by Alireza Hatamvand
Worth: $17.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Various
Intro:
Alongside Spirited Away, this is one of Miyazaki’s highest peaks.
Nature has always been a profound and enduring concern in Hayao Miyazaki’s works. The famed Japanese animator and filmmaker has explored it in many ways, but Princess Mononoke is where he lays it bare—unflinching, unsoftened.
The plot follows Ashitaka, a young prince who, while defending his village, is wounded by a demonized boar. To lift the curse, he heads west, to mysterious lands where humans and nature are locked in a brutal conflict. On one side, people push forward, hungry for resources. On the other, nature fights back with everything it has.
The story unfolds simultaneously along several different plotlines. Ashitaka is seeking to lift a curse. The boars are preparing to take revenge on humans for the forest and nature. Meanwhile, the humans, led by Lady Eboshi in the Iron Town that sustains itself through iron mining, have decided to completely destroy the forest and its creatures. Amid all this, Princess Mononoke, who was raised by the forest wolves, spares no effort in opposing the humans. Yet beyond all of this, lies the Forest Spirit—a sacred being upon whom the life of the forest depends. It is the Forest Spirit who gives life and takes it away from the forest creatures. Ashitaka needs it to lift the curse, while the humans, under Lady Eboshi’s leadership, seek to destroy it so that nature will forever be weakened
By following multiple narrative threads, the film creates a vast and immersive world. Its plotlines unfold in careful parallel, rising in harmony and generating mounting tension. The sheer scope of the setting, the depth of its characters, and its uncompromising tone introduce a range of serious possibilities, keeping the audience in constant suspense.
Miyazaki had explored a similarly expansive world thirteen years earlier in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, but here in Princess Mononoke, it feels sharper, fuller.
Of course, Princess Mononoke’s script is not without its flaws. When the film ends, the question arises: why was Ashitaka at the center of all these various events? Why did he find himself involved in these adventures? What exactly made him the one to get pulled in? He simply appears to have entered this abyss as a neutral from another world to occasionally forbid people from anger and hatred and invite them to tolerance.
The “accidental hero” is something that is also seen in Miyazaki’s other works. And it is not without reason that few people disagree with the statement that Miyazaki the animator has a higher status than Miyazaki the screenwriter.
All that said, Princess Mononoke is still something unique. It’s the most adult work that Miyazaki has done—no sudden bursts of whimsy, no slapstick relief. It carries a weight and a violence that his films don’t usually show. He skilfully creates several morally grey characters whose motivations are reasonable yet often in conflict with one another, making it difficult to pass judgment on them. In the end, the film delivers messages that are layered and, to some extent, challenging to fully grasp.
Alongside Spirited Away, this is one of Miyazaki’s highest peaks.
