"人間嫌い！！”－物の怪姫 "I hate humans." -The Spirit Princess
I find it rare when an animated film pushes more than just artistic and visual boundaries. So often creators of animated features submerge the plot, themes, and soul of their films beneath spectacle. I consider Princess Mononoke to be resounding success in that Hayao Miyazaki was brave enough to let his story do the talking. This is a must see for everyone.
If you don't know a ton about Japanese history or the islands that we now call Japan, I can understand that Princess Mononoke remains a great movie, but for me, it is truly special. The setting for the tale is the muromachi period (1300 to 1600), and it was a critical time in the establishment of a "greater japan" as the kanto region expanded it influence north into tohoku and, most importantly for my reading of the film, what is now Hokkaido. Hokkaido may be part of Japan today, but it wasn't officially annexed until the mid 1800's. In the muromachi period, Hokkaido was the home of the Ainu. The Ainu are an indigenous people of the Japanese isles who's fossil record predates the arrival of the Japanese. Princess Mononoke is extremely unusual in its setting and characters as both our hero and heroine display cultural, wardrobe, and spiritual similarities to the Ainu. I understand it may be a coincidence, but I wonder if this film in any way affected the 1997 passage of the Ainu Cultural Promotion act. Could Miyazaki be just ahead of the surge of interest in Ainu culture? How often does one see a film where the progress of industry, and government are so eloquently juxtaposed against nature and the past.
On a scale of Kani to Kani Ho-dai, I give Princess Mononoke 4.2 out of 5 stars.
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