Reviewed by Gwen Sato. Strongly Recommended
PRINCESS MONONOKE
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
English Screenplay by Neil Gaiman
Featuring the Voice Talents of Claire Danes, Billy Crudup, Minnie Driver,
Gillian Anderson, Jada Pinkett, and Billy Bob Thornton.
Distributed by Miramax Pictures
On October 29th, Miramax will release one of the top-grossing films in Japan to American audiences. This film is MONONOKE HIME or PRINCESS MONONOKE. What makes this film unique to American audiences is that it is an animated film that is not aimed at children. The intense violence as well as the depth of the storyine makes it unsuitable for young children.
MONONOKE HIME follows the travels of Ashitaka, a young man who leaves his village in search of a cure, if any exists, for the disease that is slowly claiming his body, and what caused the tatarigami to attack his village. (A tatarigami is an animal spirit who is twisted by rage or madness).
Ashitaka eventually finds himself caught between two women and two ideals. On one side is Eboshi, who wants to cut down the forest of the Shishikami (the god/ruling spirit of the forest) in order to fuel her steelworks and keep her village of outcasts and oppressed happy. On the other is San, the human daughter of Moro, the Mountain Dog. San (the mononoke hime of the title) wants Eboshi dead for trying to kill the forest and the spirits in it.
A few notes on some of the nuances of MONONOKE HIME that people who are not familiar with Japanese culture may miss. The first is that Ashitaka and his village seem to be Ainu (the original occupants of the Japan) and not Japanese as Eboshi and the other characters of the film are (perhaps with the exception of San). This makes Ashitaka somewhat of an outsider in the conflict between Eboshi and San and is why he can see things clearer than either one of them. Another very Japanese aspect of this film is in the portrayal of nature. In this film, everything has a spirit and can be considered sentient. The animals speak and understand what is going on around them, and even the tree spirits seem to know whats going on (even though they dont say much). This is all very Shintoist. In Shintoism everything has a spirit and thus must be respected.
I have a little disclaimer: I saw MONONOKE HIME subtitled, so all my observations about characters, themes and storyline are from that version and my limited understanding of Japanese, so if it does not match the version put out by Miramax, I apologize. Luckily for animation purists, the specific deal between Disney, the American producers of the film, and Studio Ghibli, Creator Hayao Miyazaki's animation company, is such that Disney cannot inflict any changes on the film to which Miyazaki-san does not personally consent (Early reports suggest that both fans and Miyazaki himself are happy with writer Neil (Sandman, Neverwhere) Gaiman's translation and interpretation of the script - ed).
With that caveat out of the way, I'd like to say that PRINCESS MONONOKE is definitely a must-see film. The animation is smooth, and has Miyazaki's classic character designs. It is much more violent than Miyazaki's previous films, but not gratuitously so. The violence is there to carry the impact of the characters actions and push the intensity of the situation. The characters are well rounded and are reasonably easy to sympathize with (with the exception of Eboshi who takes a little getting used to).
All in all MONONOKE HIME is a great film that should be seen at least once on the big screen (unfortunately, that version will be dubbed in English but it is rumored that it will be released both subtitled and dubbed on video). At the very least, it will be interesting to see how different MONONOKE HIME will be voiced by American actors... I'll reserve the rest of my commentary until then.
Recommended.
Princess Mononoke is released soon in the US, with a later release date in Europe.
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Relevant
Links
Miramax website
Info on Hayao Miyazaki
Studio Ghibli