Empire List # 488: Mononoke Hime
This movie was an event between friends. In the autumn of 2007, I took a lecture course at Sherbrooke University and one issue was writing a persuasive speech. My friends and fellow filmmates Derek Godin wrote a speech about why Sherbrooke should have a movie theater to play movie theater. As it never happened in real life, Derek decided to book a student lounge's Reck Room every Friday evening and open his artist. So we will play two movies from 7 pm to 11 pm. He called it from OMASUS (Sherbrooke University film critic) and since 2008 he played a movie from his own large collection.
It did not always work, there were obstacles such as a missing DVD cable, a lack of key in the projection room, a party next to it, and so on. However, at the club of Derek, I could not see a lot of movies I had never heard before, and movies that I could not find on DVD. What I have heard but have not been seen is Hayao Miyazaki's "Mononoke of the Princess" and Miyazaki's classic "Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind" that I saw in autumn 2009.
Miyazaki is known as Walt Disney in Japan who loves nature and is posted on "Princess Mononoke". Speaking animals, warrior girls, prince, beautiful forests and landscapes, unlike today's animated movies are beautifully hand-painted and loyal to computer animation. However, there are also amazing violence compared to Disney movies. When characters fight, many of them die cruelly from time to time. Also, since all the characters have a reasonable motivation for their actions, there is no definite evil person.
The story begins when Ashitani (English version of Billy Cradop) fights against the village's huge boar. Wild Boars are covered with something like a black swell covering the majority of the body, which makes little use of movie computer animation. Ashitaka kills beasts, but in the process they are cursed. A wise woman in the village will tell him that the curse will eventually spread to the whole body and kill him. His only hope is to find the place where the wild boar is, find it cursed, probably find a cure.
Ashitaka's journey takes the villagers to a mountain town called Iron Town, where the villagers make charcoal and are cleaning the forest to melt the iron sand. Human girls raised by the wolves of wolf Moro (Gillian Anderson), Wolakatki (Keith David), Sun (Claire and Danes) by exploiting the land. As you can see, the ashigara curse is the result of these fights. When the leader of Iron Town, Lady Eboshi (Minnie Driver) shot the god of the forest, it was angryly cursed, eventually reaching Ashitaka.
Here is a clear environmental message. As mankind uses nature, unpredictable results will arise. But can you really blame Miss Eboshi again? All she wants is that her town is prosperous. It does not seem that she is forced to whip a worker and to mineralize the ore. It's work for all of them.
For the God of the Sun and the Forest it is quite simple: since humans are destroying the forest, they have to fight. Poor Ashitaka is an unhappy player just stuck in a much bigger game. Indeed, there are several subplots that make it extremely attractive to viewers. While the battle between Iron Town and the forest gods is collapsing, other manpower wants to rule the town with power. There is also a spirit of powerful forest that Mrs. Ebosi wants to kill to end the war. A mercenary called Hell (Billy Bob Thornton) is seeking the spirit of the forest, but collects the head and hands it to the Japanese emperor.
As Forest Spirit removes overhead shots, the body of Spirit turns into a huge big cock and everything is killed, so the best sequence in the movie starts. This sequence was almost impossible to create for a lively movie, but it will take several months to animate and consider the damage caused by it.
Derek likes to watch movies in the original language as I did, so I saw the original Japanese subtitles in English subtitles. It may bother some people, but true movie fans tell you.
This is obviously not a cinema-less well-known movie, but definitely it should be an artist. Tone is darker than American animated movies and it does not have a definite happy ending. The plot is dense, each character has its own motivation, and it is a beautiful animation compared to today's technology.
It misses Friday night with my fellow movie fans.
