Negative review for “Princess Mononoke”
Ren Ke
Though Princess Mononoke is extremely successful there are still some elements to
improve in the film. In this review I will talk about three negative aspects from the
beginning of the film, personality for Ashitaka and the voice acting
Film synopsis
The story begins in a small town which is located in the north. People who lives 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 3—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 a trusted 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. Her voice sounds like that of an elder, but not one
that I will respect. 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. There is something
frightening about her voice.
As with Moro’s voice, the voice acting for Eboshi Gozen does not match the character
either. To be a leader, she should be authoritative and just. Thus audiences would expect
her voice to be mighty and believable. Although she is a powerful woman, and
sometimes may intimidate us when she faces 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 should be a complex voice because it needs to represent two traits:
intimidation and gentleness. In this film the voice actor just shows the quality of
intimidation by speaking in an exaggerative voice. The addition of a British accent does
not make Eboish Gozen sound gentle when talking to her people. What is worse, the
voice makes her sound unfriendly and barbaric.
San’s voice acting is better than the voice acting of the 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 feel 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 daughter of Moro, her voice is expected to be
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, compared to the Japanese voice acting, English
voice acting is a little gruff which makes San sound older than she looks. Maybe this is
because the European and Asian voice expressions are quite different.
Aspect 2—Personality for Ashitaka
Though Ashitaka is a main character in Princess Mononke, his personality is not as
abundant as other characters’. His calmness makes him cold, and makes his relationship
with San not so clear. Also, some actions of Ashitaka are run contrary to his personality.
Calmness is a good personal property for a man. However, in the film this personality
makes the main character Ashitaka cold. He is so calm that few things can enrage him.
This makes me think he does not care about anything. In fact, sometimes it even makes
me think that he is apathetic. When he arrives at the Irontown, people welcome him, but
Ashitaka does not give any response to those people. He seldom smiles and when people
show their curiosity to his story he simply answers their questions without any facial
expression. Maybe the director wants to show Ashitaka’s calmness in these contexts, but
his calmness makes him seem like a cold and passionless man.
Because of Ashitaka’s calmness, it is hard to catch his emotion. As for San, I do not
know if Ashitaka loves her or not. In saving San, he almost loses his life in the Irontown.
It seems that he loves San more than his own life. However, saving San cannot really
prove his affection; maybe he just treats San as a little sister or his care to San just
proceeds from his sympathy. Though he has said, ―you are beautiful‖ after they leave the
Irontown, His love for San is unclear because at that time he is semiconscious. At the end
of the film, Ashitaka only 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
In some way, the beginning of a movie is quite important because it shows the audience
what the story is about, and sometimes it determines if the audiences will keep on
watching the movie. Typically, the beginning of ―Princess Mononoke‖ is good. There are
two negative aspects at the beginning. I will talk about them from the narration and the
plot.
Narration has the same function as an introduction. It will give the audience an
explanation to the film, but narration does not always work because sometimes it may
make the film sound redundant. This situation happens in“Princess Mononoke.”The
movie started with a score—―Legend of Ashitaka.‖ The score is played by cello and
violin, which provide us a sense of mystery and majesty. The addition of the forest image
makes me feel the woodsy smell. When I immerse myself in the score and imagine that I
am in that flourishing forest, the narration appears. It suddenly takes away my feeling to
the music, and pushes me back to the real world. To me, I want to make myself to be one
part of the film not just as an ordinary viewer, sitting and watching the film. I expect to
be surprised with the plot and hope to understand the film by myself. When I was
watching the film and thinking about what will happen. The narration is descriptive and
makes me bored.
Another problem is in the plot, it does not seem complete and goes too fast. The demon
shows up quickly at the beginning, which makes me a little surprised. I mean I have not
prepared to watch the main plot because atmosphere changes too quickly. The demon
attacks the Amish town soon after the first score. The atmosphere in this section makes
me nervous and uncomfortable. It needs a scene to give a transition between the two
atmospheres. For example it can show us life in the Amish town.
Also, the lack of the scenes makes me confused about the film. I wonder why Ashitaka
arrives when the demon comes. It is too coincidental. It seems that something has
happened before the demon comes, but the beginning does not show that to us. If the
watcher finds something unusual why does not he tell others. This lack of scene is due to
the limitation of time. Maybe the director wants to shorten the time by omitting some
plots.
Conclusion
As I mentioned ―Princess Mononoke‖ is a quite successful movie. However, it still has
some negative aspects. Such as, beginning of the film, personality for Ashitaka and the
voice acting. These aspects are due to the different cultural background and the time
limitation, which can be understood.