IronWatcher’s review published on Letterboxd:
Watched on Blu-Ray
Ghibli films always distinguish themselves anew by adding subtext to their mostly fantastic stories, which also - or especially - appeal to adult people and make them brood. Meanwhile, I'm already a little familiar with the oeuvre of the animation studio under the direction of Hayao Miyazaki, so I can justifiably claim that "Princess Mononoke" is a film that doesn't surprise with the presence of its content and even with the very topics that are dealt with, but with the combination of these topics. Be it in the obvious sense, like the profit-oriented and unscrupulous society and its internal, complex ramifications, which young prince Ashitaka encounters during his search for salvation, or in the subliminal sense of animated nature, which is sometimes only shown by means of small forest spirits clattering their heads.
The real art is how Miyazaki manages to connect all these themes and levels. Without giving the impression that he is merely stringing them together, he uses the story about prince Ashitaka to create a network of different concepts that merge seamlessly without getting lost in a single superfluous plot line. Everything has its order, everything is put in its right place. A well thought-out construct, whose economic and ecological educational character may have turned out to be a bit bold for some, but which shines through so many little things that at least I can only perceive this construct as a big whole. Nobody is bothered by a horde of wild boars running straight to their doom. Why should they, when the only rational thing in this movie is your own heart. The heart, which from the first moment on has been in love with this fantastic story, and which cheers along. In which every party has its justification and the sympathies are kept up for a long time. Until you look behind the façade.
Here alone another subtle strength of the movie emerges: It teaches you to question motives in a certain way. Lets the viewer take a closer look at moral aspects at certain points and then makes a judgment. Later on, he may well give the direction of his answer, but before that he leaves enough space to involve the viewer himself with his thought process and to evaluate these thoughts afterwards. Because nothing can be put into simple black and white drawers.
"Princess Mononoke" may carry the heart openly with it.
...but that is the very essence of it. That mankind must show kindness in order to exist in this world. It is not only the act of one person that is necessary. People must work together before they fall into misery due to misguided convictions - and their environment along with them.
Hardly any other film is able to convey this so clearly and at the same time so sensitively as this animated film. What a pearl that also radiates far beyond its genre boundaries.
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