Unlike previous Hayao Miyazaki movies, "Princess Mononoke" is probably Miyako's most ambitious animation work, and the achievement of the finished product is greater than his personal ambition. After completing the production of the movie "Porco Rosso" in 1992, Gong Lao once admitted that he thought "Porco Rosso" was stupid because he made an animation that children could not understand. But I think "Princess Mononoke" is a continuation of "Porco Rosso" in terms of what children can't understand. There are a large number of severed limbs and heads in this film, and horror scenes of wild beasts turning into fierce gods, which will never appear in the previous works of Hayao Miyazaki. The theme of this film is still the three common "Hayao Miyazaki themes" of nature, environmental protection and survival. But compared with another "Nausicaa", the connotation of this work is even more creepy. For example, the people of Dadala cut down trees in order to mine iron ore, destroying nature, and causing nature's revenge. But why do they mine iron ore? For survival. Dadala is a barren place. Except for iron ore, there is no land that can be used to develop agriculture, so in order to survive, they must dig iron ore. But this is just survival and development? Hayao Miyazaki may have also thought about a profound truth: humans must plunder nature. If it is for production, humans can live in harmony with nature: but if humans are on this path of development, nature will definitely be. Was severely damaged and retaliated against mankind in a cruel way. Speaking of characters, each character (animal) is very three-dimensional and has a symbolic meaning. The heroine Sang represents those enthusiastic environmentalists who love and protect nature; monks are the most common people in life who live for profit; the most profound role is Lord Magic Princess, she is the lord of Daddala. She was also the person who advocated hunting the unicorn beast for survival, and she was the one who almost destroyed the entire unicorn forest and Daddala. But on the other hand, she is not a person who only knows how to ask nature blindly. She embodies most of the beautiful virtues stipulated by the human world. For the people of Dadala, she is everyone’s benefactor, if Without her, all people in Dadala would be displaced. Therefore, the role of Magic Ji actually embodies the contradiction between humans and nature. The actor Ashitaka is more like the incarnation of Miyazaki himself. He is a kind person and at the same time a perfectionist. He also hopes that mankind and nature can live in harmony. But after experiencing everything in the movie, he just said "No matter who you are, no matter why you are, please try to live". Perhaps this role is also insinuating Miyazaki himself. He once also made works like "Nausicaa" , But decades of constant thinking made him doubt the original idea, and he was constantly involved in this terrible final proposition. In the end, he, or us, can only say "Live well" to give ourselves a way out.
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