Princess Mononoke (1997)
Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki Re-released and dubbed by Miramax in 1999
More than half way through the movie, I was reminded of Tsui Hark's classic Hong Kong movie "Once Upon a Time in China." What can a Kung fu political movie possibly have in common with a full-length Japanese animation, you might ask? Well, they both have a complicated and melodramatic story, a large number of characters, exciting visuals, somewhat ambiguous morals stands, and way too many conflicts.
The story of Princess Mononoke is actually the story of a young man named Ashitaka, who is infected with a deadly curse on his arm after he kills a boar-turned-demon that is terrorizing his home town. In search for a cure of this curse that's slowly eating him away, he gets on his elk and sets for the far and away land full of gods and spirits, demons and monsters, all sharing and fighting over the biggest forest you have seen on a screen.
The real Princess Mononoke (San, dubbed by Claire Danes), was not seriously introduced after almost 1/3 into the movie. Before that, was a mingled and busy introduction of a bunch of other characters, including Jigo, a monk on a undetermined mission (dubbed by Billy Bob Thorton), Lady Eboshi, the leader of an industrial town that destroys the forest for iron and hire former brothel-girls to make firearms (dubbed by Minnie Driver). The plot takes way too long to cut into the central conflict with the forest spirit and the wild animals on one side and the iron town and the hunters on the other. But the ambitious filmmakers are not satisfied with just one conflict, so he throws in a group of vicious samourai, a tribe of boars driven out of their own home land, a bunch of skeptical apes, an army of hunters wearing animal skin. Non of these groups are exactly allies or simply enemies. The audience, just like Ashitaka, have a real hard time taking sides and root for any one of them, because the movie takes a lot of time (too much, I think) to convince us that Lady Eboshi, even though she wants to destroy the forest and animals for her own gain, is also a good leader and compassionate woman. The monk Jigo, even though he wants to cut off the forest spirit's head and sell it as the fountain of youth to the Empiror, is a rather humorous character. Although our environmentalist urge pushes us toward the side of the wolf girl San, her wolf tribe, and the forest, the wild animals are obviously not just the victims and often show their hostility and sharp teeth to the hero.
The moral ambiguity makes the story interesting, but the noise from all groups and so many side characters dilute the main conflict and make the plot cluttered and confused. The most annoying is the ape tribe, who showed up convenient to serve no other purpose but to slow down the heroes and the story by throwing small objects at them and making mean comments. I'd rather see Miyazaki completely abandon some of these miscelleneous subplots and concentrate on the main story line.
Another consequence of the moral ambiguity is the feeble and naive plea of Ashitaka -- Hatred is bad. Can't we all get along? The appeal of the central character is significantly impaired. Ashitaka is perhaps the most bland hero I've seen for a while. He is so boring, dull, and blah, that I secretly cheered the ending that did not have the two lovers live together happily ever after. In fact, there is almost no chemistry between San and Ashitaka. With far less screen time, San still comes through as more interesting than her boyfriend, benefiting little more than a fierce presence. The most fascinating character, however, is the powerful and mysterious Lady Eboshi, calm, intelligent, dominating, seductive.
The biggest merit of this movie is its incredible visual imagination. There is no substitute for the sheer rush of seeing the breath-taking images of mythical spirits towering over the land, thousands of cute little tree ghosts (looking very much like aliens in The X-files except being white instead of green) raining down, trees dying and falling. I repeatedly have chills running down my spine at every shot of the ferocious battle between the Nature and humans. I have never seen any image in animation so powerful that it blows my mind. The magic and creativity and sheer power of the battle scenes make Disney's The Lion King look like a joke.
I never thought animations can transmit the impression of natural surrounding so well. Simply imitating reality is not enough. Here Miyazaki and his team successfully replicate the FEEL of the Nature, and the audience have the illusion of being actually engulfed in the mythical forest.
Another interesting achievement is the fight scenes in this movie. Albeit short and sporatic, the fights are exciting and well drawn. The excessive gore and blood, however, seem a bit over done.
The English dialogue is competently done, from the script translation to dubbing.
The conflicts between the advancing humans and wild animals actually remind me of the conflict between white men and Native Americans, even though that was probably not what Miyazaki had in mind. With a more interesting hero and more concentrated writing, it could have been an animation that is not only incredible-looking, but also thought-provoking.
jun
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Before you buy.
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