PRINCESS MONONOKE

Miyazaki’s epic examines what life is and who is worthy of it.

81/100

Original Release: 1997

Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki

Starring: Yoji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yuko Tanaka

Favourite Quote:

“Life is suffering. It is hard. The world is cursed. But still, you find reasons to keep living.”

Princess Mononoke is Miyazaki’s epic. It’s a period piece set in ancient Japan with samurai, monks, princesses, wolf gods, boar gods, demons, prostitutes, lepers and a great forest spirit. 

There’s also war with blood and gore and people getting their arms chopped off or their heads chopped off. There are great battles between gods and animals and humans. 

There are curses that will slowly kill you and little creatures that roam around the forest. And the forest spirit can cure your injuries if he deems it worthy, but he can also euthanise you if he deems it worthy. 

And all around there are people and gods and animals who believe they are the ones doing the right thing. The leader of the Iron Town, Lady Eboshi (Yuko Tanaka), saves prostitutes and lepers and feeds and clothes them. But she destroys animals and the forest, as if they were nothing, so that she can continue doing what she does.

San (Yuriko Ishida), the titular Princess Mononoke, was raised by wolves after her parents abandoned her. And she has seen all that humans have done to the forest and, as a result, believes they all must die. 

And it really celebrates the idea of being alive. It is a film that makes you aware of life around you. Life in everything. And it’s a film that makes you consider what life is. What constitutes life? And what does it mean to be worthy of life?

Jigo is a monk who is trying to get the head of the great forest spirit and deliver it to the emperor. He is simply just trying to follow the orders of the person in charge of the country. 

All the characters who think they are doing the right thing, in turn, believe everyone against them are doing the wrong thing. That creates destruction and suffering and violence. And violence leads to hatred. And hatred leads to a world that cannot be healed. 

But the film, Princess Mononoke, never inspires hatred. It only inspires love. Love for all the characters and the animals and the gods and the forest. And love for the beauty of the world. 

Yet at the same time it contradicts this by inspiring hopelessness and dread for the consequences of our selfish lives. And it also demonstrates the pure evil that has seeped into the world through its unnerving imagery and relatable characters.

But for every fearful image there is one of beauty in the face of evil. There is a god who grows nature through every step. There are smiling people who have been saved. And at the centre there is a relationship between a naive boy and a girl who was raised by wolves. 

There is evident, painstaking precision to the animation of this world. Every frame could be a painting hanging in a Japanese art museum. And the music and sound design compliment each scene and each character. Some of the forest gods have booming voices, whilst others have voices which seemingly reach the ear from far away. 

It inspires imagination. Not one character, whether it be through appearance, sound or personality, is lazily written or shown. Every time someone or something comes on the screen you want to spend another thirty minutes learning about that particular character. 

And it really celebrates the idea of being alive. It is a film that makes you aware of life around you. Life in everything. And it’s a film that makes you consider what life is. What constitutes life? And what does it mean to be worthy of life?

It makes you question if humans are worthy of life.

It is a film with a plot that follows genre and structural conventions and is inspired by films you’ve probably all seen before. But it still manages to include everything listed above within these constraints. 

Princess Mononoke is a film about humankind’s relationship with ourselves, others and, most importantly, nature. And it presents characters who think they have found solutions, but are too concerned with themselves and are unable to think of the larger world around them. It is a beautiful movie.