MOVIES

Movie Data

Title: Princess Mononoke
Original title: もののけ姫 Mononoke Hime
Published: 1997
Length: 128 minutes

Staff
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Script: Hayao Miyazaki
Music: Joe Hisaishi

Plot

Ashitaka, the young prince of an Emishi tribe, is struck by a deadly curse while successfully defending his village against the attack of a boar who has become a demon. He travels far west in search of healing. He eventually comes to the home of the boar Nago, a former protector of the forest. He finds himself between the front lines of a war between the workers of an ironworks who cut down the forest and mine metals, and the animal gods and animals of the forest who defend their territory.
Ashitaka meets the girl San (Princess Mononoke) who lives with the wolves and who fights on the side of the animals. Her opponent is the power-hungry Mistress Eboshi from the Tatara clan, who wants to protect the inhabitants of the ironworks from attacks by animals and animal gods. She tries to defeat Prince Asano with the firearms manufactured in the ironworks and to expand her sphere of influence. Ashitaka tries to mediate between the parties and prevent Eboshi from killing the forest god whose head she is supposed to bring to the Tennō.
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Critics

“In terms of drawing and storytelling, it is an outstanding cartoon that further develops the tradition of Japanese anime without committing to a striking good-and-bad scheme. In some fight scenes, the depiction of cruelty is all too clear for younger viewers. ”(Lexicon of International Films)

“Hayao Miyazaki not only succeeds in breathtaking pictures and fast-paced action scenes, but also in multi-layered characters whose characters do not fit into the unequivocal good-bad scheme common in fairy tales. So San is by no means the morally superior heroine and Eboshi is also not just the exploitative mistress. It is precisely the breaks in the classic clichés that make these characters extremely interesting. Against the background of the war between mythical animal gods and humans, Miyazaki resorts to one of his main themes and admonishes - without sounding instructive - the peaceful coexistence between humans and animals, technology and nature. He deliberately does not do without depicting violence, but always embeds it in the context of the plot. "(Video News)

Background

Due to the fact that Miyazaki's characters, set and plot were deliberately set in the Muromachi period, Mononoke Hime is also traded as an indirect representative of the Jidai-geki film genre.
The word mononoke (物の怪) is not a name, but a Japanese collective term for monsters, demons, and ghosts, and (partly) synonymous with yōkai.
The destruction of the environment and dealing with leprosy sufferers are the two main themes of the anime.