Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, perhaps best known for his work with Studio Ghibli, has gained popularity around the world for his creative and imaginative animated feature films. While they were originally released in Japanese, all of them have been dubbed into English with prominent voice actors and Hollywood stars. For the next several weeks, I’ll be reviewing the English-dub versions of each of Miyazaki’s 11 films as writer and director.

Last week, I tackled My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989).

This week: Princess Mononoke (1997)

Synopsis: While trying to protect his village from a demon, Prince Ashitaka (voiced by Billy Crudup) is cursed by the demon and subsequently banished from his village. He journeys to the west and eventually gets caught up in ongoing conflict between the people of a settlement called Iron Town and the nearby gods and spirits of the forest.

Spoiler-free review: As I said on the podcast episode, I think this is Miyazaki’s best film to date. For me, it’s right up there with Spirited Away in terms of overall quality, and I really think it’s a matter of personal preference on which is the better of the two. While Spirited Away is more family friendly and has a more intimate scale to its story (Chihiro and her personal struggle), Princess Mononoke is darker and more brutal and feels like a grand and epic tale, like Journey to the West or something similar. There are so many aspects that this movie packs into it — environmental, political and spiritual — much like how Nausicaä does, and it can be a heavy movie to get through. Something I didn’t mention in my review on the podcast is the film’s length, which is 2 hours, 15 minutes. At times, it does feel kind of long, and it seems like more of a chore to watch it than Miyazaki’s lighter films like Porco Rosso, Howl’s Moving Castle or Kiki’s Delivery Service. But, of course, that’s looking at it on the Miyazaki curve. Anyway, the voice cast is talented for the most part. There are one or two actors/character that I have a problem with. (cough, Billy Bob Thornton, cough). But, overall, the animation is stunning; the character designs are memorable and sometimes haunting (in a good way); the music is tremendous; and the story and characters are engaging. It’s just such an experience, and I really enjoyed seeing it on the big screen last year during Studio Ghibli Fest. (So much so that I bought it on BluRay.) Really, while I have a few small issues with the movie, they pale in comparison to what Princess Mononoke brings to the table as an entry in Miyazaki’s and Studio Ghibli’s filmography, as an animated movie, and as a film in general. If you haven’t seen it, you NEED to check it out. And don’t read the section below, because it will get into major spoilers!!

Letter grade: A

Full review and critique: (Warning: here be spoilers!)

Since I went into so much detail about the music, the character designs and other aspects of the film on the podcast episode, I want to focus a little more on the story and how it conveys the characters’ perspectives in such a unique and compelling way.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD! DON’T READ UNLESS YOU’VE SEEN THE MOVIE!

One thing that absolutely blows me away about this film is how well it balances the conflict of man versus nature. It could so easily have gone the route of Ferngully or Avatar, where it comes across as “man, bad; nature, good.” But, that’s not the case here. And, I think the reason is because of the first perspective we’re given (Ashitaka’s) and how he comes to meet everyone else over the course of the story.

For the most part, Ashitaka is an independent observer. Yes, he gets involved. Yes, he has feelings for San. But, he only gets involved because he wants the two sides to live in peace; and while he definitely cares for San, he also cares about the people of Iron Town.

Remember, he was specifically sent on this mission “to see with eyes unclouded by hate.” He has every right to be angry with either or both sides, as each is partially responsible for the curse on his arm. The Iron Town people shot the boar god, but the boar god’s own choices turned him into a demon and made him attack Ashitaka’s village. But, despite having reason to hate the people AND the gods, Ashitaka is respectful toward and helps both sides.

Even when Lady Eboshi and Jigo conspire to and actually cut off the head of the Great Forest Spirit, Ashitaka doesn’t let them get away with it, but he also doesn’t condemn them for it either. He simply wants it to be restored to the Nightwalker’s body, so that Nature is not thrown out of balance, which would hurt both the humans and the spirits. And, Ashitaka, even after seeing all the destruction that this greedy act has done, also sees its good (the lepers being healed, etc.); and rather than deciding to live with San and the gods in the forest, he goes off to live in Iron Town.

Similarly, the actions of both Moro’s group and Lady Eboshi’s are given complexity, again not fully demonizing or celebrating either.

Moro is simply trying to protect the forest, which is her literal reason for existence. As a god of the forest, she is responsible for all that happens to it. So, of course, when humans disrespect and abuse the land, she’s going to fight back. And, it’s not that she’s without pity or compassion. The fact that she adopted San and raised her as her own daughter shows that she cares for all life, even humans, albeit to a lesser degree. Or, at the very least, she was able to recognize San’s innocence of her parent’s crimes. Her parents paid for their selfishness and disrespect, leaving San orphaned. Moro could’ve taken a kind of twisted pity on San by deciding that it would be better for her to die quickly than try to survive without parents and probably starve. Or I suppose she also could’ve tried to leave her with a human village, a la The Jungle Book. But, instead Moro decides to do the right but much more difficult thing of raising San as her own.

But, on the other hand, Moro very easily could’ve been written as some benevolent forest god who simply didn’t understand why humans had to be so greedy and destructive, like so many other “man-versus-nature” movies before it. No, Moro is very harsh, abrupt and almost vindictive. Despite Ashitaka specifically NOT being from Iron Town or participating in the conflict against the forest gods — in fact, he’s very respectful of them — Moro still threatens Ashitaka. This could be for a number of reasons. Maybe she doesn’t like how much he cares about San and San cares about him; maybe she used to be more neutral toward humans when she chose to raise San, but grew more hateful toward the entire species once the conflict with Iron Town started; or maybe it’s some combination of multiple things. But, in any case, Moro is by no means a saintly figure, and that’s good.

Likewise, her counterpart, Lady Eboshi, is also given a great deal of time so that the audience understands her motivations and complex personality. While Moro cares only about the forest and not at all about the humans, Eboshi is the exact opposite where she seems to care mostly about her people and not at all about the forest. Yes, she definitely has an ambitious side to her, but I think it’s an ambitious side with a motive. She wants to help the people in her care. She recognizes the dignity of the lepers and wants to ensure they feel respected and have a purpose, despite their ailment. She wants to give the women in the area something better to do with their lives than be prostitutes – a goal, a purpose. And, certainly, those purposes meet her end of producing more and better iron and weapons, but she’s still doing it.

And yet, Eboshi is ambitious and disrespectful. While many of Jigo’s men are hesitant to kill the Great Forest Spirit, for fear of spiritual and/or physical retribution, Eboshi doesn’t care. Despite being a great leader, she can also be very selfish. Even when Ashitaka tells her about Iron Town being attacked by the samurai, she doesn’t seem to care what happens to her people. Despite knowing how much faith all of them have in her, she leaves them to their fate because going back would interfere with her own ambitions.

At their cores, both Moro and Eboshi are mothers, in a sense, each looking out for their own family, their own pack, their own community. And, unfortunately, that has put them into competition with each other.

Now, while Moro can’t help defending the forest, because again it’s literally in her nature to do so, Eboshi absolutely can lead a life that doesn’t hurt the forest. But, Eboshi and her group make it clear to Ashitaka and the audience that their settlement and production has given them a quality of life that they likely wouldn’t have had otherwise. The women are able to work in Iron Town rather than the brothels, and even lepers have some work that they can do. It’s also given them good quality weapons for when the samurai attack. Eboshi asks that the weapons be light enough that even the women can fire them and take care of themselves. In a way, the settlement has empowered all these people who — in that era — would’ve been powerless or considered culturally ‘weak’ otherwise. Iron Town gives them a fighting chance, so to speak.

I think that, perhaps, what the film is addressing here is the conflict between technological advancement and environmental impacts. This is an issue that I hear about a great deal in my professional life. So much of our every lives depend on infrastructure, amenities and utilities that depend on and impact our natural resources. The computer I’m writing this blog post on didn’t just appear out of thin air. The plastic, the wires, the computer chips… all of those components came from somewhere — mined, refined, manufactured, or whatever. The roads I used to drive to and from work today were all built along major wildlife corridors. The water I’m drinking right now probably came from a river or lake that was dammed for that purpose, disrupting the natural flow. Almost everything we do in our modern day has some sort of environmental impact. It would be hard to find something that doesn’t. Even farming has an effect on the flora, fauna, the soil, etc.

But, of course, we have to eat. We have to drink. We have to have shelter. Even the internet is now becoming a basic amenity that all people are expected to have access to, in the same way that everyone is expected to have electricity or running water. And, of course, all of that has to come from somewhere.

Still, that doesn’t mean that we humans can ride roughshod over everything (although some people would argue we’re doing that already). We should be conscientious about how our infrastructure, amenities and so forth impacts the environment; and, for the most part, I think we are. I hear all the time about projects having to complete an environmental report or analysis to ensure that the impacts are as minimal as possible, or are mitigated as best as can be. No highway, housing subdivision, or water treatment plant can be built in this country without something like that being done.

Anyway, this is all a VERY long way of saying that improving our quality of life, particularly through technological advancement, likely will always be coupled with some kind of impact on nature. When, how and to what degree, though, is a discussion that we need to have at every level government. But, the point is, I think it’s fair that Ashitaka doesn’t condemn the people of Iron Town, but simply wants them to find a way for them to do it in balance with nature.

And, I think that’s our real takeaway from this movie: to see both sides; to be as objective as possible; to not rush to accept or condemn anything or anyone new; and to do things in a way that all — or as many as possible — can prosper.

Next week: Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) — our last one of the series!