Princess Mononoke

On the one hand an allegory for the struggle between man and nature, and on the other a story which blends traditional Japanese folklore and prehistory with fantasy elements of its own creation to make for an enveloping story, Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, to this day it remains a stunning piece of animation. It has scenes of lyrical beauty, and a an environmental message that is every bit as relevant today as it was during its release in 1997 (1999 US). It works as a parable, yet stands on its own as entertainment. It is a masterwork.

Please note: Entries about media reviewed in this blog are written from the perspective that the reader has already seen the work in question and desires further commentary or explanation. Plot twists and endings will sometimes be examined.

The movie begins with a voice over (or crawl of words in the Japanese version) telling the audience that long ago the land and forests were inhabited by ancient gods who dwelled with nature. We then see the main character of the film, Ashitaka, wandering through the woods. He's told by some village girls that something is wrong in the forest and the elders have called everyone in. Shortly after visiting the lookout, he sees what has caused the forest to grow so quiet. A demon comes through their barriers and knocks down the lookout post. Running in front of it, Ashitaka begs it to quell its rage but the creature continues to charge forward. When it threatens the girls who haven't yet made it to safety, Ashitaka is forced to attack and then kill it in self defense. The creature manages to touch him in the process, scarring him and, later we learn, cursing him. The beast is the first many incredible spectacles the movie has in store for us. It appears from a distance to be a giant insect or spider, but we see later that it's skin and legs are actually made of countless, writhing, worm-like forms, covering a giant boar. Upon its original release, critic Roger Ebert described it as an effect that would be impossible in live-action, and while CGI has come a ways since then, it's still arguable that it could be done this well.

The village elders gather and Ashitaka is told that the scar is actually an infection of sorts, and that it will continue to grow and grow until finally it kills him. Forced out of his village, the only clues he has are that the creature came from the west, and was once a boar that was infected itself by an iron ball that broke it's body and later it's mind. While leaving Ashitaka is stopped briefly by his sister, who knowing the elders' decision wants to say goodbye, and gives him a crystal dagger to remember her by. Alone but for his mount, a red elk named Yakul, Ashitaka heads east seeking a cure.

Heading east, Ashitaka happens upon a village being massacred by samurai and is attacked himself when he tries to run past them. He kills two men with his bow and arrow while breaking free, and learns to his shock that the curse has given him inhuman strength; his shots now have enough force to dismember those he shoots at.

In a village later, he attempts to buy rice with a small nugget of gold (being from a small village he has no coin), and is helped out of a confrontation with the merchant by Jiko, a hunter/tracker who saw him fight the samurai earlier. The two make camp together, and when Ashitaka asks about the boar who attacked him and the iron ball he has, Jigo tells him only that there is a forest to the west where the beasts are all giants like they were at the beginning of time, leading Ashitaka to head that direction in the morning. Jigo, while a humorous character, lets on that he knows a lot more than he says very early in the movie. His craftiness saves Ashitaka not only from trouble with the merchant in the village, but also some men who follow the two immediately afterwards. He also deduces correctly that Ashitaka is one of the Emishi people, at that time a small and unincorporated tribe of which could be placed in harm's way were knowledge of it to get out.

We next see a caravan moving on a narrow path along the side of a winding mountain, transporting goods back to Iron Town. We are first introduced to the Lady Eboshi when the caravan is attacked by giant wolves and she fires an iron ball into the breast called Moro, the very large mother wolf, toppling her down into a river in the ravine far below, but not before she knocks down several of the oxen and men from the caravan.

Far below, Ashitaka hears the firing, then notices men floating through the river, the same who fell earlier. He's able to save two of them, then he notices the wolves and a young girl who is with them. San, is the final major human character to be introduced. When we first see her she is sucking the infected blood out of Moro's wound providing care for her, but wild and uncivilized in the way she moves and acts. When she and the wolves catch wind of Ashitaka watching them, he announces himself peacefully and asks them for help, but is ignored by the girl and wolves who leave abruptly after telling him only to go away.
Ashitaka helps the two men he pulled from the river, one of whom is too wounded to even talk much. The other we learn is named Kouroku, and is an ox driver at Iron Town. He is scared to death of the tiny spirit like creatures called the kodama who inhabit the forest and are small and white and can become transparent. Ashitaka, however, is friendly towards them and even asks them for passage. Following the creatures through the woods, Kouroku repeatedly voices his worries to Ashitaka, but they fall upon deaf ears as Ashitaka trusts the creatures and fears for the condition of the other man if they don't make it to Iron Town quickly. Through Kouroku's actions it is made it clear that the members of Iron Town are afraid of this place and those who dwell within it.

The forest they pass through is ancient and primordial. We get the sense that no humans have walked through in a long time, if at all ever. The glades at the center of it reveal tracks of the girl and the wolves and Ashitaka realizes that this is where they live. He glimpses briefly a figure of a deer with a man's head (a description matching one Kouroku had made earlier as belonging the great "Spirit of the Forest"), but an agitation in his scarred arm forces Ashitaka to submerge his arm in the water to soothe it. Due to this part of the film as well as some scenes later when he recovers from another wound, I've often wondered if the water in this place is supposed to be sacred or have healing properties, and if the water poured by the old woman on Ashitaka's arm right after he is initially cursed by the demon boar in the beginning is meant to have come from this place.

Ashitaka and those with him emerge from the woods safely to reach iron town. Though Eboshi's chief bodyguard Gonza is suspicious of him for passing through the forest, everyone else is grateful to him for saving the two men, including Eboshi herself, who invites him to see her later. Iron Town, we learn, is a safe and peaceful place and though the work there is hard, the conditions are good and the Lady Eboshi is revealed to be a firm but fair and competent leader who genuinely cares about her people. We also discover, however, that it was her forges that made the guns and iron that drove insane the boar which poisoned Ashitaka. When he confronts her on this, she is defended by some of her workers, lepers who were cast away and shunned by all until she showed mercy and took them in. A quiet conversation with her outside on the walls also reveals that the girl he saw earlier is known by the people of Iron Town as the Princess Mononoke (literally translated "monster princess" from Japanese) and that she is believed to have been seduced by the wolves.

The girl in question, San, then makes another appearance suddenly when she directly attacks the village hoping to kill Eboshi. In a very symbolic scene that is probably my favorite in the whole film, Ashitaka defends San from the villagers when her attack goes badly and then even breaks up a direct fight between her and Eboshi, saving one or both of their lives in the process. He also, however, gets shot himself by a nervous gun wielder while walking out carrying an unconscious San in front of the otherwise awestruck inhabitants of iron town. The scene is a very important one. With all the major pieces now more or less in place, we begin to see what the movie has in store for us as the fighting between the two sides -Iron Town and Eboshi on the one hand, San and the creatures of the forest on the other- escalates, with Ashitaka caught in the middle, trying to protect and mediate with both even at a danger to himself. Being cursed and having nothing to lose, he wants only to quell the hatred and animosity the two have for each other and puts himself in harms way to defend both sides. The scene is something of a microcosm for the conflict that is the center of the film, and we'll see shortly just how far all the parties involved are willing to go to get what they want.

After he collapses from his wounds, San takes Ashitaka back to the enchanted glade where we learn the spirit of the forest does indeed dwell. Using a natural marker she leaves him lying on the shore of an island in the still waters of the pond there. We see Spirit of the Forest has a different form at night called "The Nightwalker": gigantic, luminous and transparent like jelly. During the day it takes on its previously seen deer-like form. When it comes to the marker where Ashitaka lies, it simply breathes upon him, and later we learn that by doing so has healed his wounds.

The next day, Ashitaka awakes to discover that he has survived, but that the curse on his arm remains as well. He is so weak he can barely move when San appears to greet him and tells him that she has learned about him some from Yakul (she can speak with animals), who remained by his side despite being released by San the night before. Next comes another incredible scene, as San feeds Ashitaka, who lacks the strength to even eat, by chewing herself the food she has brought him and then putting it into his mouth. I've heard stories that children of Native American tribes would do this for elderly members who no longer had teeth, and while San doesn't seem to think anything of it, it's clear Ashitaka does by the tears that flow from his eyes. It's a scene more tender than many of the love scenes that appear throughout the myriad of other movies out there, we realize what this girl is doing to save his life.This is interrupted by the arrival an army of giant boars who have traveled there to fight Eboshi, furious at her and the fate which befell their friend, Nago (the same boar from earlier who became a demon and cursed Ashitaka). They see Ashitaka there and become enraged and threaten to kill him as well until their leader, Okkoto, appears. Okkoto, wise and old but blind as well, communes with Ashitaka and decides to spare him, but is unswayed by the words of the wolf clan who advise him not to fight Eboshi. We sense that Okkoto suspects a trap, just as the wolves do, but does not fear death in battle and prefers it to the slow extermination facing his kind with man's expansion.Late at night Ashitaka awakes to look out upon the forest. In another stunning scene, we hear a conversation between him and Moro, who regards San as a daughter and has harsh words for Ashitaka when asks her to release the girl, claiming she belongs with other humans. We learn that San was taken in as a child and that the forest and wolves are the only life she has ever known. Though she clearly cares for him, separating her from the life she has now appears impossible.While Ashitaka is recovering, other big things are occurring as well. We see that Lady Eboshi has other problems than the guardians of the forest; a greedy warlord, named Asano, whose land neighbors hers has begun attacking her and Iron Town in an attempt to extort tribute from her. Eboshi, however, armed with gunpowder and iron is resisting fiercely, and Asano appears unable to gain ground against her. Jigo, the tracker from earlier, also reappears, with dozens other hunters, trained killers, in his employ. Calling in a favor from Eboshi, he wants to find and behead the Spirit of the Forest, to claim a huge reward from the emperor, who believes the head grants eternal life.

Things play out very steadily from this point on in the narrative. Ashitaka recovers and heads back towards Iron Town, only to discover it is being besieged by Asano. The villagers tell Ashitaka to get word to Eboshi and the men of the village, who accompanied her to do battle with the boars. After fighting several samurai, and Yakul getting wounded by an arrow, he slips through and comes across the wreckage of the assault against Eboshi and the hunters. Disastrous, and indeed a trap after all, the ground is littered with the carcasses of dead boars. San and Okkoto, who were both part of the battle are nowhere to be found, though one of the wolves is. Ashitaka, though opposed by the hunters there, is aided by the villagers when he tells them of the attack on Iron Town and his intent to inform Eboshi. He frees the wolf and then tries to find San and Okkoto who are being followed by more of Jigo's hunters, and have disguised themselves in boar skins. Okkoto is already beginning to transform into a demon just as Nago did, and San is trying to get him to the Forest Spirit to avoid that fate, but instead is hit by one of the hunter's projectiles and ends up up trapped on Okkoto's head and in danger of becoming a demon herself.

Though Ashitaka is able to warn her, Eboshi continues with her mission to acquire the Forest Spirit's head while he moves on ahead and tries to save San. With help from Moro, who attacks Okkoto, he is able to free San, but just then the Forest Spirit arrives only to breathe upon Okkoto, which this time ends his his life rather than saving it as was the case with Ashitaka. Moro appears to fall dead as well. As the forest spirit begins to transform to into The Nightwalker, Eboshi fires upon it, beheading it for Jigo who grabs the head and takes it in a large iron box with some of his men. The Forest Spirit's body oozes every direction, sucking the life out of everything it touches. For those familiar with Nausicca, this and the offensive with the boars form this movie's daikaisho moments. Moro, we suddenly see, was not actually dead but simply fallen over, and just how intense her hatred for Eboshi was becomes apparent when we see her head make a final leap for the woman only to take her off her arm.
San screams and curses at Ashitaka when he refuses to allow her to kill Eboshi, but in the end the two have no choice but to work together to stop Jigo and return the head to the Forest Spirit. The forest is dying all around them, and the kodama fall lifeless from the trees. A long chase ensues, where Ashitaka is able to warn the villagers of Iron Town to abandon it, Asano's men are devestated by the ooze, and finally the two heroes catch up with Jigo to retrieve the head and return it just as the sunrises.We've seen what happens before when the Forest Spirit changes form in the forest at daybreak, and it is followed by very strong gusts of wind blowing the treetops in all directions. This time the gusts are violent beyond belief and eradicate Iron Town because of the Forest Spirit's proximity to it. In the aftermath of it all, fresh grass, shoots, and flowers bloom from the dead vegetation covering the land. Looking at the villagers again we see that one of the lepers has been cured. Ashitaka's arm still bears faint marks from the scars of his curse though it isn't made clear if it is still active or not. Eboshi shows a quiet expression of regret even as she announces her intent to rebuild Iron Town but do a better job of it than she did the first time, while Ashitaka and San share a final conversation. Unable to live as a human she'll return to the forest with the wolves, while Ashitaka tells her he'll live in Iron Town but continue to visit her. The final shot in the film is of a solitary kodama materializing to look over some newly bloomed flowers hinting at the possibility of rebirth and healing after the destruction which just proceeded.

* * *

Man vs Nature

As mentioned before, the movie functions on two different level, one of which is a representation of the Man vs Nature conflict. The entire work could in many ways be seen as a very long extended metaphor which literally asks: What if nature had an army to do battle with the humans? Nature's army in this case is much more primal and at the same time more primitive than that of Man's. We see that Nature can be elegant and graceful (as is the case with the wolves) though also more brute and angry but clumsy (in this case the boars).

Nature can be kind and simple but also simply harsh and unforgiving. It has a balance of sorts and death is seen as part of a process which gives rise to new life by providing new chances and opportunities for others to live. One aspect of the Forest Spirit which demonstrates this is the way it takes life away even as it gives it back in the same breath. Plants bloom rapidly beneath its feet only to the grow old, wilt and die before the Spirit even lifts its foot: life and death in every step it takes.
The aspects of nature and the forest itself are personified (if you can call it that) by giving speech to the animals so we can hear its thoughts (its pain, its anger, its sadness and fear). The Forest Spirit itself, however, doesn't speak, almost as if to give the most powerful and mythic creature an air of mystery. Neither we nor the humans on screen or even the other gods of the wolf and boar clans can understand it or its ways.

While the main theme of conflict is Man vs Nature, the movie doesn't limit itself to that theme alone either. It does also show us the cruelty and selfishness of man (particularly through the opportunistic lord Asano and the tracker Jiko). In short, the ugliness of human nature is also on display.

What the movie understands and demonstrates so well is that our state of existence hangs upon a fragile symmetry between Man and Nature. We humans reshape the world we inhabit at will, and at times we (like the people of Iron Town in the film) dig out the very foundations that it is all built upon, treating the world like a commodity to be mined and used up, and ultimately leaving ourselves with no out when it's all done.


As a Story of Folklore and Ancient Fantasy

At the same time, Princess Mononoke is also a mythical story which recreates elements of an archaic Japan and mixes in magical elements of its own invention to weave its story.

One element that adds much to the mythological feel is that the giant creatures within it are actually referred to as "gods". Looking back at many of the ancient societies we have abundant information on, we can see that one concept common to many is that their gods were modeled after nature and beasts i.e. The god of the sun, The god of the sky, The god of the forest... The gods of this film also resemble more the ancient ones, like those in the stories of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and Mesopotamians, before our "modern day" concepts of monotheism emerged (that being the one about there being only one, true, all-powerful, infallible, all-caring god who seldom interferes and generally does so indirectly). The gods of this film are at times angry, wanton and cruel, and at times cannot be negotiated with.

The human characters represent of the film too, represent the different aspects of humans today towards Nature, and while this does in some ways overlap the Man vs Nature argument, I thought it best to include it in the story telling analysis.

Ashitaka and his tribe (the Emishi) are based on a real group of people who lived in the northern part of Honshu. Not much is known about the Emishi, but it is believed they had ties and similarities to the Ainu (the original inhabitants of Japan), and such influences are very apparent in this film's recreating of the Emishi.

As portrayed in the movie, there are a lot of Ainu-styles in the group, for example, the cut and patterns of their kimonos, the stone arrowheads, and clay fired pottery they use. The real Ainu were eventually forced further and further north until Hokkaido became something of a last frontier for the "Japanese pioneers" if you will. Japanese history in this way mirrors colonial america but in this version, the Ainu were nearly completely absorbed or killed off unlike the Native Americans, some of whom managed to survive with both their genes and culture intact.

The real Emishi were believed to have been something of a mix between the modern day (asian) Japanese and the Ainu. They survived the onslaught of the encroaching Samurai fiefdoms by fighting them back and managed to stymie them for a while because their style of fighting was different. The warriors of that time tended to be heavily armored foot soldiers, and the Emishi were good at firing arrows on horseback allowing them to pull off some very daring surprise attacks, ravage their enemies and then retreat faster than they could be pursued. Eventually their enemies adapted and many Emishi either joined their former foes or were wiped out in the years following. Ashitaka fights in a very similar way (mostly bow and arrow, though he rides Yakul rather than a horse). He also uses a blade very different than the katana which were specialized for war. His looks a bit like a machete and was probably used as a tool as well as fighting.

Above: Pictures from the film of Ashitaka's tribe

Below: Actual photos of Ainu

It is very telling and symbolic of Miyazaki to chose this group of people for Ashitaka's origin. Perhaps it reflects a belief that the old and new ways must coexist: respect and harmony with nature while at the same time a willingness to harness it and acceptance that doing so helps save more lives and improves them. In our story, Ashitaka cares about the forest and wants to save it but also loves human beings and has no desire to see them suffer either.

The Lady Eboshi on the other hand, is very driven and "doesn't even fear the gods" to use the words of other characters in the story. She'd be the villain in another, simpler movie, but is in this one presented as a real but complex and flawed character. She cares for her people and is kind to them as shown by the way she takes in brothel girls and gives them a better life. But she is is also completely merciless to those she feels will try to hurt them as we can see by her dealings with the ambitious Asano clan that lives nearby.

Eboshi is willing to destroy things that are irreplaceable in order to advance her goals, for example her attempts to kill the Forest Spirit. She is also very mistrustful of men, and she looks out first for the women under her care. It would seem that perhaps in the past she has had some sort of experience or other to make her lose faith in the opposite sex, and at the time the story takes place, men would've had much more power and sway in the hierarchy of society. Eboshi seems very aware that the world is unfair (especially towards women) and is willing to go to greater extremes to be the one taking advantage of others rather than the other way around.

The Princess Mononoke of the title, San, however, I suppose one could say is the tree hugging hippie of the group if ever there was one. Her desire to kill Eboshi and destroy the ironworks has shades of the kind of eco-terrorism that is sometimes practiced today (sabotaging plants and drilling stations, putting one's own life and that of others in danger to do so).

She is a complex figure because she is human but sympathizes with and behaves like an animal. As mentioned before, her movements, actions, the way she fights are all have a wild an uncivilized manner to them. Ashitaka tries to appeal to her human side to quell her fury at a few points in the tale; he tells her she's beautiful to disarm her when when she has a knife to his throat, and later, after Eboshi is dismembered, he defends the woman from her and when in the heat of passion she says she hates all humans, he replies "But I'm human, and so are you..."

In the end, San cannot be "turned" or made to change sides. There is no love story between her and Ashitaka (not one that is completed onscreen in the time we see them at least) because doing so would have been a false sort of cop out when examining the true nature of the characters created and their motivations.

The supporting cast of the film also fit familiar roles: Gonza, as the bodyguard who defends Eboshi unconditionally and poses an obstacle to anyone who disagrees with her; Kouroku and his wife Toki as the bumbling and reliable sidekicks, respectively; and finally, Jigo, who in addition to some providing comic relief, also proves to be a very cunning and dangerous adversary when the situation arises.

The ending to the film is left somewhat open to question; to an extent we're left wondering: "What exactly happened at the end? Did the forest spirit survive or die? And what does the future hold with so many of the gods dead and iron town destroyed?"

It is likely that the warlord Asano would try and retaliate on Eboshi for all her slights against him and rebelliousness, but then it also appears he has suffered severe military losses after the flood of Forest Spirit's body washes over his army in waves of widespread death. It is also likely his men would return in shame telling wild stories of what happened that would scare others from approaching Eboshi for some time.

Iron Town would likely be rebuilt though it would take much time to regain what was lost, and it is unlikely the villagers and Eboshi would be so bold or brash this time round.

The forest would recover, as is shown by the final shots of the film, but with the protection of the spirits dwindling down it would be far more vulnerable too. An age of Man's dominance is a trend that began long ago and continues through the events of this film, even to the people of today. In the end, there are no spirits and gods to defend Nature from our hands, it is only our own judgement and restraint that keeps the world we live in healthy and sustainable into the unknown of the future.


Final Thoughts

If there's one common thread throughout all of Miyazaki's work (with the exception of Lupin the 3rd, Cagliostro, which also wasn't a character originally designed by him) it's that he's used the same composer, Joe Hisaishi, who in many ways resembles a Japanese John Williams or James Horner and is known for very sweeping, classical, symphonic scores. In Mononoke, his score is superb, even when compared to his others, and the main theme is immediately recognizable in Japan.

The movie itself has a lot of stylistic elements in common with other Miyazaki works, but then, so do many of his others. Ashitaka's traveling cloak and those of the hunters are very similar to some of the forest cloaks in Nausicaa. The fox cats (not sure if they're really called this) appear in both Nausicaa and Laputa which also had similar technology, the Forest Spirit looks very similar to the shadow form of the emperor's younger brother in Nausicaa. Nausicaa itself, along with The Journey of Shuna share the most similarities to this work, Nausicaa shares the theme of environmental destruction (though believe it or not takes the metaphor to an even greater extreme), and Yakul the red elk appears in Shuna as well. At times it feels like all of Miyazaki's stories take place in the same universe just at very different times.

The first time I saw this film, I drove over three hours out of my hometown when it appeared it would not be playing there. I saw it in a place unfamiliar to me, an artsy theater in LA near Santa Monica. I was surprised at just how many families had come; there were many children in attendance. While the movie does have some blood and violence, and there were occasional gasps of surprise from the audience, there was never any screaming or crying or signs of horror or discomfort to give any indication of it being inappropriate for kids. Instead there was a lot of excitement and surprise, an atmosphere of joy and wonder at what was unfolding onscreen. I remember thinking to myself how great it was that parents would take their children to see something like this which aside from being great for the spread of anime (at the time it was very rare for anime to play in theaters in the US), it was also that what was being watched was not just mindless entertainment but truly thought-provoking, inspirational material that could change and influence a person for the better, especially if viewed from a young age. As for my own thoughts on the film, I remember loving the experience of it so much that I actually wanted to see it again before finishing it the first time. It is without a doubt a film that gets better on repeat viewings, allowing one to see things they didn't notice the first time and appreciate the craftsmanship. It is a film that can change you by watching it, and live with you long after the screen dims.