Princess Mononoke

Spoilers for Princess Mononoke

I was enjoying myself for about 40 minutes, and I will say this film is firing on all cylinders on the visual and audio department. Then it turns into an obnoxiously rote turf war with a giant evil blob that has to be defeated and it just kind of became like... every other action adventure film. I rolled my eyes at the EXTREMELY rushed romance and the "I'll do better next time" ahh ending. If you want to make a pro environmental film, why make all the characters on that side unlikeable? Actually everyone in this film is unlikeable, genuinely EVERYONE! I know people hate this word for some reason, but this movie is the epitome of mid.

But alright, I'll expand a bit. The movie sets up a very interesting premise, Ashitaka is essentially put on a timer for defending his village from a cursed boar. He rides off into the forest with his trusty elk, with the goal of... well we don't really know for sure. That was interesting because I was under the assumption that he would cure his cursed body, but it was clear he had greater goals that he would accomplish in his allotted time. It gave a certain weight to his actions, and I think there would have been a level of poignancy if he died near the end of the film to give his decisions a greater weight. This happens when he saves two of Lady Eboshi's soldiers who were in the river, and enters irontown to save San.

And that part of the film, where he's moving through the forest after saving those two men, it was genuinely magical. The Kodama and the forest god's appearance, it was moving in a way other films just aren't. This doesn't lead to a greater point, I just wanted to say that.

Oh and another thing, I think the curse giving Ashitaka additional strength, even if it results in those goofy looking arrow shots, was an interesting way to balance his curse with a meaningful ability to effect the plot, since the curse gains potency the more he allows it to consume him. It's actually a pretty reasonable power up. I know I'm powerscaling princess mononoke, I just liked that part of the film ok.

Anyway, so Ashitaka was supposed to mature in a way that explores his own feelings, and it's clear by a certain point that he's a pacifist who wants the fighting to stop, for human and nature to be at peace. The problem is that both sides are obnoxious in similar ways.

I'll discuss the nature first. The wolves, boars, and apes are constantly fighting each other, you walk on their land and they get pissed and throw stones and branches at you, and if you have a human with you, even if they were literally raised to think they're not one, you will get called a traitor and cursed upon. They're all completely unreasonable, and the allegory doesn't apply at all to reality. Environmentalists don't want humans to remain outside the land, they want it to be preserved for EVERYONE to enjoy, which is why state owned nature reserves are open to the public. These animals are just as imperialistic as the humans, so why should I care when they get blown to smithereens by humans trying to defend their home?

Even if Ashitaka wanted to take their side, he's an absolutely terrible mediator. He has no ability to even understand why Lady Eboshi is fighting the spirit god, and can't even stop her from murdering San without resorting to violence. Not that Lady Eboshi is being entirely reasonable, but she's being attacked by samurai factions, so it's her responsibility to defend threats to her village, which is at least far more culturally progressive than the wild animals. I do think full blown matriarchy is somewhat cringe, but the lepers and other disabled folk were given a meaningful place in society. She's supposed to be the villain and she's somehow more reasonable than our pacifist hero?

The ONLY time I felt she was in the wrong was when she didn't believe Ashitaka about the Samurai raid happening at irontown, and even then she was already on her intended mission, is she just supposed to retreat? If Irontown exists on the progressive belief that women can contribute meaningfully to society, she should let them defend that belief with their arms. Also Irontown is an extremely well secured fort, there was some damage but the women were able to take care of themselves just fine.

In all honesty, the human and the animals aren't really that different from each other, they both fight over land to defend their own factions, and any call for peace needs to recognize the material conditions and threats of security that face either side, which is what makes Ashitaka so annoying since he tries to remain impartial, when the forest god treats him way better than the actual animals that worship him. Like dead blind old boar has the SAME CURSE as this random human boy, but lets cure this guy and let the boar, who worshiped and believed in me it's entire life, to just die. Yeah ok, very cool.

I don't really know what else to say, since that fundamental flaw kind of ruins the rest of the film, and it becomes way too bombastic near the end, with the giant black blob just rampaging and you gotta stop it cause its big and stuff. I was tapped out, I don't care.

And then San falls in love with Ashitaka because of course she does, and he gives her Kaya's bracelet? WHY? That genuinely pissed me off because the memory of your little sister is less important than rizzing up some crazy xenophobic wolf girl.

Oh yeah and Lady Eboshi is like "I'll do better" but she doesn't even know what she did wrong? What's the point of apologizing if you don't understand why what you did was wrong? Hell how did Ashitaka or San know what was wrong? Did they just guess? It's never explained how the sequence of events would take place, it just happens and they pray to the god and all is forgiven.

Yeah this movie sucks, it's pretty but the plot is just a bunch of "and then this happened" strung together with no proper explanation about the sequence of events. If you like it good for you, but this was a total miss for me.