Referral Index: ★★★★★
Suspense Index: ★★
Visual Index: ★★★
Plot Index: ★★★★★
Today I want to share with you the 1997 movie "Princess Mononoke".
You may not believe it, this classic movie of the same age as "Titanic" was only watched for the first time in 2019.
It turns out that the protagonist of "Princess Mononoke" is not Princess Mononoke.
With the misplaced sense that the protagonist is Princess Mononoke, watching the whole movie is also a wonderful trip.
Princess Mononoke is one of miyazaki's few male-dominated works. The male protagonist, Asidaka, is also one of the male characters in Miyazaki's favorite works of fans.
I don't know if anyone has the same feeling as me, when the movie is halfway through, I can't help but think of the Hollywood science fiction blockbuster directed by Cameron ten years ago - "Avatar".
The beautiful Kirin Forest, the whimsical creatures, and the characters struggling in Cao Yingxin's heart in Han, I don't believe it to say that Director Cameron, who originally liked Japanese anime very much, was not inspired by "Princess Mononoke". Regardless of the scene or the storyline, these two movies can more or less see each other's shadows.
But after watching the whole film of "Princess Mononoke", I found that they are still two different movies, because in terms of ideological depth, "Avatar" is indeed more than an order of magnitude behind the former.
What is the difference, half a cat takes everyone together to deeply analyze.
Many people said that they could not understand "Princess Mononoke", I think it is still necessary to comb through the worldview of the film in order to understand what kind of world makes the three words "live" so heavy.
Roughly speaking, the world of Princess Mononoke is divided into two factions, the Forest faction and the Human faction. Of course, the world is not so simple. When we move to the next precision, we can see the different forces divided by different values.
Princess Mononoke represents the White Wolf Clan, who are sparsely populated, brave and warlike, and have been fighting against human forces for many years. They are the radicals who act steadily in the forest, and although they see that humans hate them to the bone, they will even take the initiative to attack, but they only want to protect the forest, and they do not want to sweep away human beings.
Also radical, the wild boars are holding the banner of protecting their homeland and wanting to expand their sphere of influence.
The white pig god that appears in the second half of the film was originally from "Zhenxi", and the pig god Nago, who became an evil god at the beginning, was not a family, but came to the Qilin Forest with heavy troops, and their arrival itself was a kind of trampling on the forest.
Hiding under the shadows, full of complaints, and bent on eating human flesh and drinking human blood, the orangutans are the so-called "wise men" who have more patience but less courage. They do not dare to confront humans head-on, and once they start an incident, they will only play tricks, cursing both human tyranny and intimidation of the resistance to attract wolves into the house. They are the least mobile conservatives in the forest.
There are also strange tree elves in the forest, they are frightening, but they have no harmful heart, they are the fans of the great unicorn beast, and they are also the first victims of the unicorn beast's rage. It can be regarded as a neutral faction that is harmless to people and animals in the forest.
On the human side, first of all, the Ezo tribe represented by the male protagonist Asidaka, retired to the mountains and forests after the war with the Yamato tribe five hundred years ago, and has since been in a slump, living the life of idle clouds and wild cranes, adhering to the attitude of interdependence with nature. They are the neutrals of humanity.
The Dadara tribe outside the forest makes ends meet by running an ironworks. They have also formed a hatred with the forest faction, although they have been asking for it from the forest, but it is not excessive, and the reason for taking up arms is mostly for their own safety. On the one hand, we must deal with sneak attacks from the forest, on the other hand, we must also beware of the imperial court's concern for the ironworks, which is a conservative among human beings who dare to be tough and not easy to mess with.
The Luo Umbrella Faction, who carry a red umbrella whenever it rains or not, is the mysterious force where the knotty monks are located, the radical faction among humans, and the musket team stationed in Dadara, and the mountain guide who disguises himself as a beast. They lent the Musketeers to the Dadara clan to defend against the beasts, on the condition that the guardian of the forest, the Unicorn Beast, be strangled. The Luo Umbrella Sect can be said to be the real murderer of the Qilin Beast.
The samurai sent by the Marquis of Asano, who represented the current absurd and greedy court, the Dadara tribe did not agree to give up half of the iron ore, so they launched a siege against the ironworks. Judging from the clothing, the film begins by hunting down the knotted monks, burning and plundering the villagers, and the samurai who are also the pawns of the imperial court.
Although the factions are chaotic and the values are falling apart, it is not difficult to find that whether it is the forest faction or the human faction, they are actually the most familiar sentient beings around us. They are all "living" in their own way.
To live is a proposition that every life has to answer, but cannot find a standard formula to solve. It is also the theme of the film mentioned three times by the male protagonist Asidaka.
Next, I will raise the accuracy of a paragraph to analyze how the main characters in the film answer the proposition of "living".
The Pig God B is the Lord
The pig god Yi Shi from the west of the town had lived for more than five hundred years, his eyes were already dizzy, he led his people far away from home to the Qilin Forest, knowing that the humans had laid a trap, still chose to attack head-on, rushing forward to the enemy, using the honor of the race as a shield, and willfully consuming precious lives. Then he completely lost himself in front of the human beings in the skin of wild boars, superstitiously returned to the soul, misunderstood the meaning of life, and completed the last journey of life with hatred.
The wild boars also love the forest, but this love is possessive, trampling love, and they have never thought of sharing the forest with humans, or even with other creatures. That's why the pigs would ask the White Wolf God in the center of the forest if he had swallowed the Unicorn Beast alone. If they are finally victorious, such victories are no different from the victories of mankind, and in the end, they are nothing more than the reflection of human beings in the forest.
Dadara's female master, Phantom Ji, also translated as Lord Black Hat
Fantasia is perhaps the most controversial character in the film. So I'll say a few more words as well. The shot she fired at the boar god each led to the reincarnation of the evil god and led to the curse of Asidaka.
The tribe she led cut wood for the forest, provoked a dispute between humans and the forest, and formed a bloody feud with the White Wolf Clan. Insisting on going her own way, she raised a stone rocket and shot down the head of the Unicorn Beast, causing a catastrophe in the forest and the destruction of the ironworks.
Sitting off the screen, we have ten thousand reasons to spit on The Illusion, but if we substitute for the perspective of the Dadara tribe, it is not the same.
The confrontation between the two armies, either you die or I live, shooting the pig god is the most ordinary self-defense. The reason why Fan ji can always survive is that she has a strong wrist at all costs, so that Xian Ji lay down the weapon in her hand, which is equivalent to letting the Dadara people give up their lives, where is the kind advice, it is a naked moral kidnapping.
The dispute between humans and the forest, which seems to be provoked by the ironworks, is nothing but an innate game between man and nature, and a game between heaven and earth and nature. Some people say that forests are home to animals, but don't forget that forests are also home to humans. Humans are not born between steel and concrete, and humans were once children of the forest. Like the animals of the forest, they also enjoy the gifts of nature, but the difference is only the measure and degree. Although the phantoms exploited the resources of the forest, they did not kill the forest completely, did they?
The most intolerable thing for Fan Ji was to shoot the Unicorn Beast.
The motivation was that in order to protect the tribe owed a pact to the Luo Umbrella Faction. But it was also a killing god, but Asidaka was not criticized.
I don't know if you noticed that the author deliberately arranged the beginning and end of a pair of neat pairs of battles. Asidaka kills the gods, and so does The Illusion. Evil gods can bring desolation, and mountain beast gods can bring greater desolation. The god-killer was punished, so Asidaka's arm was cursed, and Fantasia's arm was bitten by the white wolf, and both were right.
If Asidaka can be forgiven, then what is wrong with Fantasia? What is wrong with human beings fighting for a place in nature by virtue of their diligence and wisdom? This is not above the law of the jungle of survival of the fittest.
And Fan Ji led Dadara's compatriots to a better life with wisdom, courage and courage, even if they lost their arms and lost their homeland, they still encouraged the perseverance of the clan to make a comeback, is it not the best tribute to the three words of "live"?
Mona, the white wolf god
Mona is the most rebellious character in the entire film. At the beginning, she tried her best to take in the abandoned babies of human beings, and insisted on raising Shan against the resistance of all parties. She hated humans and pitied them at the same time.
She is also the most off-topic of the movie. When everyone was thinking about how to live, she had already planned how to die. She has the same musket bullets as the pig god, but the difference is that she is not afraid of death and faces her own death. Nor did he pray to the Unicorn Beast for help, and was willing to give up this immortal body.
As a result, Mona is more like the biggest villain in the movie, because her disappointment in the current world is deep-rooted, and she does not think that the world can be better. So when Asidaka said that she could live with Shan, she laughed madly at the childishness and naivety of the other party. With her years of memories of fighting against humans, it's hard to imagine such a picture. It was not until Asidaka exchanged his own trust for his own deeds that there was a scene in which the evil god threatened Shan's life and entrusted the right to give birth to his daughter to the young man.
Before her death, Mona was satisfied, she not only avenged the arrow, but also found the destination of her daughter's soul.
The heroine Princess Mononoke
Abandoned by her parents in her infancy, Shan was adopted by Mona, the white wolf god of the Kirin Forest, when she did not know the cold and warmth of the human world. When he grew up, he regarded himself as a member of the White Wolf, and was determined to coexist with the forest.
Yet neither man nor wolf was her most miserable and unjust fate. Although Shan has her own inner choices, she is not accepted by the forest and human beings. The way she grew up was to habitually show hatred for human beings, otherwise she would be the object of hatred.
It can be said that at the beginning, Shan and the white wolf god Mona almost had the same form of thinking - life is loveless. The death squad-style rush is the iconic attack form of the White Wolf Clan, breaking into the tiger's den alone, being in danger, and not half afraid. The courage to put life and death aside for a long time comes from the enthusiasm of coexisting and dying with the forest, fighting for the forest, and dying for the forest.
This, however, was changed by Asidaka. It was the heartfelt words before death — you are so beautiful. Let Shan regain her nostalgia for life. Before that, Shan was a skin bag with the wrong soul, and the forest could not recognize her beauty, let alone appreciate her beauty. At the same time, she is only a dangerous signal to humanity, a messenger of death. But after the night when the sneak attack failed, she became a bond for others. Because someone wanted her to live.
Surviving may have been one of the least considered issues Shan had ever considered, but at the end of the film, when she gently nods her head and promises Asidaka to live together, I believe it is serious.
The male protagonist, Asidaka
The boy from the Ezo tribe has said three times that he wants to "live", which shows that he is still full of hope for the world, even if he is subjected to the torture of cursed voodoo, even if there are so many values in the world that collide with each other. He still retains this precious persistence.
With such a compelling heroism, Asidaka saw the courage to kill and decide, weigh the pros and cons, single-handedly break through the siege, and rush to the fate of death. Never dared to think about himself for half a minute, from beginning to end he mediated the anger of all sides, always standing in the middle of the scales, asking more than once - can't humans and forests coexist?
Asidaka is preaching to sentient beings with his own body the deep-rooted values of his birth in the Ezo people. But the most difficult thing in the world is to put the thoughts in your own head into the heads of others.
At the end of the film, I am very thankful that the world has not become very different because of Asidaka's own efforts. Princess Mononoke still chooses to stay behind to guard the forest; Fantasia is determined to rebuild her homeland and is bound to build a lot of construction; the knotty monk hints that it will make a comeback. So the movie is fortunate not to fall into the cliché of superhero movies.
The biggest change was that The curse of Asidaka was lifted.
It is not difficult to see that curses refer to the demons of hatred, and hatred can make people strong and make people lose their minds, and the same is true for God. Asidaka opened his palm and saw the empty palm that had faded from its mark, as if to show that to live together, it was not about what to pick up, but what to let go.
Mountain Beast God Unicorn Beast
The mountain beast god of the Qilin Forest, the Kirin Beast, the Lord of the Forest who maintains the balance of all things, just encompasses everything in silence and watches everything.
The grass and trees on the land where the unicorn beast has stepped on will grow, and when it leaves, the grass and trees will wither, and each step symbolizes a reincarnation of natural life.
Rather than saying that the unicorn beast is the god of life and death, it is better to say that the unicorn beast is the god of balance, and life and death are nothing more than the conservation of energy. When the unicorn beast loses its head, it loses its balance, and death pours out until the head is retrieved, and the land is desolate and rekindled green.
Although the Unicorn Beast is in the forest, he does not have a real position in his bosom, some are just one after another, the Pig God B lord blames the Kirin Beast for not helping the wild boar clan, but saving Asidaka, who is a human, is that he thinks that the Kirin Beast is his guardian deity. In fact, he was wrong, and everyone understood wrong. The Unicorn Beast is not the patron saint of the forest, nor is he the patron saint of mankind, he is the patron saint of the law of balance.
Tracing back to the roots, nature's law of competition for survival is inherently cruel. This law regards the survival of the fittest as a natural principle, maintains the balance of all things in a harsh way, and promotes the evolution of life.
Balance is absolute and relative. Energy is conserved, but individual differences are inevitable. All groups of life restrict and promote each other in the competition for survival, although there is also a theory that the weak eat the strong, but no population has an absolute advantage - it is not easy to live, and everyone is digesting their own suffering and misfortune.
Therefore, what is important is not how to live, but to live "together".
Finally, let's end with the lyrics of the "Princess Mononoke" theme song. It is also a very good song, and I recommend that you listen to it
On the full bow, there are trembling strings
What is noisy in the moonlight is your heart
Snow bright beautiful blade like your sharp silhouette
Hide sadness and anger
The only thing that can know your heart is the ghost in the forest
Ghosts only