Princess Mononoke

Dir: Hayao Miyazaki

1997

*****

Princess Mononoke is a  faultless masterpiece, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli at their very best. Exploring similar themes to that of 1983's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind,  Princess Mononoke is a sci-fi fantasy adventure with environmental issues central to its story. However, unlike  Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke is set in the late Muromachi period (between 1336 and 1573) and deals mainly in mythology rather than technology. It is the first of Ghibli's film to explore more violent themes with a much darker tone. A young Emishi warrior and last prince of his people named Ashitaka finds himself caught between a battle between the gods of nature and fellow humans who are consuming the planet's resources at an accelerated rate. Miyazaki first came up with the idea of a Princess living in the forest back in 1970 but suffered from writers block. Elements of his original idea were used in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind and also in 1988's My Neighbor Totoro but after another decade of ideas, he finally reached his final draft and it was well worth the time spent. Were Ghibli films are either adaptations or a mix of influences, Princess Mononoke is rich with original ideas and medieval Japanese mythology. It also explores ancient and modern ideologies when it comes to stigma and marginalizing certain groups. Sexuality and disability are the two main themes here and are represented by prostitutes and leprosy, two themes predominant in historical writing/scriptures, whether religious or not, these can be found in all cultures. The overall story isn't a clear cut case of good vs evil either, with an ambiguous moral conflict between preservation and development, Princess Mononoke suggests that there are always two sides of every conflict and there is good and bad in all of us. It's pretty subjective and is an interesting and intelligent look at war from the view point of an anti-war studio. It marked yet another ground breaking chapter in Ghibli's history and for my money I think it is their joint best film (with about four other titles I can think of). Animation at it's most beautiful, storytelling at it's most magical and Ghibli at their sharpest. It's bizarre to think that FernGully was more popular at the box office and was made only five years earlier.