Positive Review for “Princess Mononoke”
Ren Ke
The film ―Princess Mononoke‖ is made by Japanese cartoon movie director Miyazaki. Generally,
the movie tells us a story about humans and the nature. Unlike the other cartoon movie, ―Princess
Mononoke‖ chooses a serious topic to enlighten the audience and point out the vice of humanity.
In this film review, first I will introduce the film by giving a film synopsis. Also, I will discuss the
value of the whole movie by showing three positive aspect of the film: character, music and the
meaning of the story. After reading this review, readers may understand the purpose of the movie
and find out the relationship between human and the nature.
Film synopsis
The story begins in a small town which is located in the north. People who 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 industrial steel-making, 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, audience may be attracted by the plots. Also, they may find out what is
going to happen by following the clued. In the movie, characters play the role of clued, which
influence the plot a lot.
Aspect 1—Character
As a clue to the plot of the whole movie, character’s personalities influence main plots of the
movie. This is because personalities of characters are varied from each other.
First of all, personalities of different characters are varied. For example, Ashitata is a young man
who is calm and gentle. It seems he is never mad at someone even if he has been hurt by that
person. When the woman in Irontown shoots him by gun, he just takes San and leaves the town
calmly.
San is a girl who has been brought up by wolf god in the forest. She is brave and not afraid to die.
To save the forest she enters into the Irontown alone. The lady Eboshi Gozen, the leader of the
Iontown is forceful and selfish. As a leader she manages all the system in Iontown. To reach her
goal she will destroy everything that prevents her.
Also, personalities for each character are different. There
is neither a hero who will save everything nor a villain
who will destroy everything
Now, let us look at the negative character in the
film—the lady Eboshi Gozen.
As a leader of the Irontown, Eboshi Gozen is forceful and
selfish because she tends to destroy the forest for her
benefit. From her personality we could see appetency and
rapacity.
However, no one is completely good or bad. To her people, she is a good leader because she gives
women the same rights that men have. Also, if we have a deep thinking we can find that all her
selfish are for the development of the town. Thus, people in the Irontown respect her very much.
So we can say that she is selfish, but what she has done is for the people who live in Irontown.
We can say that she is cold-blooded, but her cruelty is shown to her enemy. In general, she is
kind but cruel, shellfish but contributive.
Like Eboshi Gozen, the positive character is not a
completely hero in the film.
As a positive character, Ashitake is clam and gentle.
He does not want to see wars and hurt others.
However, it does not mean he never uses force to
solve problems. When he sees the army invade a
small town and kill innocent people, he uses his
arrows to fight with them.
As we can see, Ashitaka also seldom makes decision out of impulse. However, he will be angry
when he sees something unfair and unreasonable. When he finds out that Eboshi Gozen’s has a
plan to destroy the forest, he is so incensed that his hair stands up.
These characters in ―Princess Mnonoke‖ make the movie more trustable and attractable. Add with
the film score, the audience can have a better understand of the plot because these scores connect
each section very well.
Aspect 2—Film score
Film scores in Princess Mononoke make a good connection between audience and plots because
they can not only reveal the time, location of the film but also provide ―emotional focus‖ to the
audience. There are eight film scores in total, but in this section I will discuss three of them.
The first score—the legend of Ashitaka is an introduction to the film. At first, there is a mist forest
shown on the screen which matches with the image, the cello plays an undertone to provide a
sense of mystery. Then, the tone becomes louder while a large scale of forest is shown on the
screen which makes us feel that we are imposing. And here is the place that the story starts.
As the tune of music suddenly goes down, the story moves into the next section. The second
score—Ta Ta Ri Gami represents the aggression of the demon. With the help of the percussion
instruments and the trombone the score makes us feel stressful and nervous. We can predict that
there might be something upsetting that will happen. The music styles of the first and second
scores are quite different which separate the plots into different sections.
The third score—the Journey to the West is well
performed to show the places that Ashitaka passed
by. The tone of this score is lyrical. At the
beginning, the sound of the violin and cello are
light, which makes us image the grass on the land.
Also the gentleness of the harp sounds like the
wind. We can imagine that the grass is swaying in
the wind and clouds are floating in the sky. As the
journey goes on the clarinet is added in, which
allows us to think about a picture of a small river
flowing in front of us.
The tune of trombones and violins increase when Ashitaka is traveling through the mountain.
After crossing over the mountain, the rhythm becomes bright. With the melodious sound of the
flute and the violin we can feel that Ashitaka arrives at a lively city where people are busy with
work.
As the journey goes on, places change as well. This score provides a wonderful connection when
there is a switch from place to place. Also, when we listen to the film score, we may feel that we
are a part of the film. Thus we think about the meaning of the story and realize that we watch the
film is not just for fun.
Aspect 3—Meaning of the story
One of the most important reasons that we should watch Princess Mononoke is because it has a
well developed meaning. The reason that a director makes a movie is not just to entertain us.
Actually, he wants to show the audience issues or factors we meet in the society. Here I will talk
about explicit, implicit and repressed meaning of this movie
Explicit meaning can be gotten directly from the message (such as dialogue and action) from the
film. In ―Princess Mononoke,‖ the explicit meaning is to avoid wars between humans and the
forest.
Ashitaka plays a role that wants to prevent war. His goal is simple: to make humans and the forest
live in peace. In Irontown when San and Eboshi Gozen fight he stands out and prevents them from
fighting. When he knows the army will attack the forest, he tries his best to leave a message to the
forest gods and tries to persuade both of them to give up fighting. He knows that conflict will not
solve problems, but make things worse. At last, the war is over, but nobody wins. The forest spirit
dies and the Irontown is destroyed. That is what wars leave to us.
By contrast, implicit meaning is an indirect message in the movie. In Princess Mononoke, the
implicit meaning is living.
People in the Irontown destroy the forest because they need resources to live and develop. The
forest gods struggle against humans because they want to protect the home where they live. Living
is the foundation of any creature on earth. From this point there is no wrong or right between
humans and nature. We may say humans are selfish and cruel. We may feel irritated when Eboshi
Gozen shoots the head of the forest spirit. However, to Eboshi Gozen people in the Irontown is
more important. To keep the town she can sacrifice everything.
Perhaps to live is a selfish desire. At the end, the forest spirit dies, but its body brings life back to
the forest. As Ashitaka says ―nothing is over, both of us are alive.‖ Yes, nothing is more important
than life. Even the forest spirit will never come back; even the war between humans and nature
will never stop. People will try their best to live.
Repressed meaning is related to the background. Here the movie shows the relationship between
humans and nature. Humans are from nature, as the time passes they separate and live in groups.
The people who live in Irontown are in this group. In order to survive they get resources from the
forest. The more resources they need the more conflicts there are between humans and nature. The
movie implies that the aspiration to live makes humans selfish.
Eboshi Gozen plays the role of an exploiter who kills the original habitants in the forest to develop
her town. This action makes the forest angry. As the forest gods, Moro and Okkotonushi, fight
humans to protect the forest. At this point they represent as the power of nature.
Ashitaka plays the role of a persuader. He represents the groups of people who are in favor of
peace. Generally, they stand in a neutral position. Thus they can see the truth with their eyes
unclouded by hate.
San is a more complex symbol in the movie. She is human on the exterior, but belongs to the
forest on the interior. As a contradictive character, San represents the group of people who for
some reasons find the evil sides of the human beings, which make them fight against their race.
The ending of the movie reveals that humans and nature will never get along with each other, but
both groups will keep on living.
Conclusion
Generally speaking, the three positive aspects are well coordinated to display the plot of the film.
Firstly, as a clued, Characters influence the main plot of the movie. Then, film scores connect each
section perfectly by indicating different locations. At last, the meaning of the movie represents
some related social issues. There three elements are not only help the audience to understand the
film better but also make them to think about the deep meaning of life and the relationship
between humans and nature. Therefore, I strongly recommend audiences to watch this movie.
Reference:
David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson
Film Art—an Introduction
Retrived October 12, 2008, from
http://www.di.unito.it/~sbocconi/CWI/Work/ReviewsAndIdeas/ReviewedBooks.html