastard a favor. As it turns out, the favor consists of hunting down Elk Jesus and cutting off its head, which is said to grant immortality upon its owner, or something like that. To ensure she lives up to her end of things, the emperor even goes as far as to send an elite group of hunter-monks, who are portrayed not all that differently from the samurai.
As it turns out, Elk Jesus turns into this giant, ethereal humanoid at night and wanders the forest. Apparently, during the transformation phase between elk-thing and giant ghost-thing, it's actually vulnerable to getting shot, although it apparently losing its head just makes it grope around wildly, killing everything it touches while it looks for its head. This is where the movie basically sells itself as being a kind of lost history to the real world, because this incident marks the end of forest spirits as a tangible thing, and of the forest animals being sentient beings. But hey, Ashitaka gets the crazy wolf-girl in the end, and in spite of Iron Town being destroyed and overrun by plants, there's nothing left now to keep humanity from progressing into an industrialized society, so happy ending for all ... except the forest spirits and Elk Jesus, who died for humanity’s sins (only being slightly sarcastic here).
This movie is mainly interesting to me due to its themes: religious, change from nature to industry, life from death, etc. And while I don't really agree with what all this movie has to say, it is interesting to note these themes and to make comparisons to other works that have similar themes. I also like that the majority of the characters in this movie have some actual depth to them, and that the causes and solutions to the conflict and drama in the story are not really all that clear-cut. The resolution wasn't perfect for everyone either, because even though Ashitaka was cured of his curse and got a hot new girlfriend out of the deal, he was not able to save the forest spirits and only barely managed to save the residents of Iron Town. And while the residents of Iron Town survived, everything they worked for and fought to protect was destroyed.
The main weakness of this movie, like pretty much every Miyazaki film, is that at times the pacing can be somewhat slow and the movie can drag in parts. I also have to admit to a personal bias here in that the setting and subject matter just aren't all that terribly interesting to me. However, due to the interesting theme and the balanced storytelling, I'm going to rate this movie somewhat higher than I might have otherwise.
If you’re interested in myth, fantasy, and really like trees and stuff, you'll probably like this movie a lot more than I did, because really it's custom made for people who have those interests. But even if you aren't someone like that, it's still a somewhat engaging and interesting story that can entertain. 8/10.