Princess Mononoke Review
A Brief Review of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke
Princess Mononoke is the story of a Ashitaka, a prince who travels west seeking a means to cure his arm that has been cursed by a demon’s touch. Knowing that the demon came into existence because its host was enraged due to a fatal shot from a strange metallic object(a bullet), Ashitaka searches for the manufacturer of this object, believing that they will be able to assist him. When he arrives at the manufacturing site(known as Iron Tow) he stumbles into the middle of a deadly conflict between the humans who want to harvest the land for its resources and the creatures who use the woods as their habitat.
The first thirty minutes of this film are magical. Director Hayao Miyazaki created a wonderous world full of all kinds of life - humans, demons, gods, spirits, and all sorts of anthropomorphic creatures. It is brought to life with beautiful hand drawn animation and features some of the most enjoyable sequence ever brought to film. My favorite scene is when a whole flock of supernatural beings known as Kodama lead Ashitaka through the woods in a very playful manner. However, the only thing binding all these life forms together is conflict. They are all fighting with each other rather than living in harmony, focused on revenge instead of resolution. The conflict between the humans and the creatures is a consistent tension that runs throughout the film and underpins the beauty of the world.
Unfortunately, once Ashitaka leaves Iron Town and becomes neutral arbiter for the battling civilization, the movie comes to a screeching halt. For the next hour and half we are inundated with ham-fisted messaging that quickly become redundant. There is simply nothing enjoyable about hearing the same viewpoint and same message from every creature in the woods that Ashitaka encounters. The joy in the film was in the magical wonder of the world and tension of the unnecessary conflict. Once these two elements are removed so that Miyazaki can preach to the audiences, Prince Mononoke stops being entertainment and becomes a dull lecture.
By the end of the film I couldn’t help but wish that there was an editor that had the ability to reign in Miyazaki’s excesses, because there is a decent ninety minute film hidden in here. With much of the unnecessary, redundancies removed, Princess Mononoke is a beautiful movie about how the pursuit of vengeance and a lack of empathy derails the tranquility and joy in life. But as it stands, it’s over bloated film that quickly loses all the good will its phenomenal opening generates with audiences.
