Negative review for “Princess Mononoke”
Ren Ke
The film ―Princess Mononoke‖ is made by Japanese cartoon movie director Miyazaki.
Though it is extremely successful in the world, there are still some elements to improve
in the film. In this review I will talk about the synopsis and three negative aspects from
the beginning of the film, personality for Ashitaka and the voice acting. From this
negative review the audience can get some new ideas to evaluate the film. Also, they can
have a deep understanding of the characters and meaning of the film by finding out the
shortages.
Film synopsis
The story begins in a small town which is located in the north. People live in a peaceful
life 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.
After reading the synopsis, readers may be interested in the film. However, there are
some insufficiencies at the beginning of the film.
Aspect 1—the beginning of the film
The beginning of movie plays a role as an introduction. Also, it determines that if the
audience will keep on watching the movie. In Princess Mononoke, redundant narration
and confused plot make the beginning do not do well to catch audience interests.
Narration at the beginning of the film is really a redundancy. It breaks the atmosphere
which is provided by film scores and the image.
When I immerse myself in the beautiful 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.
The beginning of the film is not the only issue in this film. As a translation movie,
―Princess Mononoke‖ also has problems in voice acting. It seems that English voice
actors may not catch characters’ personalities as well as Japanese voice actors.
Aspect 2—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.
Let us look at Moro first. As a forest god, Moro
lives in the world for a long time and has seen many
wars that have happened between humans and
nature. So from her voice we should feel that a
trusted and sagacious elder is talking to us. As a god
her voice should be powerful as well.
Generally speaking, Moro plays the role of a
teacher. She tries to control herself not to hurt
people who love peace (such as Ashitaka) and tell
them the truth. Thus we should feel serious but not
frightened when she gives caution to us.
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. This is because her voice
is hoarse instead of powerful. Much worse, the hoarse voice makes her sounds like a
devil rather than a god. There is something frightening about her voice, which makes her
sound like an old witch.
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
intimidates 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 voice acting in Japanese. Also,
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.
Because of the culture differences, the insufficient of voice acting is acceptable.
However, problems in personality of Ashitaka are a little bit unacceptable.
Aspect 3—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, this personality makes
Ashitaka cold in the film. 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 this makes him seem like a cold and
passionless man.
Because of Ashitaka’s calmness, it is also 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.
Besides the unclear emotion to San, some actions of Ashitaka are run contrary to his
personality.
As we know Ashitaka 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. 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.
Though personality of Ashitaka is not well designed the whole movie is still worth
watching.
Conclusion
As I mentioned, ―Princess Mononoke‖ is a quite successful movie. However, it still has
some negative aspects. At the beginning of the film the narration is redundant and some
of the plots are lack of connections. Then voice acting for some characters is not
appropriate for their personalities. At last, there some suspensions in Ashitaka’s actions
and his personality.
These aspects are due to the different cultural background and the time limitation, which
can be understood. In that case, audiences should go to see this movie although it has
shortages.
Reference:
Neil Gaiman
Wiliqute—Princess Mononoke
Retrieved in October 28, 2008 from
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke