This is one of the most famous movies by Japanese animation director Hayao Miyazaki and dates back to 1997, but I had the chance to watch a it just a few days ago. The plot is complex and deep, depicting an ancient world covered with forests where spirits and gods live, guarded by huge beasts. In their quest to progress, humans destroy forests to reclaim land use and extract iron to build shotguns, ending up in cruel fights with animals. There’s an ecological message underneath, but this movies is far from a good-bad simplification.
Violence and war pervade both humans and animals, and both are selfish and willing to exclude others, including members of their race. When somebody gets infected by the anger there’s no escape to damnation and they are condemned to slow and suffering death. Even the most wise of the animals, just can’t escape his violent fate and becomes a raging and unreasonable daemon when hit.
There’s no hero and no simply bad character in this story. Can’t we just live together? Maybe not, surely hard, the movie seems to suggest. In all this tension, even love struggles to emerge.
Princess Mononoke (Mononoke-hime)
Japan 1997, by Hayao Miyazaki, Animation
IMDB 119698
