Seeing with eyes unclouded by hate.
Studio Ghibli has been a dominating creative force in the
world of animated feature films since its first feature production - “Nausicaa
of the Valley of the Wind”*. This is not only because of the quality of
animation, which is always superb and primarily hand animated, but also because
of truly admirable storytelling sensibilities. The only studio to come along
and challenge Studio Ghibli’s creative output is Pixar. But considering Pixar’s
last few projects they seem to be having a bit of trouble to keep up lately, which can
probably be attributed to the fact that their major creative talents have
started snooping around in other disciplines of filmmaking**.
But the main reason for this consistency is certainly the creative backbone
of the Japanese animation giant, Hayao Miyazaki, who signed the directing
credits on almost half of Ghibli’s films. Even in the Ghibli catalog his
films stand out as the studio’s finest and most successful outings, making them
easily some of the best animated films ever made.
“Princess Mononoke” is one of these films and it is the
movie that opened the studio's door wide open for non-Japanese audiences, and with that paved the way for the smashing success of “Spirited Away”, both on the
global box office and the global critical and awards stage. And while “Spirited
Away” certainly deserves all the success and accolades it got, I can’t help but
admire “Princess Mononoke” just a tiny bit more as a film.
A big reason for that is just the basic construction of the film and the universality of the narrative it presents. Superficially it’s a familiar tale that follows a hero caught between two conflicting factions. But first of all, holy sh*t what a hero!
Our hero, Ashitaka, is not only
a figure of objective purity and courage, but he is also a cursed man that is taking
a clear step forward towards his death with every heroic deed he performs. This
is cinematically presented by the constantly spreading wound on his arm, which
also gives him superhuman abilities. This makes the viewing of these heroics he
performs throughout the film both an exhilarating and completely gut-wrenching
experience.
The reason why this is so emotionally affecting lies in the design of Ashitaka as a character. Apart from being the moral core and the conscience of the film, he is also purposefully designed to be a
blank faced ideal. This gives him unparalleled power over the audience since it is extremely easy for an audience member to see Ashitaka as his direct
avatar on the screen. Turning the anguish of Ashitaka in to the anguish of the
viewer.
And that effect is further enhanced by the two mentioned factions that
Ashitaka finds himself between. On one side we have humanity, civilization,
community and technology, represented by a small mining enclave populated by outcasts. And on the other the beauty and magic of nature, and even
potential love represented by a girl, San, and her adopted family that's basically made of three giant wolves. Both representing a different set of admirable ideals, that are forcing him to pick. Wisely he never actually does pick and instead decides to do his utmost to stop the bloodshed, which makes both sides suspicious of his motives, to say the least.
The giant wolves and San are the guardians of the forest which is endangered by the enclave's mining operation. But in these woods also lives an enigmatic forest spirit. The concept of this spirit is an intriguing one as well, because throughout the film he is represented as both life and death and strolls the woods with almost joyful indifference. He is nature incarnate.
There is a clear environmental theme here, but Miyazaki does
not simplify the issue in his film and does not preach blind environmentalist
dogma. Instead his message is the one of balance as he shows us violent and
irrational forces at work both in the forest and in the hearts of men.
“Princess Mononoke” is one of the best action adventure
epics ever made. Animated or otherwise. The mythology it weaves and the world it
portrays is one of the most alluring fictional settings I know of, presented in gloriously detailed
hand drawn animation. For me personally it is the film that cemented Hayao Miyazaki’s
status as one of the greatest filmmakers of today.
-
-
* While “Nausicaa” is technically not the first Studio Ghibli
film (that would be “Laputa: Castle in the Sky”), it is the film that directly
led to the creation of the studio, and it is commonly considered a
Studio Ghibli film.
** Brad Bird (“Ratatouille”, “The Incredibles”) and Andrew Stanton (“Finding Nemo”, “Wall-E”) both tried their hands at live action filmmaking recently, with somewhat mixed results. While the Pixar head honcho John Lasetter is more engaged with his numerous duties at Disney; Pixar’s parent company.
Original title: Mononoke-hime
Cast (English dub):
Billy Crudup - Ahitaka
Claire Danes - San
Billy Bob Thornton - Jigo
Minnie Driver - Lady Eboshi
Gillian Anderson - Moro
Original language: Japanese
Princess Mononoke on IMDb
No comments:
Post a Comment