MONONOKE-HIME

DESCRIPTION

CAST

REVIEWS

• 

  filmstudent

  85/100
  Serious and magical, who'd imagine?

  Mononoke Hime is a wonderful piece of animation, not only because of its visual beauty or atmospheric seriousness, but because of its ability to connect both grey morality and magical optimistic ambiance. While Ghibli's other works focus too much on either being shallowly pretty or pro-environment aesopish, this one is the fusion of straight themes and charming epicness. After all, if it is animation then animate. Use your visual creativity to convey messages that otherwise wouldn't be able of being conveyed.

  The story follows a protagonist who's searching for solutions to some sort of illness he happened to acquire while fighting against a giant hatred-possessed boar. Among the people he encountered is a warlord whose purpose is to provide shelter and work to the unfortunate who happens to be in conflict with the Princess Mononoke herself, a wolf-raised girl that fights against the humans' advance towards the forest along with a lot of other entities. Entities that are not very fond of humanity and their greed and disrespect and who're willing to fight back. However, the conflict extends to not only two sides, but three when another warlord decides to request abusive part of profits from the first one and also wants to achieve immortality by obtaining the head of a certain deity, the Great Forest Spirit. So you have this clash between various sides that are in search for their place in a newly established order. Obviously, not your classical and overused 'bad humans, poor forest' since humanity is in fact struggling and at least concerning the Iron City, people are indeed just surviving and trying to fix their problems. Not a mischievous cynical expansion for the evulz, but rather a natural and believable approach on the society, both of humans and animals, that are above everything seeking for their own. Things don't get better with time and by the end a near-apocalipse happens to kill many, destroying the city and all because of irrational hatred and inability of proper communication. The big message of the movie is about the consequences of a conflict rather than its causes, since as it is obvious we never come to know why and how exactly the problems began. By the end, a massive restoration occurs and while I'm not really a fan of this specific way of ending something, it was foreshadowed that the Forest Spirit's healing capacities were enough to solve several human conditions, including the aforementioned protagonist's illness.

  As always, you can't expect from Miyazaki characters below the line of grey personality, at least not the main ones. However, I also cannot expect a not idealized protagonist from him either. Even the flaws of said characters serve only to emphasize their perfection and sense of justice. Mononoke Hime's protagonist, who's not Mononoke Hime by the way, is a very skilled, just, kind and smart being who always, always do the right thing. While you can see Nausicaa's berserk mode revealing her dark side, this one is just too idealized for me. He's searching for the truth, he gets angry by unfairness and fights back against those who attempt to impede his journey, you know, the basic. You also have the other perfect girl who isn't that perfect and whose moral code is basically 'I hate humans, but I don't kill humans, with exception of that miserable bitch'. She's a very concerned daughter of a giant wolf and isn't afraid of doing some parkour within the city where literally every citizen is ready and loaded to blow her brains out with some "high-tech" machinery. However, as always, my favorite is the anti-ideal and usually only understood through time characters, also known in this series as Eboshi or Mononke's Kushana, call at your will. She's a strong, independent, smart and confident woman that despite appearing at first, mainly due to her naughty glance and suspicious quasi-wicked laugh, your new villainous lady, it is, in reality, the most humane leader of this show. Only a bold charismatic mistress can lead with such success and raise so much loyalty from her commoners. She's the cause of several deaths and immense destruction, but I doubt you can hate her or merely disregard her reasons to do so. Ignorance is something lady Eboshi easily shares with the other sides of this war, but she's maybe the only one you can really relate yourself with, since your alternatives are basically animals who blatantly hate humans, some bland samurais whose only purpose was to attack the Iron City and two protagonists who are just an idealized couple of wild kids that'll not date afterwards. I wouldn't go as far as saying the show is story-driven, but the characters are just and simple what they were supposed to be in order to carry the plot forward, so there's no need for extending on this subject.

  The animation is beyond just fluid, it's challenging. Situations not commonly seen, like ghost burning worms growing from a boar's skin, curving due sunlight and their interaction when characters met their edges. The combat between peasants and samurais, full of blood and maiming, heads floating, arrows flying, hitting and ripping limbs. Violent, but realistic. Best animated parkour I've seen, weight calculated and balanced by the show's own rules of physics and ingenious choreography that makes sense and whose speed resembles reality. So, as you can see, both through fantastical unimaginable or extremely loyal to reality's situations, the show establishes of seriousness not commonly seen in anime. It's not the only atmosphere they want to establish though. This is a japanese movie that does justice to its origins and represents well enough the environment of a feudal setting from early Japan, the guns are faithful to reality since there were indeed machines just like those at the time of 15th and 16th centuries and even the furnace is perfectly depicted within the boundaries of reality, since it's almost exactly like a real furnace of its time. I'm amazed by their capacity of joining such a realistic approach upon magical phenomenons without losing grasp or charm throughout the entire film.

  While the soundtrack may not outstand itself that much, it's cool, I gotta praise the sound effects utilized, they're simply gorgeous. I don't think most people are used to the natural sound of an arrow cutting the air and entering gently inside a piece of wood or even the ground, but those who are will notice how faithful and varied is the usage of it in this movie. I don't know if every arrow has its distinct sound effect, but it seems that way. Also, steps on the roof of houses, cannon shots, blades colliding, the furnace in operation, every small thing contains a specific fitting sound and that only demonstrates the amount of effort that was put into this. I honestly liked more the silent moments where everything you can hear are the sounds of nature or heavy machinery or whatever, than the soundtrack. The latter is very good, but the good you are already used to. Nothing earworming like Nausicaa for example, just the classic Ghibli composed tracks of piano and violin, maybe a flute, I don't really remember since I wasn't that captivated by it.

  So, besides the aforementioned idealization of characters and I must add, the fact Miyazaki really likes beautiful characters and by their beauty you already assume they're or aren't going to die, this movie is enough on its own to easily surpass mediocrity and strides towards the top of animated movies with its clever usage of animation, imaginative and at the same time faithful setting and scenarios, and serious grey story where things are not easily dealt with. As a matter of fact, there're some annoying plot-armor moments and god, the protagonist will dodge every arrow imaginable from whichever angle possible. Also, the goo at the end is apparently simply unable of reaching them unlike everyone else, which is funny. Its conclusion is similar to Nausicaa movie's one in many ways, and that's not actually good since things get easily resolved after all. It's not like Nausicaa's manga for example, where Miyzaki was super inspired and represented so many things in a short amount of time with so much success and whose conclusion is beyond thought-provoking. So overall, great movie and very recommendable.

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• 

  Daemonplay

  94/100
  A masterful example in atmospheric story-telling

  Going into this movie I had one big fear: A lack of grey morality. Thankfully the movie managed to avoid this problem which many other works regarding environmentalism unfortunately fall into.

  But let's paddle back a little and start with the animation. On one side it's consistently on the high standard we are used to expecting from Studio Ghibli on the other though we can see a far more expressive and creative style. This obviously favors the movie and its fantastical elements greatly. This is also the reason as to why it's such an atmospheric masterpiece. Animation (and art) always support the circumstances of the current scene leading to a range that encompasses both hectic and calm elements.

  As we are already on the topic of the contrast between hectic and calm let's tackle the marvelous handling of tone shifts while always keeping a certain basic feeling the movie portrays from start up until the very end. Mononoke Hime is probably one of the studio's most violent works although it never reaches a point where you could classify it as more than the average viewer can handle. The movie places a definite importance to switch between parts that exhibit this more violent nature and parts that are used to further our understanding of the world and its characters which therefore are of a more calm nature. This cycle keeps the viewer on the edge of his/her seat while also giving them enough time to rest and immerse themselves in the world that is presented to them. As mentioned above the movie also manages to keep a steady tone I can only describe as melancholy. A tone that definitely fits the themes and topic of the movie as a whole.

  On the topic of themes let's tackle the most obvious one first: Environmentalism and the role of humanity in it. Without spoiling too much I can say that the ending really sells this point for me. It portrays realistic consequences stemming from the main conflicts of the movie, which the characters now have to deal. In fact I personally find it multi-layered and thought provoking enough that it manages to be kind of prophetic when reduced to its basic concepts.

  A huge role in every show's and movie's ending obviously play the characters. These are handled with extreme care in regards to their development and their actions throughout the story. Even so, this is the area I have the most gripes with the movie. As I said my biggest fear was not having enough moral ambiguity. Fortunately for the most part of the movie this is also accomplished through detailed and reasonable character motivation. Our main character Ashitaka for example is the embodiment of the struggle to fit between such opposing viewpoints. And while the first half manages this subject matter really really well, the second half abandons it in favor of escalating conflict. The problems manifest themselves especially in the actions of Lady Eboshi who seems to act just for the sake of the plot later on. This turn of events is most unfortunate as the climax to any story is the part where character actions arguably have the most impact. All is well and back to its realistic roots in the ending though especially in regards to the relationship between Ashitaka and San.

  Before ending this review I'd like to mention the absolutely amazing soundtrack of this movie that really complements the animation in almost every scene. Just as the visual aspects it never falls prey to exaggeration and therefore adds to the overall wonderfully atmospheric feeling.

  Overall I'd say this movie is not only one of Ghibli's best works but also one of the best animated movies I've ever seen. It proves that an atmospheric focus can be the best appraoch to selling an idea or themes.

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• 

  fffillyy

  90/100
  One of Miyzaki's best works! Beautifully animated and also has a great score.

  Princess Mononoke is a fantasy anime film directed and written by Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is a master at directing and writing animated films and I can understand why Princess Mononoke is many people's favourite Studio Ghibli film. This film presents a straightforward story that is engaging and beautiful. Miyazaki is really creative with his scripts and brings it to life in his animated films. It is truly remarkable!

  The animation is clearly the best aspect of this film. This film was released more than 20 years ago yet the animation is spectacular, even to today's standards! Each frame, like most Japanese animation, is each hand-drawn separately and it's surprising how much effort they put into this film to make the animation look both beautiful and flow well especially during the action sequences. I also love the animated scenery, especially the forest. It's stunning and has an immersive feel to it. The animation is beautiful. Studio Ghibli knows how to animate their films. It is sad that nowadays, especially Western-animated films, animated films are now heavily computer-assisted so animated movements in those films look unnatural and take less effort than animating it by hand. It takes away the creative integrity of animation and it is why watching a film like Princess Mononoke is such a blessing and such an eye-opener.

  The sound mixing and just the overall use of sound in this film are spectacular. These are masterfully done from the sound effects to the score. The score is great sets the mood of the scenes. I love the score and the individual songs that were implemented in this film. It was pleasing to listen to and worked well with the scenes in this film. There was also a scene which had no sound for several seconds which contrasted with the constant voice acting, sound effects and score being played over the animation. This silence was great as it makes you pay more attention to what was on the screen at the time and it also makes the scenes with sound greatly appreciable. You'll never know the importance and significance of something until it is removed. The sound effects help create an engaging and immersive anime film. The sound design is fantastic. The voice acting is great across the board. The voice actors really helped bring the characters alive and were able to express the characters' emotions in a convincing manner. This film uses sound to maintain and express and engaging story effectively.

  There are many characters in this film and this is a minor issue I had with this film. Almost all the characters play supporting roles in this film and I thought there were far too many to keep track of. A lot of scenes with the supporting characters just felt brushed off. Despite this, I thought the character development with the two main characters was done superbly. Miyazaki really fleshed out these two characters and made you care for them. Miyazaki also made the few antagonists in this film have a genuine motive that was understandable which the audience can get behind yet still overall root for the protagonists. This effectively created conflict in the film and made for some engaging scenes.

  Overall, I really enjoyed Princess Mononoke. I love Miyazaki's works and Studio Ghibli. Studio Ghibli has a lot of great anime under their belt and Miyazaki is one of the best, if not the best, anime director/writer to exist. We don't deserve to have these great films, but Miyazaki delivers us with fantastic anime films made with creative integrity and the end result shows the great effort it takes to make these anime films. Spirited Away is still my favourite Studio Ghibli film, but that's not to say that Princess Mononoke isn't a great film. Princess Mononoke is a great film that is beautifully animated and has a fantastic score and sound design.

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