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Ashitaka, a prince amongst the Emishi people, fights a demon
that is threatening his village. In the course of the fight
his arm is infected and the wise woman foretells that he will
die of his wound unless he travels west to the land where
the demon originated, to discover what had turned the god
into a demon. His travels finally bring him to the land of
the forest spirits where he meets a wolf god and his spirit
princess San, but his discovery leads him to a greater understanding.
The time of the forest gods is passing, mans move away from
the old ways and his use of industry is destroying not only
the gods but the forest as well...
Princess
Mononoke shares many of the themes of Miyazaki's other
films, whilst this an overtly ecological film, highlighting
concerns about the way in which man encroaches on nature and
the inevitable doom that this means for both nature and mankind,
it also has the recurring theme of love that has appeared
in so many of his features. The iron ore which is poisoning
the forest represents the slow but unstoppable greed of the
people, the ignorance that is born out of mans own hubris
and sense of destiny. The difference in Mononoke is
that whilst love can do many things, in the end it is unsure
whether love can overcome man's inherent greed.
This
is not the first time that Princess Mononoke has had
a release. Previously Miramax put out a box set, that contained
a feature with the American voice actors and a rather nice
book on Miyazaki. I guess if you're looking to have as complete
a collection as possible then you're most probably going to
buy both discs. However, if you already own the Miramax version
then I'm not sure that that the few different extras on this
disc will persuade you to buy it. The extras on this disc
consist of the original trailers, worth one look, the Studio
Ghibli trailers that are on all the discs and the alternative
angle storyboards which allow you to watch the film in storyboard
form.
The
print is excellent as all of the films in this series have
been. As befits an eco-film the main pallet use is green,
however the ever changing landscape is so beautiful to look
at that you never really notice.
Audio
comes in 5.1 English or Japanese and both tracks are well
worth listening to. Whilst the voice actors do a grand job,
some of their accents lead to, what I presume to be, unintentional
humour, hearing Billy Bob Thornton as Jigo leading his troops
into action in thirteenth century Japan with an obvious southern
American accent was somewhat distracting, though he does a
great job bringing out his characters humour. Of note amongst
the other actors are Gillian Anderson who provides the voice
for San's wolf god mother and Minnie Driver who plays the
imperious leader of iron town, the lady Eboshi.
The
adaptation was done by Neil Gaiman who, as an author in his
own right, had already penned Neverwhere. It's probable
that using a writer of this calibre went a long way to making
the English audio track so engaging. All the nuances of joy,
love and pain are played across the audiences psyche meaning
that you really start to care about what happens to these
people.
In
the late nineties, the film was the highest grossing Japanese
film ever, though that may have changed now. It's a position
that the film rightly deserves being one of Miyazaki's most
thoughtful, but accessible works.
Charles
Packer
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