Princess Mononoke

Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫) is a 1997 Japanese animated epic historical fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and animated by Studio Ghibli for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network and Dentsu. The film stars the voices of Yōji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yūko Tanaka, Kaoru Kobayashi, Masahiko Nishimura, Tsunehiko Kamijo, Akihiro Miwa, Mitsuko Mori, and Hisaya Morishige. Set in the late Muromachi period of Japan (approximately 1336 to 1573 AD) and includes fantasy elements, the story follows a young Emishi prince named Ashitaka, and his involvement in a struggle between the gods (kami) of a forest and the humans who consume its resources. The film deals with themes of Shinto and environmentalism.

Princess Mononoke was released in Japan on July 12, 1997, by Toho, and in the United States on October 29, 1999. A critical and commercial success, the film became the highest-grossing film in Japan of 1997, and also held Japan's box office record for domestic films until 2001's Spirited Away, another Miyazaki film. It was dubbed into English with a script by Neil Gaiman and initially distributed in North America by Miramax, where it sold well on home media despite not performing strongly at the box office. The film greatly increased Ghibli's popularity and influence outside Japan.

Plot
In Muromachi Japan, an Emishi village is attacked by a hideous demon. The last Emishi prince, Ashitaka, kills it before it reaches the village, but it grasps his arm and curses him before its death. The curse grants him superhuman strength, but it also causes him pain and will eventually kill him. The villagers discover that the demon was a boar god, corrupted by an iron ball lodged in his body. The village's wise woman (Hī-sama) tells Ashitaka that he may find a cure in the western lands that the demon came from, and that he cannot return to his homeland.

Heading west, Ashitaka meets Jigo, an opportunistic monk who tells Ashitaka he may find help from the Great Forest Spirit, a deer-like animal god by day and a giant Nightwalker by night. Nearby, men on a cliffside herd oxen to their home of Iron Town, led by Lady Eboshi, and repel an attack by a wolf pack led by the wolf goddess Moro, whom Eboshi wounds with a gun shot. Riding one of the wolves is San, a human girl. Down below, Ashitaka encounters San and the wolves, who rebuff his greeting. He then rescues two of the men fallen from the cliff and transports them back through the forest, where he briefly glimpses the Great Forest Spirit.

Ashitaka and the survivors arrive at Iron Town, where he is greeted with fascination. Iron Town is a refuge for outcasts and lepers employed to process iron and create firearms, such as hand cannons and matchlock muskets. Ashitaka learns that the town was built by clearcutting forests to mine the iron, leading to conflicts with Asano, a local daimyō, and a giant boar god named Nago. Eboshi admits that she shot Nago, incidentally turning him into the demon that attacked Ashitaka's village. She also reveals that San, dubbed Princess Mononoke, was raised by the wolves and hates humankind.

San infiltrates Iron Town and fights Eboshi, but Ashitaka intervenes and subdues them both. Amidst the hysteria a villager shoots him, but the curse gives him strength to carry San out of the village. San wakes and tries killing the weakened Ashitaka, but hesitates when he compliments her beauty. She decides to trust him after the Forest Spirit heals his bullet wound that night. The next day, a boar clan led by the blind god Okkoto plans to attack Iron Town to save the forest. Eboshi sets out to kill the Forest Spirit with Jigo. Eboshi intends to give the god's head to the Emperor (who believes it will grant him immortality) in return for protection from Asano, while Jigo desires the large reward being offered.

Ashitaka recovers and finds Iron Town besieged by Asano's samurai. The boar clan has been annihilated in battle, and Okkoto is badly wounded. Jigo's men trick Okkoto into leading them to the Forest Spirit. San tries stopping Okkoto but is swept up as his pain corrupts him into a demon. As everyone clashes at the pool of the Forest Spirit, Ashitaka rescues San while the Forest Spirit euthanizes Moro and Okkoto. As it begins to transform into the Night Walker Eboshi decapitates it. Jigo steals the head, while the Forest Spirit's body bleeds ooze that spreads over the land and kills anything it touches. The forest and its spirits begin to die. Moro's head briefly comes alive and bites off Eboshi's right arm, but she survives. An enraged San tries killing Eboshi, but is stopped by Ashitaka, who consoles her and encourages her not to give up.

After Iron Town is evacuated, Ashitaka and San pursue Jigo and retrieve the head, returning it to the Forest Spirit. The Spirit dies but its form washes over the land, healing it and lifting Ashitaka's curse. Ashitaka stays to help rebuild Iron Town, but promises San he will visit her in the forest. Eboshi vows to build a better town and the forest begins to regrow.

Development


Miyazaki composed the preliminary ideas for what would become Princess Mononoke shortly after the release of his first film The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), drawing sketches of a princess living in the woods with a beast. After unsuccessfully proposing the project to several production companies, Miyazaki published his concepts in a 1983 book, republished in 2014 as Princess Mononoke: The First Story. While being set in Japan, the concept had strong similarities to the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast" (1740). According to film scholar Rayna Denison, the differences that can be discerned between the original idea and the final film demonstrate the radical change of Miyazaki's filmmaking philosophies. Upon the completion of his manga series Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1994), Miyazaki began work on the project proposal for the film in April 1994. However, encountering writer's block in December of that year, he decided to take a break from the production and direct the short film On Your Mark (1995) as a side project. Miyazaki returned to the film and began working on the storyboards in April 1995.

To achieve the environmental depiction that he was seeking to portray, Miyazaki and four art directors visited the island of Yakushima in May 1995. Additionally, art director Kazuo Oga went to the Shirakami-Sanchi mountains, which had already inspired some environments in Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.

Miyazaki did not want to create an accurate history of Medieval Japan, and wanted to "portray the very beginnings of the seemingly insoluble conflict between the natural world and modern industrial civilization." Despite being set during the Muromachi period, the actual time period of Princess Mononoke depicts a "symbolic neverwhen clash of three proto-Japanese races (the Jomon, Yamato and Emishi)."

Two titles were originally considered for the film. One, ultimately chosen, has been translated into English as Princess Mononoke. The other title can be translated into English as The Legend of Ashitaka (アシタカ𦻙記), and it contains an uncommon kanji 𦻙 that represents "a legend passed down from ear to ear without being recorded in official history", according to Miyazaki. In a Tokyo Broadcasting System program, televised on November 26, 2013, Toshio Suzuki mentioned that Miyazaki had preferred The Legend of Ashitaka as the title while Suzuki himself favored Princess Mononoke, though the former title was eventually reused for the first song on the soundtrack.

Animation
Princess Mononoke was produced with a budget of ¥2.35 billion (US$19.6 million; US$36.6 million in 2023), making it the most expensive Japanese animation at the time. The film used 144,000 cels, 80,000 of them being key animation frames, more than any other Studio Ghibli film. Miyazaki is estimated to have drawn or retouched nearly 80,000 cels himself. The animation production commenced in July 1995. The final storyboards were finished in June 1997.

Computer graphics


Studio Ghibli's computer graphics department was created in 1995 following the experimental use of digital techniques on Pom Poko (1994). For the production of Princess Mononoke, the studio worked with Microsoft to develop the "Toon Shader" tool, which was used to blend the various digitally generated images with the hand-drawn animation in the rest of the film. The decision to use computer graphics was made early in the production at Miyazaki's request, starting with the opening sequence of the demon god. A variety of techniques were eventually used in the animation process: digital ink and paint, used to color the frames; 3D rendering and digital compositing, which put the hand-drawn images in a three-dimensional environment to create more visual depth; and morphing and particle effects, which create additional detail and smoother transitions. Approximately five minutes of the film were animated entirely using digital processes. A further ten minutes use digital ink and paint, a technique used in all subsequent Studio Ghibli films.

Environment
The film centers on the adventure of Ashitaka as he journeys to the west to undo a fatal curse inflicted upon him by Nago, a boar turned into a demon by Eboshi. Michelle J. Smith and Elizabeth Parsons said that the film "makes heroes of outsiders in all identity politics categories and blurs the stereotypes that usually define such characters". In the case of the deer god's destruction of the forest and Tataraba, Smith and Parsons said that the "supernatural forces of destruction are unleashed by humans greedily consuming natural resources". They also characterized Eboshi as a businesswoman who has a desire to make money at the expense of the forest, and also cite Eboshi's intention to destroy the forest to mine the mountain "embodies environmentalist evil". Deidre M. Pike writes that San is simultaneously part of nature and part of the problem. She represents the connection between the environment and humans, but also demonstrates that there is an imbalance in power between the two.

In a speech in 2016, Miyazaki explained that he was inspired to portray people living with leprosy, "said to be an incurable disease caused by bad karma", after visiting the Tama Zenshoen Sanatorium near his home in Tokyo. According to media and literature scholars Sierra et al., Eboshi is driven by her compassion for the disabled, and believes that blood from the Great Forest Spirit could allow her to "cure [her] poor lepers".

Development versus preservation
According to the Chicago Sun-Times's Roger Ebert, "It is not a simplistic tale of good and evil, but the story of how humans, forest animals and nature gods all fight for their share of the new emerging order." Anime historian Susan J. Napier said there is no clear good vs. evil conflict in Princess Mononoke, unlike other films popular with children. Based on the multiple points of view the film adopts, San and Lady Eboshi can simultaneously be viewed as heroic or villainous. San defends the forest and viewers empathize with her. But she also attacks innocent people, complicating how we evaluate her. Opposed to San, Eboshi tries to destroy the forest and could be considered a villain. But everything she does is out of a desire to protect her village and see it prosper. San and Lady Eboshi survive until film's end, defying the usual convention of good triumphing over evil with the antagonist defeated. Napier concluded that the resolution of the conflict is left ambiguous, implying that Lady Eboshi and San will be able to come to some sort of compromise. The ambiguity suggests that there are no true villains or heroes.

According to media arts scholar Benjamin Thevenin, duality is central to Eboshi's characterization. She holds no inherent malicious intent toward nature and its spirits, as evidenced by the garden she keeps in Irontown, until they begin attacking her people. Irontown itself is a haven for downtrodden members of society, who Eboshi treats equally.

Loss of innocence
Dan Jolin of Empire said that a potential theme could be that of lost innocence. Miyazaki attributes this to his experience of making his previous film, Porco Rosso, and the wars in the former Yugoslavia, which he cites as an example of mankind never learning, making it difficult for him to go back to making a film such as Kiki's Delivery Service, where he has been quoted as saying "It felt like children were being born to this world without being blessed. How could we pretend to them that we're happy?"

Style
Princess Mononoke marked the first time Miyazaki explored a jidaigeki style – a period drama focusing on the lives of historic Japanese peoples. According to Napier, the film presents a much "grimmer" tone than his previous works, inspired by Japanese literary classic Hōjōki (1212). The film also subverts many traditional elements of the jidaigeki genre, such as the portrayals of the Emperor and the samurai as sacred and noble. Additionally, Miyazaki chooses not to follow typical depictions of the Muromachi period such as the development of high culture or Zen aesthetics in Kyoto, opting to focus on the beauty and danger of the natural landscape. However, according to animation scholar Helen McCarthy, Miyazaki was drawn to the period as the Japanese people "began to feel they could control nature, rather than placate or worship it".

Music
As with many of Miyazaki's previous films, the film's score was composed by Joe Hisaishi. According to McCarthy, the development of the score involved a much closer collaboration between the two than on previous works. Hisaishi first composed an image album – a collection of demos and musical sketches that serve as a precursor to the finished score – which was then reworked into the final score, performed by the Tokyo City Philharmonic. Tokuma Shoten released the image album in July 1996 and the soundtrack album in July 1997. A third version of the soundtrack, arranged for symphony orchestra and performed by the Czech Philharmonic, was released in 1998.

Release
Princess Mononoke was released theatrically in Japan on July 12, 1997.

Since Walt Disney Studios had made a distribution deal with Tokuma Shoten for Studio Ghibli's films in 1996, it was the first film from Studio Ghibli along with Castle in the Sky (1986) and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989) to have been dubbed into English by Disney.

The film was aired on Nippon TV in Japan on January 22, 1999. It reached a 35.1% audience share, making it the broadcaster's second-most-viewed film at the time behind Spirited Away (2001).

On April 29, 2000, the English version of Princess Mononoke was released theatrically in Japan along with the documentary Mononoke hime in U.S. The film had a limited theatrical re-release in the United States during July 2018, and again during April 2022 for the 25th anniversary of its original Japanese release.

Box office
Princess Mononoke was the highest-grossing Japanese film of 1997, earning ¥11.3 billion in distribution rental earnings. It became the highest-grossing film in Japan, beating the record set by E.T. in 1982, but was surpassed several months later by Titanic. The film earned total domestic gross receipts of ¥20.18 billion. The film remained in the top 5 films at the box office for 22 weeks.

It was the highest-grossing anime film in the United States in January 2001, but because its US release was only in select theaters, the film did not fare as well financially in the country when released in October 1999. It grossed US$2.2 million in its first eight weeks. The film earned a total of US$11 million outside Japan, bringing its worldwide total to US$159 million at the time. On December 6, 2016, GKIDS announced that it would screen the film in US cinemas on January 5 and January 9, 2017 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, bundled with the On Your Mark short. The film's limited US re-release in 2018 grossed US$1.4 million over five days, bringing its US total to US$3.7 million and worldwide total to US$160 million. , the film has grossed US$194.3 million.

For its 25th anniversary, the film was screened at New York City's Japan Society on July 22, 2022.

Home media
In Japan, the film was released on VHS by Buena Vista Home Entertainment in 1997, as well as by Tokuma Shoten in 1998. By 2007, Princess Mononoke sold 4.4million DVD units in Japan.

The DVD release of Princess Mononoke in North America was not initially to include the Japanese audio track. Multiple online petitions were opened to retain it, and the original August 2000 release was delayed as a result. Miramax Home Entertainment released the DVD on December 19, 2000, with the original Japanese audio, the English dubbed audio and extras including a trailer and a documentary with interviews from the English dub voice actors. It would then have its sell-through VHS release on March 13, 2001.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released Princess Mononoke on Blu-ray on November 18, 2014. In its first week, it sold 21,860 units; by November 23, 2014, it had grossed US$502,332. It was later included in Disney's "The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki" Blu-ray set, released on November 17, 2015. GKIDS re-issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD on October 17, 2017. , the film has grossed US$9.2 million from Blu-ray sales in the United States.

In the United Kingdom, the film's Studio Ghibli anniversary release appeared several times on the annual lists of bestselling foreign language film on home video, ranking number three in 2019, below Spirited Away (2001) and My Neighbor Totoro (1988).

English dub
In response to demands from Miramax chairman Harvey Weinstein to edit the film, producer Toshio Suzuki sent Weinstein a sword with the message "No cuts." Promotion manager Steve Alpert revealed that Weinstein had wanted to trim the film down from 135 minutes to 90 minutes "despite having promised not to do so". Weinstein hired Neil Gaiman to write the English script. Despite Gaiman's independent fame as an author, his role as scriptwriter for the dub was not heavily promoted; Studio Ghibli requested that Miramax remove some executives' names from the poster for the film.

Critical response
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 93% of 117 critic reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's consensus reads, "With its epic story and breathtaking visuals, Princess Mononoke is a landmark in the world of animation." On Metacritic, it has an average score of 76 out of 100 based on 29 reviews, indictating "generally favorable reviews".

The Daily Yomiuri's Aaron Gerow called the film a "powerful compilation of Miyazaki's world, a cumulative statement of his moral and filmic concerns." Leonard Klady of Variety said that Princess Mononoke "is not only more sharply drawn, it has an extremely complex and adult script" and the film "has the soul of a romantic epic, and its lush tones, elegant score by Joe Hisaishi and full-blooded characterizations give it the sweep of cinema's most grand canvases". Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called Princess Mononoke "a great achievement and a wonderful experience, and one of the best films of the year." Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly called the film "a windswept pinnacle of its art" and that it "has the effect of making the average Disney film look like just another toy story". Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said that the film "brings a very different sensibility to animation, a medium [Miyazaki] views as completely suitable for straight dramatic narrative and serious themes." In his review, Dave Smith from Gamers' Republic called it "one of the greatest animated films ever created, and easily one of the best films of 1999".

In 2001, Animage ranked Princess Mononoke 47th in their list of the 100 best anime. It ranked 488th on Empire's list of the 500 greatest films. Time Out ranked the film 26th on 50 greatest animated films. It also ranked 26 on Total Film list of 50 greatest animated films.

Accolades
Princess Mononoke is the first animated feature film to win the Japan Academy Prize for Best Picture. For the 70th Academy Awards ceremony, Princess Mononoke was the Japanese submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not successfully nominated. Hayao Miyazaki was also nominated for an Annie Award for his work on the film.

Legacy
According to Napier, Princess Mononoke is "considered by many to be Miyazaki's most important work". The film's release was a "cultural phenomenon" in Japan, breaking box office records previously held only by Hollywood films, which Denison feels was "reflective of a general trend towards the globalization of anime".

James Cameron cited Princess Mononoke as an influence on his 2009 film Avatar. He acknowledged that it shares themes with Princess Mononoke, including its clash between cultures and civilizations, and cited Princess Mononoke as an influence on the ecosystem of Pandora.

Stage adaptation
In 2012, it was announced that Studio Ghibli and British theater company Whole Hog Theatre would be bringing Princess Mononoke to the stage. It is the first stage adaptation of a Studio Ghibli work. The contact between Whole Hog Theatre and Studio Ghibli was facilitated by Nick Park of Aardman Animations after he sent footage of Whole Hog performances to Studio Ghibli's Toshio Suzuki. The play features large puppets made out of recycled and reclaimed materials.

The first performances were scheduled for London's New Diorama Theatre and sold out in 72 hours, a year in advance. In March 2013, it was announced that the show would transfer to Japan after its first run of shows in London. A second series of performances followed in London after the return from Tokyo. The second run of London performances sold out in four and half hours. The play received positive reviews and was one of Lyn Gardner's theater picks in The Guardian.