Princess Mononoke(1997)
dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Industry versus forest, and no easy villain.
Where to watch: HBO Max; rent Amazon, Apple TV, Fandango At Home (~$3.99)Letterboxd ↗
Ashitaka, a young prince cursed by a boar-god turned demon, travels west to find a cure and ends up in the middle of a war between Irontown, a community of ironworkers led by Lady Eboshi, and the forest spirits led by the wolf-goddess Moro and her human daughter San. Nobody is simply right. The ironworkers are feeding lepers and freed women, and the forest is dying to feed them.
Why it’s here
Miyazaki refuses the easy version of a fight between industry and nature: the people destroying the forest are also building a refuge, and the film makes you hold both. What's punk is that it won't pick a villain who can be shot, and that its hero's job is to stay between the sides. What's pedagogical is that it hands young viewers a systems problem with no tidy answer. Good for a family watch with older kids; it has real violence.
Where This Film Lives
- Setting
- Japan
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