Princess Mononoke

In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but its corruption curses his right arm. The curse gives him superhuman strength, but will eventually spread through his body and kill him. The villagers discover that the demon was a boar god, Nago, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. The village's wise woman tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands Nago came from, but he cannot return to his homeland. Before Ashitaka leaves, his sister Kaya gives him her crystal dagger so that he will not forget her.

Heading west, mounted on his red elk, Yakul, Ashitaka meets Jigo ("Jiko-bō" in the original Japanese version), an opportunist posing as a monk, who tells Ashitaka he may find help from the Great Forest Spirit, a deer-like animal god by day and a giant nightwalker by night. Nearby, men herd oxen to Irontown ("Tataraba" in Japanese), led by Lady Eboshi, and repel an attack by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro. Riding one of the wolves is San, a human girl raised by Moro after her parents abandoned her. Ashitaka discovers two injured Irontown men and carries them through the forest, where he encounters many kodama and glimpses the Forest Spirit. In Irontown, Ashitaka learns that Eboshi built the town by clearcutting forests to claim ironsand and produce iron, leading to conflicts with the forest gods and Asano, a local daimyō. Irontown is a refuge for social outcasts, including former prostitutes who now work for Eboshi in her foundry and lepers employed to manufacture firearms; it was one of these guns that had wounded Nago. Eboshi also explains to Ashitaka that she intends to kill the Forest Spirit, believing that its blood can cure anything and that San (whom she calls Princess Mononoke) will become fully human once the forest is cleared and the wolves killed.

San infiltrates Irontown to kill Eboshi, and they engage in a duel. Ashitaka attempts to break up the fight with the curse now manifesting as a worm-like specter on his right arm, but when the talks fail he knocks both San and Eboshi unconscious. As Ashitaka leaves, San slung over his shoulder, he is unintentionally shot by a villager, but the curse gives him the strength to carry San out of the village. San awakens and prepares to kill the weakened Ashitaka, but hesitates when he tells her that she is beautiful. A group of apes attempts to claim Ashitaka so that they may eat him and claim his strength, only to be scared off by the wolves when they insult San. She then convinces Yakul to help her carry Ashitaka to safety. She takes him to the forest, and decides to trust him after the Forest Spirit saves his life and learning from Yakul of his people, their village and their forest, going so far as to aid him in eating when he is too weak to chew. A boar clan, led by the blind boar god Okkoto, plans to attack Irontown to save the forest, in spite of Moro's insistence that they will be slaughtered. Okkoto also thanks Ashitaka for killing Nago, but tells him that he will have to kill him if they meet again. Eboshi prepares for battle and sets out to kill the Forest Spirit with Jigo, who is working for the government; she intends to give the god's head to the Emperor who believes the Forest Spirit's blood will make him immortal in return for protection from Lord Asano.

Ashitaka recovers from his wound but remains cursed and is told to leave the forest by Moro under pain of death after he asks her to let San leave with him. Before leaving, he also gifts San Kaya's crystal dagger. He then returns to Irontown to find it besieged by samurai, and heads out to warn Eboshi. The boar clan is annihilated in battle, and Okkoto is corrupted by his wounds. Jigo's men disguise themselves in boar skins and trick the rampaging Okkoto into leading them to the Forest Spirit. Overcome with fear, Okkoto transforms into a demon. San tries to stop Okkoto, but is swept up in his demonic corruption, becoming trapped. Moro intervenes and Ashitaka dives into the corruption, but is cast out into the nearby lake. The Forest Spirit then euthanizes Okkoto and Moro, allowing Ashitaka to free and revive San. As the Forest Spirit transforms into the nightwalker, Eboshi decapitates it. It then bleeds a black ooze which spreads over the land, killing anything it touches as the nightwalker searches for its head, which Jigo steals. The forest and kodama begin to die; Moro's head comes alive and bites off Eboshi's right arm, but she survives with Ashitaka's aid. This initially angers San who reaffirms her hatred for humans and her identity as a wolf, but after embracing Ashitaka who tells her that there is still hope, she decides to aid him and the humans.

After the samurai either flee or are killed by the ooze and the majority of Irontown is evacuated as the ooze advances, Ashitaka and San pursue Jigo and retrieve the head after a brief scuffle, returning it to the Forest Spirit. The Spirit dies as the sun rises, but its form washes over the land and heals it, making the plants on the once desolate hills near Irontown bloom again while lifting Ashitaka's curse. Ashitaka stays to help rebuild Irontown, but promises San he will visit her in the forest, with San saying she loves him. Eboshi reunites with the townspeople and vows to build a better town. The forest begins to regrow, and a kodama emerges from the undergrowth.

• Yōji Matsuda voices Ashitaka (アシタカ), the last prince of the Emishi tribe whose traveling companion is Yakul (ヤックル, Yakkuru), a red elk (アカシシ, Akashishi), a non-existent species of elk that Miyazaki created for the film. Ali Shaw of Electric Sheep has described Yakul as being more similar to a red Lechwe than an elk.[3] Miyazaki called Ashitaka a "melancholic boy who has a fate" and also stated that Ashitaka's curse "is similar to the lives of people [at the time]".[4] Ashitaka's English voice actor Billy Crudup stated that he liked Ashitaka as "an unexpected hero. He’s not your usual wild, brave guy. He’s really just a young, earnest man who’s trying to lead a valuable life and protect his village."[5]
• Yuriko Ishida voices San (サン), a young woman who was raised by the wolves and feels hatred for humans, but eventually comes to care for Ashitaka. In the English version, San is voiced by Claire Danes.
  • Ishida also voices Kaya (カヤ), Ashitaka's sister.[6] Tara Strong provides her voice in the English version.
• Yūko Tanaka provides the voice of Lady Eboshi (エボシ御前, Eboshi Gozen), the ruler of Irontown who continually clears the forest. Miyazaki stated that Eboshi was supposed to have a traumatic past, although it is not specifically mentioned in the film. Miyazaki said that Eboshi has a strong and secure personality, evident in the fact that she let Ashitaka move freely through the settlement unescorted, despite his unclear motives. He also said that Eboshi does not acknowledge the Emperor's authority in Irontown, a revolutionary view for the time, and displays an atypical attitude for a woman of that era in that she wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice herself or those around her for her dreams.[4] Miyazaki also said that Eboshi resembles a shirabyōshi.[7] Eboshi's English voice actress Minnie Driver stated that she was interested in "the challenge of playing [a] woman who supports industry and represents the interests of man, in terms of achievement and greed."[8] Driver viewed Eboshi as "a warrior, an innovator and a protector."[9]
• Kaoru Kobayashi provides the voice of Jiko-bō (ジコ坊, called "Jigo" in the English version), a monk and mercenary who befriends Ashitaka on his journey to the west. Miyazaki was unsure whether to make Jiko-bō a government spy, a ninja, a member of a religious group or "a very good guy." He eventually decided to give him elements of the above groups.[4] In the English version, Jigo is voiced by Billy Bob Thornton.
• Masahiko Nishimura voices Kohroku (甲六, Kōroku), an ox driver; John DeMita voices Kohroku in the English version. Miyazaki wrote Kohroku to be "an ordinary guy [who] didn't do anything heroic, right to the end", something he stated was contrary to films he'd made up to that point.[4]
• Tsunehiko Kamijō provides the voice of Gonza (ゴンザ), Eboshi's bodyguard; he is voiced by John DiMaggio in the English version.
• Akihiro Miwa voices Moro (モロの君, Moro no Kimi), a giant wolf god and San's adopted mother; Gillian Anderson provides her voice in the English version.
• Mitsuko Mori provides the voice of Hii-sama (ヒイ様), the wise woman of Ashitaka's village. In the English version, Hii-sama is voiced by Debi Derryberry.
• Hisaya Morishige provides the voice of Okkoto-nushi (乙事主, called "Okkoto" in the English version), a blind boar god. In the English version, Okkoto is voiced by Keith David, who also voices the narrator in the film's opening sequence.

The cast also includes: Akira Nagoya as the cattleman leader (牛飼いの長, Ushigai no Naga); Kimihiro Reizei as a Jibashiri (ジバシリ); Tetsu Watanabe as a mountain wolf (山犬, Yamainu); Makoto Sato as Nago (ナゴの守, Nago no Mori), a wild boar turned into a demon who curses Ashitaka when he attacks the Emishi village; and Sumi Shimamoto as Toki (トキ), Kohroku's wife, a former prostitute, and the leader of Eboshi's women, voiced by Jada Pinkett Smith in the English version.

Shiratani Unsui forest, Yakushima

In the late 1970s, Miyazaki drew sketches of a film about a princess living in the woods with a beast.[10] Miyazaki began writing the film's plotline and drew the initial storyboards for the film in August 1994.[11][12] He had difficulties adapting his early ideas and visualisations, because elements had already been used in My Neighbor Totoro and because of societal changes since the creation of the original sketches and image boards. This writer's block prompted him to accept a request for the creation of the On Your Mark promotional music video for the Chage and Aska song of the same title. According to Toshio Suzuki, the diversion allowed Miyazaki to return for a fresh start on the creation of Princess Mononoke. In April 1995, supervising animator Masashi Ando devised the character designs from Miyazaki's storyboard. In May 1995, Miyazaki drew the initial storyboards. That same month, Miyazaki and Ando went to the ancient forests of Yakushima, of Kyushu, an inspiration for the landscape of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, and the mountains of Shirakami-Sanchi in northern Honshu for location scouting along with a group of art directors, background artists and digital animators for three days.[11] Animation production commenced in July 1995.[12] Miyazaki personally oversaw each of the 144,000 cels in the film,[13] and is estimated to have redrawn parts of 80,000 of them.[14][15] The final storyboards of the film's ending were finished only months before the Japanese premiere date.[16]

Inspired by John Ford, an Irish-American director best known for his Westerns, Miyazaki created Irontown as a "tight-knit frontier town" and populated it with "characters from outcast groups and oppressed minorities who rarely, if ever, appear in Japanese films." He made the characters "yearning, ambitious and tough."[17] Miyazaki did not want to create an accurate history of Medieval Japan, and wanted to "portray the very beginnings of the seemingly insoluble conflict between the natural world and modern industrial civilization."[18] The landscapes appearing in the film were inspired by Yakushima.[19] Despite being set during the Muromachi period, the actual time period of Princess Mononoke depicts a "symbolic neverwhen clash of three proto-Japanese races (the Jomon, Yamato and Emishi)."[20]

3D rendering was used to create writhing "demon flesh" and composite it onto a hand-drawn Ashitaka

Princess Mononoke was produced with an estimated budget of ¥2.35 billion (approximately US$23.5 million).[15][21][22] It was mostly hand-drawn, but incorporates some use of computer animation in approximately ten percent of the film.[23] The computer animated parts are designed to blend in and support the traditional cel animation, and are mainly used in images consisting of a mixture of computer generated graphics and traditional drawing. A further 10 minutes uses inked-and-painted, a technique used in all subsequent Studio Ghibli films. Most of the film is colored with traditional paint, based on the color schemes designed by Miyazaki and Michiyo Yasuda. However, producers agreed on the installation of computers to successfully complete the film prior to the Japanese premiere date.[16] Telecom Animation Film Company helped animate the film. DR Movie helped with the painting process.

Two titles were originally considered for the film. One, ultimately chosen, has been translated into English as Princess Mononoke. The other title can be translated into English as either The Story of Ashitaka or The Legend of Ashitaka. In a Tokyo Broadcasting System program, televised on November 26, 2013, Toshio Suzuki mentioned that Hayao Miyazaki had preferred The Legend of Ashitaka as the title while Suzuki himself favoured Princess Mononoke. Suzuki also mentioned that Miyazaki had created a new kanji to write his preferred title.[24][25] The English dub contains minor additional voice overs to explain nuances of Japanese culture to western audiences.[26]

A central theme of Princess Mononoke is the environment.[27] The film centers on the adventure of Ashitaka as he journeys to the west to undo a fatal curse inflicted upon him by Nago, a boar turned into a demon by Eboshi.[28] Michelle J. Smith and Elizabeth Parsons said that the film "makes heroes of outsiders in all identity politics categories and blurs the stereotypes that usually define such characters". In the case of the deer god's destruction of the forest and Tataraba, Smith and Parsons said that the "supernatural forces of destruction are unleashed by humans greedily consuming natural resources".[29] They also characterized Eboshi as a business-woman who has a desire to make money at the expense of the forest, and also cite Eboshi's intention to destroy the forest to mine the mountain "embodies environmentalist evil".[28]

Two other themes found in the plot of Princess Mononoke are sexuality and disability. Speaking at the International Symposium on Leprosy / Hansen's Disease History in Tokyo, Miyazaki explained that he was inspired to portray people living with leprosy, "said to be an incurable disease caused by bad karma", after visiting the Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium near his home in Tokyo.[30] Lady Eboshi is driven by her compassion for the disabled, and believes that blood from the Great Forest Spirit could allow her to "cure [her] poor lepers".[31] Michelle Jarman, Assistant Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Wyoming, and Eunjung Kim, Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, said the disabled and gendered sexual bodies were partially used as a transition from the feudal era to a hegemony that "embraces modern social systems, such as industrialization, gendered division of labor, institutionalization of people with diseases, and militarization of men and women." They likened Lady Eboshi to a monarch.[32] Kim and Jarman suggested that Eboshi's disregard of ancient laws and curses towards prostitutes and lepers was enlightenment reasoning and her exploitation of disabled people furthered her modernist viewpoints.[33] Kim and Jarman conclude that Lady Eboshi's supposed benevolence in incorporating lepers and prostitutes into her society leverages the social stigma attached to marginalized groups, pointing out that the hierarchical structures within Irontown still support the stigmatization of lepers and prostitutes.[34]

An additional theme is the morally ambiguous conflict between humankind's growth and development and Nature's need for preservation. According to the Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert, "It is not a simplistic tale of good and evil, but the story of how humans, forest animals and nature gods all fight for their share of the new emerging order."[35] Billy Crudup, who provided the English voice for Ashitaka, said "The movie was such an entirely different experience; it had a whole new sensibility I had never seen in animation. It also had something profound to say: that there has to be a give and take between man and nature. One of the things that really impressed me is that Miyazaki shows life in all its multi-faceted complexity, without the traditional perfect heroes and wicked villains. Even Lady Eboshi, who Ashitaka respects, is not so much evil as short-sighted." Minnie Driver, the English voice actress for Lady Eboshi, commented similarly: "It's one of the most remarkable things about the film: Miyazaki gives a complete argument for both sides of the battle between technological achievement and our spiritual roots in the forest. He shows that good and evil, violence and peace exist in us all. It's all about how you harmonize it all."[36] Anime historian Susan Napier said there is no clear good vs. evil conflict in Princess Mononoke, unlike other films popular with children. Based on the multiple point of views the film adopts, San and Lady Eboshi can simultaneously be viewed as heroic or villainous. San defends the forest and viewers empathize with her. But she also attacks innocent people, complicating how we evaluate her. Opposed to San, Eboshi tries to destroy the forest and could be considered a villain. But everything she does is out of a desire to protect her village and see it prosper. San and Lady Eboshi survive until film's end, defying the usual convention of good triumphing over evil with the antagonist defeated. Napier concluded that the resolution of the conflict is left ambiguous, implying that Lady Eboshi and San will be able to come to some sort of compromise. The ambiguity suggests that there are no true villains or heroes.[37]

Dan Jolin of Empire said that a potential theme could be that of lost innocence. Miyazaki attributes this to his experience of making his previous film, Porco Rosso, and the wars in the former Yugoslavia, which he cites as an example of mankind never learning, making it difficult for him to go back to making a film such as Kiki's Delivery Service, where he has been quoted as saying "It felt like children were being born to this world without being blessed. How could we pretend to them that we're happy?"[38]

Duality is central to Eboshi's characterization. Benjamin Thevenin, Assistant Professor of Theater and Media Arts at Brigham Young University, said Eboshi does not fully understand the harm she does to the spirits. Her focus is on creating a safe home for her people. She holds no malicious intent toward nature and its spirits until they begin attacking her people. Once nature attacks, she gathers her soldiers to protect the inhabitants of her town, a place where all are welcome. Irontown is a haven for prostitutes and lepers. She brings them to Irontown and gives them jobs, hospitality, and a kindness that they have never experienced before. The same treatment goes for all Irontown's inhabitants, not just the sickly and the scorned. Lady Eboshi treats everyone equally, no matter the race, sex, or history of the individual, creating a caring community. While Eboshi hates San and the forest spirits, she keeps a garden in her town. Her care for the garden implies that her intention is not to ravage nature to no end, but rather to help her own people. Thevenin concluded that although Eboshi can be seen as the film's villain, she is also a hero to the citizens of Irontown and to humankind in general.[39]

Another theme in this film is between individualism and societal conformity. According to University of Bristol professors Christos Ellinas, Neil Allan and Anders Johansson, this struggle can be seen between San, a strong individualistic force, and Eboshi, the leader of a great society. San has fully committed to living with the wolves in the forest and to renouncing her association with the human race. Eboshi has vowed to sustain her society of Irontown by any means including destroying the environment. The people of Irontown have a cohesive ideology and agree with Eboshi to protect Irontown at the cost of the environment's destruction. This conformity can be found within their society, because “even though there is an envisioned culture at which an organization abides to, achieving coherence at lower aggregation levels (e.g. individuals) is increasingly challenging due to its emergent nature”.[40] The different viewpoints of San and Lady Eboshi eventually leads to a physical altercation where they both aim to kill one another. This dynamic between them represents the struggle to find a balance between the needs of individualism and those of conformity.

Princess Mononoke was released theatrically in Japan on July 12, 1997.[41] The film was extremely successful in Japan and with both anime fans and arthouse moviegoers in English-speaking countries. Since the Walt Disney Company made a distribution deal with Tokuma Shoten for Studio Ghibli's films in 1996, it was the first Studio Ghibli movie along with Kiki's Delivery Service and Castle in the Sky to have been dubbed into English by Disney; in the case of this film, subsidiary Miramax Films was assigned to release the movie in America. In response to demands from Miramax chairman Harvey Weinstein to edit the film, one of Miyazaki's producers sent Weinstein a katana with the message: "No cuts."[42] Possibly as a result of this, the movie only had a limited theatrical release in the United States.

On April 29, 2000, the English-dub version of Princess Mononoke was released theatrically in Japan along with the documentary Mononoke hime in U.S.A..[41] The documentary was directed by Toshikazu Sato and featured Miyazaki visiting the Walt Disney Studios and various film festivals.[41][43] The film had a limited theatrical re-release in the United States during July 2018.[2]

The film score of Princess Mononoke was composed and performed by Joe Hisaishi, the soundtrack composer for nearly all of Miyazaki's productions, and Miyazaki wrote the lyrics of the two vocal tracks, "The Tatara Women Work Song" and its title song. The music was performed by Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted by Hiroshi Kumagai. The soundtrack was released in Japan by Tokuma Japan Communications on July 2, 1997, and the North American version was released by Milan Records on October 12, 1999.

The titular theme song was performed by counter-tenor Yoshikazu Mera. For the English adaptation, Sasha Lazard sang the song. During the movie Hisaishi makes use of a few known classical pieces and quotes them, such as Dmitri Shostakovich's 5th symphony. As with other Studio Ghibli films, additional albums featuring soundtrack themes in alternative versions have been released. The image album features early versions of the themes, recorded at the beginning of the film production process, and used as source of inspiration for the various artists involved. The symphonic suite features longer compositions, each encompassing several of the movie themes, performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Mario Klemens.

All music is composed by Joe Hisaishi, except as noted.

In 2012, it was announced that Studio Ghibli and British theatre company Whole Hog Theatre would be bringing Princess Mononoke to the stage. It is the first stage adaptation of a Studio Ghibli work.[79] The contact between Whole Hog Theatre and Studio Ghibli was facilitated by Nick Park of Aardman Animations after he sent footage of Whole Hog performances to Studio Ghibli's Toshio Suzuki.[80] The play features large puppets made out of recycled and reclaimed materials.[81]

The first performances were scheduled for London's New Diorama Theatre and sold out in 72 hours, a year in advance.[82][83] In March 2013, it was announced that the show would transfer to Japan after its first run of shows in London. A second series of performances followed in London after the return from Tokyo. The second run of London performances sold out in four and half hours.[84][85] The play received positive reviews and was one of Lyn Gardner's theatre picks in The Guardian.[86][87][88][89][90] On April 27, 2013, the play was presented at Nico Nico Douga's Cho Party and was streamed online in Japan.[91][92]

• List of submissions to the 70th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Japanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

Sources

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Princess Mononoke

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Princess Mononoke.

• Official website at Disney
• Princess Mononoke Production Diary at Studio Ghibli (in Japanese)
• Mononoke-hime on IMDb
• Mononoke Hime at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Princess Mononoke at AllMovie
• Princess Mononoke at Box Office Mojo
• Princess Mononoke at Rotten Tomatoes
• Princess Mononoke (film) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• Animerica review at the Wayback Machine (archived April 7, 2004)