2020 seems to be the year when nature begins to "rebel" against humanity: wildfires in Australia, floods in Brazil, flu in the United States, and pneumonia in our country... Many disasters have thus "concentrated" in 2020. As early as 1997, Hayao Miyazaki, a generation of animation masters known as "Akira Kurosawa in the animation world", used his own brush to create an animation work to explore the relationship between man and nature - "Princess Mononoke". Below we will analyze the charm and practical significance of Miyazaki's fantasist film "Princess Mononoke" from different perspectives:
Princess Mononoke is a feature-length animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, voiced by Yuriko Ishida, and Yuko Tanaka, with music by Jean Hisaishi, and released by Studio Ghibli in 1997. Princess Mononoke has won more than 20 awards, including best film at the 21st Japan Academy Awards and Best Film at the 21st Japan Film Awards. The film grossed 19.3 billion yen in Japan and was viewed by 14.2 million people, making it the highest-grossing film in Japanese history at the time, and Princess Mononoke became a phenomenon animation work in Japan that year.
Princess Mononoke is the ninth feature animated film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, maintaining Miyazaki's usual style of fantasy and innocence. In Japan, fans voted on all the films directed by Hayao Miyazaki to choose a film that "best represents Hayao Miyazaki", and "Princess Mononoke" ranked third (after "Spirited Away" and "Totoro"). In other words, "Princess Mononoke" can be called one of Miyazaki's most representative works.
In order to save the villagers in distress, Asidaka's right hand was cursed by the fierce god. He had to leave his loved ones and wander the West, "seeing with clear eyes what happened" in order to find a way to lift the curse. During assidaka's journey, the truth of the whole thing gradually surfaces...
Is there a way to get along between man and nature? At the beginning of the film, Asidaka only thinks about how to lift the curse of his right hand, but when he understands the truth of the matter, the purpose of his journey becomes how to prevent the disaster between man and nature. The war between man and man, man and nature may be endless, man must destroy nature in order to survive and develop, and nature retaliates against mankind in order to prevent its own demise.
There is an interesting phenomenon in "Princess Mononoke": if we look at the problem from a human point of view, then everything the human camp does in the film is beyond reproach; and if we think from the perspective of the forest, then the revenge of the forest is completely human self-inflicted. Unlike Miyazaki's critique of human greed and ignorance in The Valley of the Wind, Princess Mononoke doesn't explore what's right and wrong with "humans and the forest."
What kind of method does Miyazaki use to present the theme of the film? And how to put the audience in the "history of feuds" between man and nature in "Princess Mononoke"?
Although "Princess Mononoke" is about the "contradiction" between man and nature, the "contradiction" between people, there are not many characters who can call out names in the movie, and almost every character with a name represents a group behind it.
The male protagonist, Asidaka, seems to always remain rational, walking back and forth between the forest and the town, he is very plump in the play, but because he does not make any mistakes in the movie, it is not so real, the audience can not see his growth, it seems that Miyazaki has given Asidaka a "divinity", he is witnessing a lot of things through his eyes, seems to be a bystander, stringing together the whole story. The group that Asidaka represents is the "storyteller" like Miyazaki.
"Princess Mononoke", she is an abandoned baby abandoned in the forest, raised by the White Wolf Clan, and thus became a part of the forest. When Asidaka tries to keep Shan, Shan confesses, "I'm a white wolf and I hate humans." And the moment Shan was about to kill Asidaka, when Asidaka said to her, "You are so beautiful", she suddenly froze, and that reaction was not only the revelation of the girl's feelings but also the explosion of a long-suppressed human nature, and she knew in her heart that she was still human after all. The group that Shan represents is a group of people who are in nature and "insist on taking nature as the foundation".
In addition to these two characters, the remaining characters are very easy to distinguish between factions. The animal side is the natural camp; the human side represents the huge group of humans. But animals can also be divided into attack factions based on wild boars, conservatives in white wolves, and baboons who wander between the two; in the same way, the human camp is also divided into conquerors, conservatives, and neutrals.
It seems that all viewers can find their own corresponding characters in "Princess Mononoke" and thus resonate; it seems that we have also entered this war of feud between man and nature along with The Narrator of the Story, Asidaka.
At the beginning of "Princess Mononoke", the town where Asidaka is located is peaceful, and people and nature coexist in harmony. Most of what Miyazaki uses here is a long-range view, and our perspective is to overlook this peaceful land, mountains and water, clouds and fog, people and animals. The staggering of parallel montages and crossover montages keeps the rhythm of the story moving forward. As Asidaka begins to get closer to the truth, the camera gets closer and closer, the perspective of the overlook is almost non-existent in the course of the story, and the only human scenes we can see are smoke and fire emitted by fire bolts. At the end of the movie, the moment after the deer god fell, a large number of long-range shots returned. Fresh shoots grew on the withered trees and the ruins of the post-war period, and the earth was full of spring colors. Our perspective is like returning to the small town of Asidaka at the beginning, and we are looking down on the earth again.
In addition to making the audience reflect, this way of handling also reveals Miyazaki's desire for human beings and nature to coexist in harmony.
When it comes to films directed by Hayao Miyazaki, it is impossible to avoid this name - [Hisaishi Jean]. Hisaishi's collaboration with Hayao Miyazaki is arguably a great story in film history. Since collaborating on Nausicaä in 1984, almost every Miyazaki film has been scored by Hisaishi, and the two old gentlemen have been working together for nearly half a century.
Speaking of movies, in "Princess Mononoke", Hisaishi almost gave up his most admirable piano and chose orchestral music instead. Because "Princess Mononoke" is intended to show the struggle between man and nature, the scenes are mostly magnificent and magnificent. So Hisaishi used orchestral music to create an "epic sense". At the end of the movie, the moment the deer god fell, it seemed that all the wars had stopped, new shoots emerged from the ruins after the war, and everything was revived and full of life. This is the best piano that Hisaishi jean used! Under the soft piano melody, the calm lake water, the collapsed dead wood fence on the green buds emerge, the green germinates, a Zen sense also arises, the audience in the piano song "アシタカとサン" when playing the first note, they began to reflect on the "contradiction" between man and nature.
And Hisaishi's soundtrack is very suitable for Miyazaki's lens scheduling and color use: when Asidaka first left home and embarked on an expedition, Miyazaki used a long-range view to reduce the proportion of Asidaka in the picture, and with the soundtrack that came out of the sky, we seem to be able to personally experience the loneliness of Asidaka; also in Asidaka's wandering, he led his deer to wade through the mountains, and when he distributed his food to it, in addition to them, there were several birds flying in the picture, and at this time the melody was cheerful again. The intention is to show that teenagers also have surprises and freedoms during their journeys.
Princess Mononoke uses up to 580 colors (Miyazaki's other works are basically between 350-400 colors), unlike Miyazaki's previous works, Princess Mononoke only uses very bright colors at the beginning and end, and the rest of the film scenes are basically very gray. The soundtrack of the film only has a bland mood at the beginning and end of the music, and the rest of the emotions have a rhythm of ups and downs. This is so that the audience can have a deeper reflection at the end.
In this way, our emotions are "clearly arranged" by these small details used by Hisaishi and Miyazaki. Therefore, we are more likely to accept the theme brought to us by the movie, and naturally we will think about the "contradiction" between man and nature with the protagonist of the story.
Different from "Valley of the Wind", "Princess Mononoke" does not stick to the destruction of the environment by humans, but starts from the natural [contradiction] that cannot be resolved between man and nature, and explores the great proposition of whether human beings and nature can truly achieve harmonious coexistence through the perspective of human beings' own survival. The end of the story does not seem to give a standard answer, from the beginning of the hair cut as a bun Asidaka with a mortal heart, to the final lifting of the curse to regain life, when the town is destroyed, Ah Shi comforts her husband that "people live there will be hope", Asidaka finally loudly reassures San that "as long as you live, there is hope", Miyazaki has been secretly expressing to us: No matter who you are, please live. In addition to the awe and gratitude for life, Miyazaki also has his own consideration and consideration of life.
As long as you live, there is hope. As the godmother began, "Witness the facts with clear eyes." Miyazaki only wants us to see with our own eyes to witness the facts. Whether it is a movie or a reality, there is no one right or wrong in life, only people who can survive. The end of the film is still separated from Asidaka, and compared to the other "reunion" endings of Studio Ghibli, the ending of "Princess Mononoke" undoubtedly has more variables and more Zen.
The beginning of 2020 may not be very smooth, but as long as you try to live, there is hope, right?