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| Image taken from allpoetry.com |
The film of the week was Princess Mononoke, which is the 2nd Studio Ghibli film we have watched this semester. I’m not new to the Studio Ghibli style so without being told I was able to tell both this film and Grave of the Fireflies were from that studio. The first film I ever watched from them was Kiki’s Delivery Service and not so many ever since so I was not aware as to the wide variety of topics that are covered in their films. I thought it was mostly films aimed toward children… but after watching these two it seems to be more toward older kids.
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| Image taken from www3.arts.umich.edu |
Regardless, this film actually had me thinking of Ferngully and Avatar while watching it because of the protection of nature theme. This film portrays more than just the beauty of nature; it exhibits the good and evil within everything, humans and animals alike. The main character, Ashitaka is given a curse of hatred from a demonized boar, though this character is not full of hatred, he does display evil from his curse and the fact others were killed on his journey in the process of protecting animals and people. Overall he is a GOOD character. He cares about everyone and tries his best to prevent hatred and spite. The people of Iron Town (mainly officials) nearly killed him yet he still helped them in the movie anyway when they were in grave danger due to the Forest Spirit’s rampage when searching for its head. Or When Princess Mononoke (San) attacked him or shunned him various times, he still did what he could to rescue her from harm’s way. This eventually paid off though because she grew to trust him.
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| Image taken from freeforpsp.com |
Lady Eboshi is another prime example of good and evil. Overall she seems to be a really good person. She took in lepers and prostitutes and treats them like normal people, not outcasts. She gave them jobs, food, and shelter. She is a caring leader to her entire town, but she is the main reason why the forest is distraught. Iron Town has been cutting down trees and mining resources to make their iron weapons. Any animals taken by gunshot become demonized as well. This was the case with the boar that cursed Ashitaka and what explains the iron lump found from its remains. He weapons bring darkness to the forest and even her own town. Due to her shooting off the Forest Spirit’s head, the entire forest died and Iron Town was destroyed. However at the end of the film when all the chaos was over, she seems to have learned a lesson from it all and wanted to thank Ashitaka for everything.
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| Image taken from absoluteanime.com |
I think Princess Mononoke is an interesting film, not only does it teach you about the cycle of life, death, and rebirth, but it ALSO gives you a better appreciation for nature overall. At least that is how I felt after watching this film, although I had a great respect for nature prior to watching it.
