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| The titular princess atop the giant wolf under a roof of dense foliage makes up this poster for Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke |
A young prince in Japan hundreds of years ago gets a nasty scar from an unpleasant wild boar demon, whereupon he ventures out to find the god of the forest, who may be willing to help him. But a war between humans, the animals of the forest and the gods is underway, as our hero falls in love with the wolf princess Mononoke, who stands between the parties.
Princess Mononoke is written and directed by Japanese master filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki (Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro/Rupan sansei: Kariosutoro no shiro (1979)), whose 8th feature it is. Neil Gaiman (Doctor Who (2011-13)) wrote the English translation. Though popularly understood as a name in the West, 'Mononoke' is reportedly "a Japanese word for supernatural, shape-shifting beings that possess people and cause suffering, disease, or death."
A knock-out film visually, it is also a complex narrative that's difficult to recount but wholly engrossing throughout. It is an aesthetic enjoyment and a grand film in every way. The sound and music side (score by Joe Hisaishi (Shinka no toki (2019))) is absolutely phenomenal, and the animation is equally resplendent.
Big and important metaphysical elements are juggled in this singular film that's wild, psychedelic and enjoyable.
Related posts:
Hayao Miyazaki: The Wind Rises/風立ちぬ [Kaze Tachinu] (2013) - Miyazaki's beautiful but languid last film
Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
Howl's Moving Castle/ハウルの動く城 [Hauru no Ugoku Shiro] (2004) - Miyazaki's hugely successful, gibberish fantasy
Spirited Away/千と千尋の神隠し [Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi] (2001) - Miyazaki's highly Japanese, enormously weird story of a girl
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 23.5 mil. $
Box office: 194.3 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 8.26 times its cost)
[Princess Mononoke was released 12 July (Japan) and runs 133 minutes. Miyazaki had been developing the ideas in the film since the late 1970s. He reportedly created the Irontown in the film with inspiration from John Ford's westerns. Computer animation is reportedly used in approximately 10 % of the film, which is designed to blend in with the hand-painted animation. Miyazaki preferred the title The Legend of Ashitaka (the prince in the film) but accepted producer Toshio Suzuki's choice of Princess Mononoke. The film was an enormous hit in Japan, becoming first 1997's biggest hit and then for a while the highest-grossing film ever in Japanese cinemas, (beating E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)), - until Titanic (1997) took over the honor. For the North-American release, a Disney contract landed the film at Miramax's desk, where executive Harvey Weinstein threatened to cut it to 90 minutes. Determined rejection and a samurai sword sent directly to him from Miyazaki reportedly made sure that the film was released uncut with the English dub. It opened #33 to a 144k $ first weekend in 8 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #24 and in 129 theaters (different weeks), grossing 2.3 mil. $ in its first run there. The film has been re-released in several markets several times since its original release, continuing to woo new audiences. It has also made more than 268 mil. $ on the home video market in Japan and North America alone. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. IMDb's users have rated the film in as #80 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Good Will Hunting (1997). Princess Mononoke is certified fresh at 93 % with an 8.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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