Princess Mononoke English Version

[Earleen Muffley]

PrincessMononoke (Japanese: もののけ姫, Hepburn: Mononoke-hime) is a 1997 Japanese animated epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network and Dentsu. The film stars the voices of Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yūko Tanaka, Kaoru Kobayashi, Masahiko Nishimura, Tsunehiko Kamijo, Akihiro Miwa, Mitsuko Mori, and Hisaya Morishige. Set in the late Muromachi period of Japan (approximately 1336 to 1573 AD) and includes fantasy elements, the story follows a young Emishi prince named Ashitaka, and his involvement in a struggle between the gods (kami) of a forest and the humans who consume its resources. The film deals with themes of Shinto and environmentalism.

Princess Mononoke was released in Japan on July 12, 1997, by Toho, and in the United States on October 29, 1999. A critical and commercial success, the film became the highest-grossing film in Japan of 1997, and also held Japan's box office record for domestic films until 2001's Spirited Away, another Miyazaki film. It was dubbed into English with a script by Neil Gaiman and initially distributed in North America by Miramax, where it sold well on home media despite not performing strongly at the box office.[2] The film greatly increased Ghibli's popularity and influence outside Japan.[3][4]

In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a hideous demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but it grasps his arm and curses him before its death. The curse grants him superhuman strength, but it also causes him pain and will eventually kill him. The villagers discover that the demon was a boar god, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. The village's wise woman (Hī-sama) tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands that the demon came from, and that he cannot return to his homeland.

Heading west, Ashitaka meets Jigo, an opportunistic monk who tells Ashitaka he may find help from the Great Forest Spirit, a deer-like animal god by day and a giant Nightwalker by night. Nearby, men on a cliffside herd oxen to their home of Iron Town, led by Lady Eboshi, and repel an attack by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro, whom Eboshi wounds with a gun shot. Riding one of the wolves is San, a human girl. Down below, Ashitaka encounters San and the wolves, who rebuff his greeting. He then rescues two of the men fallen from the cliff and transports them back through the forest, where he briefly glimpses the Great Forest Spirit.

Ashitaka and the survivors arrive at Iron Town, where he is greeted with fascination. Iron Town is a refuge for outcasts and lepers employed to process iron and create firearms, such as hand cannons and matchlock muskets. Ashitaka learns that the town was built by clearcutting forests to mine the iron, leading to conflicts with Asano, a daimyō (kanrei[5]), and a giant boar god named Nago. Eboshi admits that she shot Nago, incidentally turning him into the demon that attacked Ashitaka's village. She also reveals that San, dubbed Princess Mononoke, was raised by the wolves and hates humankind.

San infiltrates Iron Town and fights Eboshi, but Ashitaka intervenes and subdues them both. Amidst the hysteria a villager shoots him, but the curse gives him strength to carry San out of the village. San wakes and tries killing the weakened Ashitaka, but hesitates when he compliments her beauty. She decides to trust him after the Forest Spirit heals his bullet wound that night. The next day, a boar clan led by the blind god Okkoto plans to attack Iron Town to save the forest. Eboshi sets out to kill the Forest Spirit with Jigo. Eboshi intends to give the god's head to the Emperor (who believes it will grant him immortality) in return for protection from Asano, while Jigo desires the large reward being offered.

Ashitaka recovers and finds Iron Town besieged by Asano's samurai and jizamurai.[5] The boar clan has been annihilated in battle, and Okkoto is badly wounded. Jigo's men trick Okkoto into leading them to the Forest Spirit. San tries stopping Okkoto but is swept up as his pain corrupts him into a demon. As everyone clashes at the pool of the Forest Spirit, Ashitaka rescues San while the Forest Spirit euthanizes Moro and Okkoto. As it begins to transform into the Night Walker Eboshi decapitates it. Jigo steals the head, while the Forest Spirit's body bleeds ooze that spreads over the land and kills anything it touches. The forest and its spirits begin to die. Moro's head briefly comes alive and bites off Eboshi's right arm, but she survives. An enraged San tries killing Eboshi, but is stopped by Ashitaka, who consoles her and encourages her not to give up.

After Iron Town is evacuated, Ashitaka and San pursue Jigo and retrieve the head, returning it to the Forest Spirit. The Spirit dies but its form washes over the land, healing it and lifting Ashitaka's curse. Ashitaka stays to help rebuild Iron Town, but promises San he will visit her in the forest. Eboshi vows to build a better town and the forest begins to regrow.

Miyazaki composed the preliminary ideas for what would become Princess Mononoke shortly after the release of his first film The Castle of Cagliostro (1979),[8] drawing sketches of a princess living in the woods with a beast.[9] After unsuccessfully proposing the project to several production companies, Miyazaki published his concepts in a 1983 book,[10] republished in 2014 as Princess Mononoke: The First Story.[11] While being set in Japan, the concept had strong similarities to the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" (1740). According to film scholar Rayna Denison, the differences that can be discerned between the original idea and the final film demonstrate the radical change of Miyazaki's filmmaking philosophies.[8] Upon the completion of his manga series Nausica of the Valley of the Wind (1994), Miyazaki began work on the project proposal for the film in April 1994.[12] However, encountering writer's block in December of that year, he decided to take a break from the production and direct the short film On Your Mark (1995) as a side project.[13] Miyazaki returned to the film and began working on the storyboards in April 1995.[14]

To achieve the environmental depiction that he was seeking to portray, Miyazaki and four art directors visited the island of Yakushima in May 1995.[15] Additionally, art director Kazuo Oga went to the Shirakami-Sanchi mountains, which had already inspired some environments in Nausica of the Valley of the Wind.[16]

Miyazaki did not want to create an accurate history of Medieval Japan, and wanted to "portray the very beginnings of the seemingly insoluble conflict between the natural world and modern industrial civilization." Despite being set during the Muromachi period, the actual time period of Princess Mononoke depicts a "symbolic neverwhen clash of three proto-Japanese races (the Jomon, Yamato and Emishi)."[17]

Two titles were originally considered for the film. One, ultimately chosen, has been translated into English as Princess Mononoke. The other title can be translated into English as The Legend of Ashitaka (アシタカ?記, Ashitaka Sekki), and it contains an uncommon kanji ? that represents "a legend passed down from ear to ear without being recorded in official history", according to Miyazaki. In a Tokyo Broadcasting System program, televised on November 26, 2013, Toshio Suzuki mentioned that Miyazaki had preferred The Legend of Ashitaka as the title while Suzuki himself favored Princess Mononoke, though the former title was eventually reused for the first song on the soundtrack.[18]

Princess Mononoke was produced with a budget of 2.35 billion (US$19.6 million; US$36.6 million in 2023), making it the most expensive Japanese animation at the time.[19] The film used 144,000 cels, 80,000 of them being key animation frames, more than any other Studio Ghibli film.[20] Miyazaki is estimated to have drawn or retouched nearly 80,000 cels himself.[21] The animation production commenced in July 1995.[14] The final storyboards were finished in June 1997.[14]

Studio Ghibli's computer graphics department was created in 1995 following the experimental use of digital techniques on Pom Poko (1994).[23] For the production of Princess Mononoke, the studio worked with Microsoft to develop the "Toon Shader" tool, which was used to blend the various digitally generated images with the hand-drawn animation in the rest of the film.[24] The decision to use computer graphics was made early in the production at Miyazaki's request, starting with the opening sequence of the demon god.[25] A variety of techniques were eventually used in the animation process: digital ink and paint, used to color the frames; 3D rendering and digital compositing, which put the hand-drawn images in a three-dimensional environment to create more visual depth; and morphing and particle effects, which create additional detail and smoother transitions.[26] Approximately five minutes of the film were animated entirely using digital processes. A further ten minutes use digital ink and paint, a technique used in all subsequent Studio Ghibli films.[27]

The film centers on the adventure of Ashitaka as he journeys to the west to undo a fatal curse inflicted upon him by Nago, a boar turned into a demon by Eboshi.[28] Michelle J. Smith and Elizabeth Parsons said that the film "makes heroes of outsiders in all identity politics categories and blurs the stereotypes that usually define such characters". In the case of the deer god's destruction of the forest and Tataraba, Smith and Parsons said that the "supernatural forces of destruction are unleashed by humans greedily consuming natural resources".[29] They also characterized Eboshi as a businesswoman who has a desire to make money at the expense of the forest, and also cite Eboshi's intention to destroy the forest to mine the mountain "embodies environmentalist evil".[28] Deidre M. Pike writes that San is simultaneously part of nature and part of the problem. She represents the connection between the environment and humans, but also demonstrates that there is an imbalance in power between the two.[30]

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