review: Will Japan's blockbuster anime hit charm American audiences? Read the review and find out!

November 24, 1999

Ttile Princess Mononoke

Rated PG-13

Release Date 1999-11-05

Sci-fi Bits Animal gods, gunpowder, gods of the forest.

Juicy Bits Horny forge workers. Strange men in animal clothings. Gratuitous beheadings and amputations.

Screenwriter Neil Gaiman/Hayao Miyazaki

Director Hayao Miyazaki

Featuring Clare Danes as San Billy Crudup as Ashitaka Minnie Driver as Lady Eboshi Gillian Anderson as Moro Jada Pinkett as Toki Billy Bob Thornton as Jigo

When I first saw Princess Mononoke in its original Japanese format more than a year ago, I was taken with the quality and detail of the animation and how much it differed from both formulaic Disney films and the majority of anime seen here in the States. Even though my Japanese isn't the best, the story was simple enough to be understood on a purely visual level, but complex enough to register symbolically on many levels (unlike its contemporary Hercules.)

Still, when I learned Disney/Miramax was bringing it to the US, I thought it was a gutsy move on its part, considering Princess Mononoke is one of Miyazaki's least "kid-safe" films, featuring brutal violence, light sexual themes, and an amazing amount of death for an animated film. It was about as un-Disney as you can get. But, good taste prevailed, and Miramax has dubbed it for US release, untouched except for a new script from Sandman writer Neil Gaiman. If you like your animation grown-up and slightly exotic, then you can't afford to miss this film.

Mononoke opens in medieval Japan, where Ashitaka, the young chief-to-be in a dying rural village, kills an animal god and is cursed with a mystical black rot. In order to appease the spirits, Ashitaka is banished and goes to seek a cure. His travels gradually lead him into the Forest of the Gods, a wood populated by giant, oversized animal gods, eerie forest spirits, and the Tatara clan -- a village of outcasts attempting to carve a niche for themselves in this wilderness.

Despite the story's savagery and violence, it's never lacking in childlike wonder.

Of course, nothing's that simple. Although it may seem Ashitaka has arrived in a paradise, it's quickly revealed this world is ripe with the maggots of war. The Tatara fight to conquer the animal gods and the forest to survive, the Japanese shogunate wants to destroy the Tatara because of their ironworking prowess, mercenaries wish to kill the Spirit of the Forest for immortality, and the forest gods wish to wipe out the human taint once and for all. Miyazaki deftly weaves Ashitaka into the tapestry of conflict, making him a neutral observer at first, then an active peacemaker as he tries to come to terms with his own curse and the larger vicious cycle that surrounds him. Miyazaki uses Ashitaka as neutral to show that all conflicts seem noble from the side of the oppressed, but turns the ex-prince into the center of his "nature vs. civilization" metaphor when the women in his life, the Lady Eboshi (of the Tatara clan) and San (wolf-princess of the forest gods) come together and attempt to kill each other. It's a smooth and convincing transition, and one that helps to bring about the final resolution in a satisfying manner.

And while Mononoke's, world isn't a pleasant one, it's incredibly beautiful. The costuming is convincing, and the forests mythology is well-fleshed. Everyone has been given careful attention to details, from the forge workers to the ape gods, and that brings this world to vivid life. Likewise, trademark Miyazaki touches like the eerie but playful Kodamas and the awe-inspiring Spirit of the Forest are like nothing you've ever seen, yet they bond with you on some level, making you feel like this entire natural, mystic world exists, even if it's only for the duration of the movie. When the Spirit of the Forest breathes, you breath right along.

Ashitaka, seen at a difficult point in his life.

There are a few quibbles to make, including Gillian Anderson and Billy Bob Thornton's miscasting in the roles of wolf goddess and monk (who ever heard of a Buddhist monk with a Southern accent?), but all in all, the transition from Japanese to English film is seamless. If you're a long-time anime fan, you'll get jarred by the voices at first, but you'll get used to it very quick. That said, this is a movie that'll stick in your head for a long time.

--Jeff Chen has never chopped the head off a forest god and would prefer to keep it that way.

MOVIES:

• Ashitaka takes on the boar god
• Ashitaka finds out what the curse is good for
• The Lord of the Forest arrives

TRAILERS:

• Smaller -- 7 MB
• Larger -- 12 MB. Quicktime 4 only.

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