You cannot alter your fate.  You may rise to meet it if you choose.

     --  village elder to Prince Ashitaka

     Hayao Miyazaki's "Princess Mononoke" is a meditation on nature, life and death, the beauty of the world, and the consequences of pollution and encroaching civilization.  This enveloping Japanese anime from the master Miyazaki is essentially a meditation on "the tangible and the intangible" (Harry Knowles, Ain't It Cool News).

     This story of medieval Japan and the balance between mortals and the Gods begins with an omnipresent narration declaring this period as the time of Gods, demons, and beasts.  The narration also says that they all owed their allegiance to the great Forest Spirit.  A demon is glimpsed with purple skin "like writhing worms" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times).  This demon places a nearby village in jeopardy.

     We first get a ganders of our hero, Prince Ashitaka, warning some schoolchildren that the wise woman -- the village elder -- wants everyone away from the forest where a disturbance has been sensed.  A scene of prodigious detail follows showing Ashitaka riding his donkey, Yakul, through a stone trench to the village watchtower.  Halfway up the watchtower ladder, Ashitaka senses something in the forest...  something dark, something moving.  Foreshadowing and foreboding this intense and atmospheric reminds one of a Brian De Palma or David Lynch film.

     The prince's fears are confirmed when his friend at the top of the watchtower says he saw it too.  The black-and-purple worms ooze through some bushes and then the large demon juggernauts out of the forest and into the daylight.  The berserk demon is actually a boar god that has been cursed as the result of being shot by a man-made iron bullet shaped like a ball.

     The demon plows through the grassland and collapses the watchtower.  The friend warns Ashitaka, "That thing is cursed, don't let it touch you!"  As the fearsome demon heads toward the village, Ashitaka gives chase on Yakul's back, begging the demon that "whatever you may be, god or demon, please leave us in peace."

     The music is hypnotically intense as the demon notices the same three schoolgirls, turns toward their direction, and charges at them.  One schoolgirl trips and the other unsheaths her sword.  Ashitaka is forced to use his last resort, and flies an arrow into the demon's eye.

     The purple-and-black worms surge toward the sky and Ashitaka's arm is wounded.  The boar god is revealed in all its wounded glory as it falls to the earth and dies.  Its last words are "Disgusting creatures, soon all of you will feel my hate and suffer as I have suffered."

     This breathtaking opening act segueways into a scene that night where the village elder asks Ashitaka if he is prepared to learn the fate that the magic stones have foretold him.  He says, "I was prepared the moment I let my arrow fly."  It is revealed that the purple wound on his arm is cursed and will spread, passing through flesh and bone alike, cause great pain, and then kill him.

     "Is there nothing we can do?"  Ashitaka's friend asks.  The elder says there is a village called Iron Town a few days travel to the east and that there may be a way to reverse the curse.  Asitaka is told that whatever comes to pass, he is dead to the Emishi people.  So he cuts off his topknot and sets off on his journey.  "One of the schoolgirls, Kaya, gives him her crystal dagger necklace.  He says he'll never forget her." (Internet Movie Database synopsis)

     The windswept grasslands and the voluptuous music punctuates the beginning of the prince's journey.  Ashitaka finds some warriors raiding a village and -- stumbling on the massacre -- he warns them to stay back.  He is forced to intervene and dispatches the violent warriors with his bow and arrow.

     Ashitaka then meets a jolly, conversational individual -- a short, portly man with an agenda -- after helping out a lady in the village financially.  The prince continues his journey after this brief detour.

     Meanwhile, the empress of Iron Town -- the Lady Eboshi -- and her workers are returning to their village with cargos of rice.  The wolf gods attack the convoy on a mountain pass.  The mortals fire their weapons at the wolf gods, scaring the gods away.  "We did it, we turned the wolves away," one of Eboshi's warriors says.  THe empress says "That's not it.  Wait till you see their mother."

     An even larger wolf shows up behind the group of rice carriers, tearing some of them to shreds and knocking others off the cliff.  Eboshi says "It's Moro" and fires at the god with her rifle, striking Moro in the breast with an iron ball.  Moro falls off the mountain.  Eboshi assures the men that she'll be back for more.

     Continuing his journey, Prince Ashitaka discovers some of the survivors of the wolf attack, bandages them up and takes them with him.  Nearby, Ashitaka notices the large white wolf god Moro being aided by her human compatriot and adopted daughter, Princess Mononoke.  The half-human, half-wolf princess also known as San is a legendary warrior.  She is suctioning the poisoned blood out of her mother's wounds when she notices the prince.  Ashitaka declares himself, saying that he wants the forest and the people to live peacefully together.  The princess, spitting out blood, tells him to go away.

     The prince makes his way up through the mountain forest and along the way cute little spirits, that fade in and out of visibility, appear.  Ashitaka finally arrives at Iron Town and is thanked for bringing the wounded warriors home.  Lady Eboshi shows him around the fortressed village.  The town has a cozy ambience.  This all leads to a gorgeous scene where Lady Eboshi brings the prince to her secret garden.  One can sense the cold air in the pale blue visuals.

     Lady Eboshi introduces Ashitaka to her lepers.  Ashitaka voices concern about Iron Town clearing the forest out for mining purposes.  The violence and hatred is what Ashitaka wants to see end.  There is something treacherous about the cruel efficiency Lady Eboshi exudes.

     That night, Princess Mononoke infiltrates Iron Town.  The princess charges at Lady Eboshi and the effect is amazing.  Eboshi pulls out a sharp knife and defends herself.  Princess Mononoke represents nature and Lady Eboshi represents industry and encroaching civilization.  Ashitaka protects the princess and when Lady Eboshi says "I'm getting a little bored with this curse of yours, Ashitaka, let me cut it off," the prince knocks her out.  The prince breaks up the fight and carries the wolf girl, San, on his shoulder.  Ashitaka is shot in the chest but keeps on moving, taking the princess with him.

     When the prince faints near a serene lake in a lovely forest, San feeds him some roots that she chews up in her mouth for him.  She nurses him back to health and in the next scene the Forest Spirit heals the gunshot wound. 

     The Forest Spirit resembles a large deer and is the almighty god of life and death.  It is the only being who can choose to give life or take it away.  The spirit becomes transparent when it turns into "the night walker" when the sun sets.  The night walker is a large, slow-moving being that watches over the forest at night.

     This leads to a luminously beautiful scene where the night walker marches past tree top canopies full of those cute little spirits.  One starts clicking like a wind-up toy. After the silence has been broken, all the others start in; clicking and winding in unison.

     The picture is full of fanciful sights such as the Forest Spirit stepping onto the surface of water in a lake.  When the spirit steps onto the island where Ashitaka is resting, life grows out from underneath its hoof.  The image of beautiful lime-green plants and flowers teeming with life underneath the Forest Spirit's hoof is "ravishingly beautiful" (Janet Maslin, New York Times).

     Soon the battle between nature and civilization will be fought.  We know this because Moro, the wolf goddess, explains the situation to Prince Ashitaka in a cave on a cold, moonlit night.  A price has been put on the Forest Spirit's head and mercenaries intend to collect.  "Cut off a wolf's head, and it can still bite," Lady Eboshi warns.  Later, this will lead to a moment of surprising poetic justice.  

Tags: Anime Film Princess Mononoke

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