Synopsis:
In order to save the villagers in distress, Asdakar was cursed by the Boar God in his right hand. Taka had to leave his family and head to the West to find a way to lift the curse. During the journey, he met the villagers led by the black hat, mining and smelting iron in the dense virgin forest blessed by the mountain beast god. The god of the mountain beasts is the god of the gods of the mountains, who dominates ten thousand trees withered, and the beasts live and die.
Because of human logging and iron making, the dog god Mona and the human girl she raised "Princess Mononoke" San hated humans and attacked humans many times to protect the forest. The wild boar god also led the wild boar clan to fight against humans, but as a result, they fell into the trap of humans and the whole clan died heroically in the forest.
A group of people headed by Monk Knot wanted to present the head of the mountain beast to the emperor. In order to further open up the mountains to make iron, Lord Black Hat wanted to kill the mountain beast god and make the forest lose its blessing, so he led the villagers to join the god-killing operation.
The ending of the story is that the black hat shot down the head of the mountain beast with a musket. The angry mountain beast turned into a gigantic sorcerer, killing the entire forest in order to find his head. Asdakar and San recaptured the head and returned it to the beast god for the sake of living together in the forest and human beings. However, the mountain beast god still died. The huge wind caused by his fall blew out the fire of the human ironworks, and also blew flowers and sprouts all over the mountains and fields.
The mountain god died, the fire went out, and the grievance between man and nature ended. But how should humans and nature get along in the future?
Man and Nature
"Princess Mononoke" is a tragic history of grievances between man and nature. The film uses the clarified eyes of the protagonist Ashitaka to see the truth of man and nature, hoping to achieve a reconciliation between man and nature living together.
However, animals need to plant trees to reproduce, and humans need to build mountains and make iron. Mountain beasts and human beings have a long history of grievances. How easy is it to reach a settlement? In the end, the war between man and mountain beast broke out. The various subjects participating in the war have taken different actions due to their different positions. Miyazaki describes their respective psychology and behavior in a delicate and profound way. The subjects involved in the war can be divided into three opposing groups:
The first group: the hated wild boar Vs. The angry villagers
This group represents the most common and broad masses in the forest and human beings. They entered the war out of hatred for each other. The hatred caused them to curse each other, eventually causing each other to live in demon-riddled misery. Both Nagoshen and B victim eventually turned into terrifying demons because of their hatred of human beings; the musketeer who shot the wild beast in the village was avenged by the mountain god, covered with gauze, and waited to die in agony. Hatred even drives some of them out of their minds, and inflicts violence on the innocent: Gonah casts a curse on Ashitaka, and widows turn their guns on Ashitaka. Hayao Miyazaki used such a cruel and terrifying ending to tell people that hatred will not solve conflicts, but will only make both parties, and even more innocent people, fall into deeper pain.
Group 2: Mona Vs. Black Hat
Mona Inu God and Lord Black Hat are heavy and calm, brave and strong, foresight, and are heroes of the forest and human beings. Although they also have each other's hatred, this hatred did not make them lose their minds and become demons. Mona hates humans but adopts human girls; Black Hat entertains Ashitaka despite threats to avenge the forest. All their actions are based on the fundamental interests of the forest and human beings, rather than blind revenge and curses. For the vitality of the forest and the prosperity of the village, they fought bravely and used their wisdom and strength to lead their clan to prosperity. However, it is precisely because of their loyalty and love for their own interests that they can only think from their own standpoints, and cannot see the possibility of reconciliation and coexistence. Faced with Ashitaka's idea of letting the forest and humans coexist, Mona thought it was powerless, and Black Hat thought it was ridiculous. Mona, who thought that as long as she shattered the black hat's head would be able to exchange for peace in the forest, even if only her head was left, she would rush to bite the black hat with the last force; The black hat, even if the castle is attacked by the samurai, have to let go. The sincere love and heroic struggle of the heroes of the forest and human beings for their own family is indeed touching. However, if they cannot see the truth with clear eyes, the heroes can only lead the people to sink deeper and deeper in the war between man and nature.
The third group: The Beast God and Ashitaka
are the only ones who can see the truth in the film. They both have clear eyes, gentle smiles, the awareness to look directly at their own destiny, and the compassion that cherishes all things in the world. They do not represent either side of nature or humanity, and they use their lives to bring hope for reconciliation between the two.
Both mountain gods and humans have misunderstandings about mountain beast gods: they believe that mountain beast gods are gods who guard the forest. In fact, the mountain beast god is the god in charge of life and death, and does not favor any party. Ashitaka and Jialiu traveled through the forest, and the Beast God healed them. The god of mountain beasts will become the Great Master in the dark night, which is the god who participated in the creation of heaven and earth in Japanese mythology. When watching the creatures he created fight each other, the Beast God must be in grief; when he sucks Ashitaka's wound, he must sympathize with each other. However, even the Mountain Beast God, who has the power to control life and death, cannot eliminate the deep hatred between this man and the forest. Humanity cut off its head because of ignorance, and when it saw Ashitaka holding his head high, it saw the hope of reconciliation. He stopped in the process of reunion, looked directly at his destiny, and resolutely chose to sacrifice, leaving the hope of reconciliation to Ashitaka. The huge body fell, blowing out the fire of human beings, and the mountains and rivers came back to life - let everything start all over again. In fact, the mountain beast god symbolizes the primitive worship of nature, and its death marks the collapse of human's reverence for nature. Without the awe of people, the forest is bound to become more vulnerable. Today, with the gradual development of technology, how to understand the relationship between man and nature is a question that Hayao Miyazaki left to people at the end of the film.
Ashitaka is the messenger of communication between man and nature. He is the representative of the younger generation who have the consciousness to look directly at their own destiny, see the truth clearly, and yearn for the reconciliation between man and nature. On his long journey from the east to the west of the continent, he saw villages submerged by mudslides and the plagues, famines, and wars that followed; he saw human greed for "everything between heaven and earth"; The people of Dara frenziedly fell wood to open up the mountains, lighting a fire that symbolized their determination to conquer nature. On the surface, mudslides, floods, and wild beast attacks have brought disaster to mankind. Humans are justifiably conquering nature by opening up mountains to make iron; There is a circular causal relationship between the contradictions. Others can only see the appearance and side. Only he, because of his experience, clear eyes, and compassionate heart, can see the truth: the relationship between man and nature is far from protection and destruction. Conquest is so simple, the contradiction between human existence and nature is a tragedy that cannot be resolved. Ashitaka paid a cruel price to resolve the contradiction between man and nature, but he was firm and kind and never gave up: even if he was tortured by the curse of the wild boar god, even if he was killed by human muskets, even if he was killed by Mona and Lord Black Hat Relentlessly ridiculed, even if the beloved girl stabbed her in the chest with a stone knife. Xiao Sang put the blade on his throat and asked him why he did it. His answer was: "You are so beautiful!" Yes, only with clear eyes can you appreciate the beauty of both: the vitality and lushness of the forest, the beauty of the village Diligence and abundance. Why can't the forest and human beings, who were originally extremely beautiful, live together? Ashitaka has worked hard for this ideal, but there is still no reconciliation between human beings and nature at the end of the film: Lord Black Hat is ashamed that he was rescued by the mountain dog, Lord Knockle thinks Ashitaka is a fool, Xiao Sang Still hate humans. But, as Ashitaka said when he saw Xiao Sang Weeping Forest dead: "It's not over because we are still alive." Yes, the bond between man and nature is not over because we are still alive, thousands of Thousands of young people are still alive. As long as we are willing to see the truth with clear eyes and appreciate the beauty of the elves in the forest, there is still hope for the reconciliation between man and nature.
conflict and violence
Although "Princess Mononoke" focuses on the conflict between man and nature, in order to express the cruelty of the conflict and the difficulty of reconciliation, this 134-minute masterpiece also depicts the conflict between man and man and between beast and beast. conflict. The samurai waged war because they coveted the iron in the city of Da Dala, and the orangutan blamed the dog god for adopting Xiao-san because of his hatred of humans: conflicts are not just between different races, conflicts are everywhere.
In order to show the cruelty of the conflict, Hayao Miyazaki unreservedly used a lot of bloody and violent scenes: the samurai flew blood and flesh in the battle, and the heads fell; the wild boar god was haunted by hatred when possessed by demons, and the corpse was exposed in the village. This is rare in cartoons created for children. Miyazaki shows children the truth and cruelty of conflict because he fully trusts children's ability to understand. He believes that if children are blindly indoctrinated with "beautiful nature" and "peaceful villages", this kind of education will become vulnerable once children grow up and face the contradiction between human beings and nature.
Misunderstanding and accidental injury
The root cause of the conflict between man and nature is the endless greed of human beings, and the intensification of this conflict is ignorance and misunderstanding. Boar and the villagers are blinded by hatred, Mona and Black Hat are blinded by love, and they all misunderstand each other to varying degrees because of love or hate. Neither love nor hate can help reconciliation, reconciliation requires clear eyes.
There are two fires in the film: once when the widow fires and wounds Ashitaka, and once when the black hat fires and kills the beast god. The film arranges them to accidentally hurt each other, in order to express Miyazaki's forgiveness for human ignorance. Before Ashitaka and Beast God were shot, they both smiled softly at the gunman: Ashitaka returned Lord Black Hat to the villagers, Beast God made flowers grow on the musket, Hayao Miyazaki once The second time with the power of compassion called out my gurgles of tears.
The character modeling
design of "Phantom Palace Lord" is very successful, which distinguishes the image of the characters and accurately conveys the theme. Below is a brief analysis.
Ashitaka: A heroic boy riding a red deer and holding a cluster of stones. Deer are sensitive animals and are generally not domesticated. However, Ashitaka comes from the most primitive tribes in the east, where people live in harmony with nature and become friends with sensitive, free animals like deer.
Xiao Sang: The short green hair symbolizes the forest, and the machete on the side of the face represents hatred.
Mountain Beast God: Has the four hooves of gentle herbivores, the face of intelligent primates, and the ghostly transparent huge body. Those big clear eyes seemed to be able to see through the human heart.
Mountain beasts and mountain gods: The white dogs and wild boars in the film have stronger bodies and brighter coats than in reality, symbolizing the prosperity of the forest in the Muromachi period; The powerful power of splitting mountains and rocks symbolizes the endless power of nature.
Humans: Humans always wear red decorations: Lord Black Hat wears a red hat, musketeer holds a musket wrapped in red cloth, and Lord Knockle wears a red robe. The aggressive reds of humans contrast with the peaceful greens of nature.
About "Princess Mononoke"
Unlike many other Miyazaki films with girls as the protagonists, the protagonist of "Princess Mononoke" is not the girl Princess Mononoke, but the young Ashitaka. Miyazaki chose this name probably because it combines the surreal elements of the film, making people feel that the film is more mythical and legendary. The film even chooses the huge white dog god from Japanese traditional culture as the background of the poster, which is very oriental. In addition, he may also feel that it is too cruel to let a girl suffer the curse of the demon and see the tragedy of the contradiction between man and nature. In this heavy work, he chose the heroic boy with the most rational mind and tenacity as the protagonist, which highlights the incomparable difficulty of reconciliation between human beings and nature.
Postscript: From a cinematic point of view, Spirited Away is better than Princess Mononoke in terms of the fluidity of the story. In "Princess Mononoke", although the subplots showing human wars and beast disputes highlight the cruelty of the conflict, it also slightly dilutes the main story line of the conflict between man and nature, and audiences who don't pay attention to the movie may make a play because of it. In addition, although the film's praise of the lively, industrious and brave women of Da Dala City brings a relaxed and happy mood to the tense film, the expression of the theme is really tasteless. As a female worshiper, Hayao Miyazaki forced the insertion of passages praising women in an overly stylized manner, making people feel a little confused about what the movie is talking about while watching the movie. In terms of inserting the entertainment atmosphere, "Spirited Away" is completed with the "buzzing two monsters" composed of the big baby and the owl, which is perfectly integrated with the main storyline and is obviously superior. However, I am a feminist, and I couldn't help clapping my hands when I heard Ashitaka say, "Women in good villages are more lively." Moreover, compared to the fantasy romance of Spirited Away, I prefer the epic grand and tragic narrative style of "Princess Mononoke". So, although I admit that "Princess Mononoke" is inferior to "Spirited Away" in terms of artistry, I prefer the former due to personal preference. That's why I refuse to choose the best of the two.
02/09/2014 with Washington Black Earth
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