Princess Mononoke
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[edit] Synopsis
When a cursed boar-god attacks a small Emishi village, Prince Ashitaka attempts to save their occupants, and defends off the village. But whilst doing so, he is touched by the pure evil that had taken over the god, and is cursed. The wisewoman of the village tells him that soon the curse will spread, and he will eventually die. She tells him although he cannot stop the curse, he can rise to it. He is forced to leave the village and seeks out a cure before it kills him. The only clue he is given is a small lump of iron the villagers found inside of the boar, which they believe is what drove him to such hatred.
On rescuing San from the citadel, Ashitaka is shot by one of the woman who had lost her husband at the hands of the Wolf Tribe. Amazingly, he continues on, unaffected much to the disbelief of the women and lady Eboshi. With the powerful strength he gains from his cursed arm, he manages to open the gate to the citadel, and leaves with the two wolf cubs, carrying San on his loyal elk mount, Yakkul. When he falls off after riding due to his wounds, San stops the wolves from killing him, and while attempting to pick him up, Ashitaka mutters, "You are beautiful..." San is taken back, not knowing what to say, but before she can, the ape tribe begin throwing rocks at his body, disgusted at the humans.
San takes the unconscious Ashitaka to a pool in the forest, and leaves him to rest. During the night, the Spirit of the Forest, a legendary creature with the face of a human, comes to his feet. He cures his wound, and Ashitaka soon begins to recover from his injuries. When San returns, since the Sprit of the Forest let Ashitaka live, she decides to help him. She brings him food for him to eat, but in such a weak state, he can barely chew the meat. Seeing him struggle, San takes the meat and puts it in her mouth, chews it, and gives it to Ashitaka, mouth to mouth, while tears fall down Ashitaka's face.
Later, a herd of boars arrive to help defend the forest from the human invaders, however they are angered to find two humans in the forest. Moro, the leader of the Wolf Tribe defends San, who she had raised as a daughter when her human parents had left her in the forest. The herd are furious that the Forest Spirit would let a human live, while Nago, their god leader had died. A white boar, Okkoto, who is over 500 years old and blind, appears, when Ashitaka begins explaining how Nago had been corrupted by the evil, and Ashitaka had killed him in defence of his village. The boar believes him, and understands his problem, and is ashamed that such a boar came from their tribe. However, because of his hatred of all humans, he states that next time he appears, he will kill him.
Back in Irontown, lady Eboshi and her women and men have begun fighting with Samurais who are invading their citadel. Lord Asano, who is behind the Samurai forces, demands one half of their iron, but lady Eboshi refuses to give him anything. After a round of Samurais are driven back thanks to their new improved rifles, Jigo arrives and tells her about the boars in the forest, and their upcoming attack against the humans. He demands of her to fulfil her promise, and kill the Forest Spirit, since the Emperor of Japan will give many riches to the man who can grant him eternal life, which as legend tells is a secret of the Forest Sprit's head.
The next day, Ashitaka awakes to an empty cave, and finds his belongings beside him, and takes it as a message that he should be leaving. Although he is weak, he manages to make it to Yakkul, who has faithfully been waiting for him. Before he leaves, he gives his crystal knife, which is designed for protection to one of the wolf cubs, and asks that he give it to San. Meanwhile, San and Moro are overlooking the trap that the humans are setting for the boars. San realises that Okkoto is blind, without both his sense of sight and smell, since they are burning materials to overcome their senses. Moro says that San can choose another path, the path of going with Ashitaka, but San has made up her mind. San receives Ashitaka's gift, and wears it as a necklace, and with the two wolf cubs, goes to help the boars fight the humans.
As Ashitaka is riding on Yakkul down a mountain, he hears a loud explosion, and rushes back to Irontown to discover that the Samurais have launched an offensive against the citadel whilst Eboshi and her best men are in the Forest, fighting the animal gods. He learns that they are holding out fine, but they really need Eboshi to return to help them, and Ashitaka promises to deliver the message to Eboshi in the forest. When he arrives at Eboshi's camp, all he can find is high piles of bodies, both humans and boars, but cannot find San anywhere amongst the dead. He finds one of the cubs alive, but trapped, and begins to rescue it from the remains. The humans are scared, but when they soon realise Jigo has used Eboshi and her men, they rebel and begin to help Ashitaka who had been crushed with the Wolf. Yakkul approaches the wolf cub, and they stare at each other silently, but as if they were communicating. Ashitaka and the wolf run of to the forest to search for San.
Meanwhile, San, Moro and Okkoto are rushing to the pool to bring the boar god to the Spirit of the Forest. However, wounded and weak, he falls down, knocking San. However, behind him, boar warriors appear. Okkoto believes it is his warriors who have returned from the dead to fight with him, but San sees that it is really the humans wearing the hides, but Okkoto is too arrogant and too proud to listen to her, and marches on, unaware of the trap he is entering.
After waking from unconsciousness, San realises she is hooked on Okkoto, who has become overcome with the same hatred worms that Nago had once been, and the evil curse was soon beginning to affect her. She cries out in help, and the wolf cub and Ashitaka hear, and rush to her aid. Ashitaka finds lady Eboshi, and tells her to return to Irontown, since it's under attack, but she selfishly believes she should continue. When Ashitaka leaves to help San, one of Jigo's men notes that they can kill Eboshi now, but Jigo says that when killing a god, you don't want to be the one doing it, and lets her live on to be the one that finally kills the god.
The Forest Spirit arrives, and Jigo expects it to restore the life of the two gods, but instead kills them both. Eboshi, hidden behind the trees with Jigo and his men, then shoots the Forest Spirit. He is stricken, but he is still fine. Jigo is shocked, but Eboshi reveals to him it will take more than that to kill him. As night falls, the Forest Spirit begins to transform into the nightwalker. Knowing this was the time to take out the head, Eboshi shoots, and the head is separated from his body.
Enraged, San jumps at Ashitaka and attempts to stab him with the crystal knife he had given her, but Ashitaka grabs her and stops her. He murmurs, "I'm sorry... I tried to stop them..." and she replies, "It's all over." But Ashitaka still has hope that they can both save this.
The attack on Irontown has stopped, as the Samurais rest for the night. Ashitaka and San, riding the two wolves, come to the town, and warn the women and the lepers of the town to head for the lake, or they'll be devoured by the masses of tar-like slime from the nightwalker. Later, Ashitaka and San find Jigo and his men, carrying the pot with the Forest Spirit's head in it. They demand that he return it, but he says it's too late. Ashitaka says that the least the humans could do is to return the head, and as he tries to persuade Jigo, he attacks him. Eventually, he gives up, and gives the head to Ashitaka and San. Together, they hold up the head, and present it to the headless wandering Nightwalker. As it leans its neck back towards it's head, Ashitaka and San hold on to each other.
The sun rises above the land and the forest, and soon the lands that were destroyed by the slime of the nightwalker soon begin to spring into life, and the greenlife and plants soon grow and spread through the land. A bright blue wind blows over the world, removing it off the buildings, the trees, the horses, and even the Samurais. The people from Irontown in the lake are amazed, after seeing what has happened to the world. The lepers soon notice, their skin has grown back, and they no longer have their disease.
On a grassy mountain, Yakkul nudges Ashitaka to wake him up. He soon realises San is still with him, and he wakes her up to, to show her what the Forest Spirit has done. Although San is happy the forest has returned, she is still distraught, "Even if all the trees return, it won't be his forest. The great Forest Spirit is dead now..." But Ashitaka, with defiance, replies "Never... he's life and death itself. He's not dead, San - he's here, right now, trying to tell us something... That it's time for both of us to live." Ashitaka notices his curse has now faded, and only a small scar remains. Although San loves Ashitaka, she says she cannot stay with him, for she still despises all humans, but they promise to visit each other frequently.
In the meantime, Eboshi is telling her men and women that they will start a new, better town from fresh. Jigo says he's had enough, he laughs and say "Well, I give up! You can't win against fools..." In the forest, where new life is beginning to grow, a lone Kodoma shakes his head.
[edit] Credits
- Direction, Original Story & Screenplay: Hayao Miyazaki
- Music: Joe Hisaishi
- Production: Studio Ghibli
- Executive Producers: Seiichiro Ujiie & Yutaka Narita
- Producer: Toshio Suzuki
- English language script for the US version: Neil Gaiman
[edit] Voice actors
- Yōji Matsuda - Ashitaka
- Yuriko Ishida - San
- Akihiro Miwa - Moro
- Yūko Tanaka - Lady Eboshi
- Kaoru Kobayashi - Jiko Bou
[edit] Miramax English dub voice actors
- Billy Crudup - Ashitaka
- Claire Danes - San
- Gillian Anderson - Moro
- Minnie Driver - Lady Eboshi
- Billy Bob Thornton - Jigo
- John DiMaggio - Gonza
- Jada Pinkett Smith - Toki
[edit] See Also
Categories: Anime | Japan
