Princess Mononoke

With Princess Mononoke Director Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) has created a film that is exactly what people were expecting from the movie Final Fantasy (let it be known that I was amazed by Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within). It opens with an attack on a village, the assailant being a great Boar God infected with hatred by a strange lead ball in its chest. The creature is defeated by a lone boy named As**taka (from now on I'll call him Ash) who is unfortunately infected with the gods hatred. Searching for a cure, and a reason for the attack, Ash sets off on a journey to the great forest where he meets San, a young girl adopted by the wolf-god Moro, who is fighting a war with the Tatara clan, who have begun to destroy the sacred forest in order to produce iron. This iron, it turns out, is being used in the creation of weapons strong enough to kill the gods themselves. They call these new weapons, guns.

On the surface this story is nothing more than a simple tale about the evils of destroying the planet, but Miyazaki has not left it that. You could likely get away with calling him the Kurosawa of the animated world as his films are always rich visually and far more importantly, rich thematically. Princess Mononoke certainly has that aspect dealing with the rape of the planet, but it's also a film that has a lot more to say and doesn't rub it all in your face. The most important for me, as well as the most timely, was the films message about the futility of war. None of the characters on either side are simple good and evil, but rather each is in this fight for their own reasons, while simultaneously forgetting the other sides point of view. Lady Eboshi, the leader of the humans, and most likely villain, is attempting to build a leper colony so that those who are sick can have somewhere warm and sheltered in which to die. However she is simultaneously willing to kill every animal of the forest in order to make her dream a reality. In comparison, Moro the Wolf God is the major lead for the animals defense, but while he is fighting for the preservation of the sacred forest, he is still willing to kill any human who wonders into the forest, excluding San but including those like Ash, who are remaining neutral in the war.

As I said though, this is no simple movie and it has once again benefited from Miyazaki's amazing eye. The battles are brutally visualized, but the locations are lush and beautiful. Plus the animation is amazingly fluid, detailed enough that you are drawn into the world as you would in a live action film.

As always though, this could be shattered by bad voice acting. The DVD I own contains both the original Japanese, and the English translations, but I wouldn't recommend the English. It's not terrible, featuring good actors like Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup, Claire Danes and Minnie Driver. It's just that they remain good actors, but average voice actors. Whereas the Japanese translation features people, who's names I am unfamiliar with, but who have trained for years to be voice actors. They really fit the roles well and make the film so much more engaging.

Though, for the sake of those who's only experience with Miyazaki was Spirited Away, I will add that Princess Mononoke is the more accessible film. It does have a strong plot, and does still contain Miyazaki's excellent eye, but it's also a film that remains fun for those who don't want to do much thinking. Like Final Fantasy, Ash's journey is permeated by frequent battles, building up to one major spectacle in the finale. These scenes are deftly handled and very exciting, though a few moments were surprisingly graphic for a PG.

This has been my entry into the Lean-N-Mean write-off.