Negative review for “Princess Mononoke”
Ren Ke
Though Princess Mononoke is extremely successful there is still something to improve in
the film. In this review I will talk about three negative aspects from the voice acting,
personality for Ashitaka and the beginning of the film.
Film synopsis
The story begins in a small town which is located in the north. People who live in a
peaceful life there until one day a demon comes from the west forest to attack the town.
A young man named Ashitaka prevents the demon immediately from invading the town.
However, he is wounded by poisons from the demon during the fight. The only way to
save his life is to find the forest spirit in west forest. Therefore, he starts his journey to the
west. During the journey he saves two men who come from the west. Following after the
Kodama they cross a big forest which is full of mist and mysterious creatures. At last
they arrive at Irontown. Ashitaka sees something he has never seen before—the
technology in steel-making industry, and he meets San – Princess Mononoke. He also
knows there is a fight between humans and nature. Unavoidably, Ashitaka is involved in
this war even if he is a pacifist. He tried his best to prevent the war with San. Ultimately,
they give back peace to the forest.
Aspect 1—Voice Acting
The voice acting of the film is relatively unsuitable when compare to the Japanese voice
acting. Voice has the ability to show the personalities of characters. In Princess
Mononoke, English voice acting for Moro Eboshi Gozen and San,do not match with the
personalities of the characters.
Moro is the forest god. As a god she lives in the world for a long time. Thus she has seen
many wars that have happened between humans and nature. As a witness of history she is
calm and sagacious. So from her voice we should feel that an elder is talking to us. We
should feel serious but not frightened when she gives caution to us. Though she hates
humans, she tries to control herself not to hurt people who love peace (such as Ashitaka)
and tell them the truth. Thus, generally speaking Moro plays the role of a teacher. As a
god her voice should be powerful as well. However, in this film the voice acting for Moro
does not indicate the sense of safety. When I hear Moro’ s voice, I do not feel any respect
because her voice is hoarse instead of powerful. Much worse, the hoarse voice makes her
sounds like a devil rather than a god. It sounds like an old witch is talking to us.
The same as Moro’s voice, voice acting for Eboshi Gozen does not match the character
either. As a leader, she is authoritative and just. Thus her voice should be mighty and
believable. Although she is a powerful woman, and sometimes may give us stress when
she faces to her enemy, generally she is a kind woman to her people. So her voice should
also be a little bit affable when she is talking to her people. This could be a complex
voice because it needs to represent two sensations: stressful and gentle. In this film the
voice actor just shows the sense of stress by speaking in an exaggerative voice. Add with
the British accent, which makes it does not sound gentle when Ebish Gozen talking to her
people. What is worse, the voice makes her sounds unfriendly and barbaric.
San is voice acting is better than the previous characters mentioned above. However,
there is still limitation in this voice acting. San is a girl who grows up in the forest and is
brought up by wolf. Thus we should see savagery from her voice and actions. At the
same time, San is an 18-year-old girl. A young girl at this age should be brisk and puerile.
Because she is a kid of Moro, her voice is also influential but not so strong. In this film,
San’s voice is a little bit more powerful than the original voice acting in Japanese. Also,
compare to the Japanese voice acting, English voice acting is a little gruff which makes
san older than she looks. May be this is because the voice expressions are quite different
from Europe and Asia.
Aspect 2—Personality for Ashitalka
Though Ashitaka is a main character in Princess Mononke, his personalities is not as
abundant as other characters. His calmness makes him cold, and makes the relationship
between Ashitaka and San not so clear. Also, some actions of Ashitaka are on the
contrary of his personality.
Clam is a good personal property for a man. However, in the film this personality makes
the main character Ashitaka lack of attraction. He is so clam that few things can enrage
him. This makes me think he do not care about anything. Sometimes it even makes me
think that he is apathetic. When he arrives at the Irontown, people are willing to welcome
him, but Ashitaka do not give any respond to those people. He seldom smiles and when
people show their curiosity to his story he just simply answers their questions without any
facial expression. May be the director want to show his calmness in these plots, but
which make him seems like a clod and passionless man.
Because of Ashitaka’s calmness, it is hard to catch his emotion. To San, I do not know if
Ashitaka likes her or not. For saving San, he almost loses his life in the Irontown. It
seems that he loves San more than his life. However, it can not really prove that because
maybe he just treats San as a little sister or his care to San is just proceed from his
sympathize. Though he has said that “you are beautiful” after they leaving the Irontown.
It is still not clear that he loves San because at that time he is unconscious he does not
what he is talking about. At the end of the film Ashitaka says he will visit San very often.
He does not show that he has a willing to stay and live with San, which makes them more
likely friends rather than lovers.
As we know Ashitaka is a young man who is gentle and calm. Such a man should love
his family and his friends. However, when he is going to leave his village he does not
show any hesitation or reluctance. It seems he do not want to stay in his village any more.
To Kaya, Ashitaka’s sensation is too inexplicit. If I do not read the synopsis online, I
even do not know Kaya is Ashitaka’s fiancée. Clearly, the film does not express
Ashitaka’s emotion very well from this point. When Kaya gives her necklace to him, he
only says “I will never forget you” in a clam voice. This is a leaving time; at least he
should hug his fiancée. However, he just leaves that simple words and goes away. This
makes him not as gentle as he should be.
Aspect 3—the beginning of the film
Aside at the beginning of the film is redundant, break the atmosphere, induces the interest
of the audience,