Princess Mononoke
1997 · Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
Original language: Japanese
- adventure
- fantasy
- animation
The story
Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.
What it’s like
Hand-drawn cel animation with painterly backgrounds: forests dense with moss and mist, rivers running cold and clear, iron-grey smoke over a muddy industrial clearing, and light that shifts from pale dawn to amber dusk to the green-gold glow of a forest at noon. The palette is earthy and rich, with flashes of blood-red and the pale pink of kodama spirits. Camera movement is patient, with sweeping pans over rolling grassland and crowds of ordinary people working in dirt and heat, and the frame often holds on nature for a beat longer than feels necessary. Joe Hisaishi's orchestral score swells with wooden flutes and taiko drums, then drops to near silence so that wind through trees and the creak of a shrine feel close. The mood is elegiac and earnest, a blend of wonder and grief, with a slow, deliberate pace punctuated by sudden, heavy action. Its fights are brief but bloody: arrows, sword cuts, and a few decapitations, along with a boar-god's corrupted rage and some disfiguring disease, so it lands as serious rather than gentle. For viewers who want a sweeping, thoughtful fable about people and the land they depend on, on a quiet evening with the lights low.
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