Miyazaki Madness, Part 8: "Princess Mononoke" and the challenge of seeing with eyes unclouded

One of the grandest animated epics ever mounted

On Thursdays, I’m publishing reviews of classic movies, including pieces that have never appeared online before taken from my book 200 Reviews, available now in Paperback or on Kindle (which you should really consider buying, because it’s an awesome collection!). In this series, we are examining the filmography of my all-time favorite movie director - and newly minted two-time Oscar winner with his win for The Boy and the Heron - Hayao Miyazaki! We will be looking at all of his theatrical feature films along with the movies he wrote but did not direct, for a total of 15 weeks of Miyazaki Madness! The series continues today with one of the biggest films ever made, in both stature and impact: 1997’s Princess Mononoke. Enjoy…

Princess Mononoke

1997, Dir. Hayao Miyazaki

Originally published August 23^rd, 2012 for The Denver Post’s YourHub, Online and in Print

In Hayao Miyazaki’s Princess Mononoke, protagonist Ashitaka is sent forth from his village with a mission to “see with eyes unclouded.” He has been cursed by a spirit rotting of anger, and to heal himself, he will journey the land as a neutral third party, observing with clarity the problems of his world, attaining insight and, in the process, hopefully stumbling upon the cure to his own ailment. 

“Seeing with eyes unclouded” is what Miyazaki does in all his films, but never so powerfully as in Mononoke, where he discusses the infinite complexities of a convoluted world without judgment. Here, he touches upon nearly every theme that has ever interested him – the futility of war, mankind’s relationship with nature, the frailties of the human condition, etc. – with an impossibly deft hand and a staggeringly vast scope.