Princess Mononoke

Continuing my watching spree of Ghibli films, yesterday I saw Princess Mononoke. If you haven't seen it, its about a young Prince Ashitaka, who is wounded after bringing down a wild demon that attacked his village. The wound is infected with some kind of curse which will gradually kill him and so he departs to the west in search of a cure. He eventually reaches an iron-making village led by Lady Eboshi that is caught up in conflict with the animal-gods of the local mountain ranges. There's also a girl named San raised by the wolf-god who he falls in love with. She's the 'Princess Mononoke' of the title, though that's more a description than a name because mononoke is just Japanese for 'monster-spirit'.

The noticeable thing about this movie is that there's no clear-cut villains. When the movie was over, I had this feeling that something wasn't quite right. I realised it was because though there was so much conflict and suffering in the movie, there is noone to really blame for it. There is no triumph over good and evil because there is no good and evil. All the characters seem to have complex and reasonable motives for their actions and that is something you'd hardly expect in this kind of fantasy epic story. Just think of the Empire in Star Wars, Saruman in Lord of the Rings or Voldemort in Harry Potter. (Not saying these villains are bad of course because they're all kickass characters. Just a different kind of storytelling.)

The love story between Ashitaka and San is also a pretty important part of the film but as usual, Miyazaki really plays it down. There's this scene where he's lying down recovering from a serious injury and she's taking care of him. She gives him some bat jerky to eat but he doesn't have the strength to chew. So she starts eating it herself and then she leans down to his face. I thought she was kissing him until I realised that she was actually spitting the chewed up meat into his mouth so he could swallow it. I know that sounds really gross but in the movie, its a really heartfelt scene.

Okay, the next paragraph will be about the ending so if you haven't watched it this is a spoiler alert. The ending baffled me at first because the denoument was very abrupt. I've thought about it a bit and it makes some sense now. I thought the villagers would be angry at Lady Eboshi for abandoning them but I guess they have too much to thank her for to condemn her for being lead astray by the Mikado's men. I was surprised that Ashitaka decided to help rebuild the ironworks. But I guess he couldn't return to the village as prince after having cut off his hair. Ashitaka and San not (quite) getting together was also a surprise but it makes sense because it would be pretty dumb if San lived with him at the ironworks. I think that in the end, its about the breakdown of the natural order between humans and spirits by Eboshi's firearms and the conflict that determined the establishment of the new order. Ashitaka, as a determined pacifist, is a neutral witness to the conflict who tries his best to end the fighting and minimise the suffering of everyone involved.

The next movie I'll be watching will probably be Grave of the Fireflies. And then I probably won't get to watch anything until Trials are over.