DFletcher, Journal 1

Sept 5, 2020

One aspect I find worked well in Princess Mononoke as well as most Miyazaki’s films are that they want a villain.  We can see that Ashitaka is the protagonist, and there’s defiantly an antagonist, but there’s not really a typical ‘bad-guy’.  In this story, we got to see the different sides of an argument.  On one side is Lady Eboshi, who is looking to make a world for her people.  Using technology to make energy, weapons, and places for her people to live.  On the flip side of this, with all of these advancements, she has been killing away portions of the forest.  This is why we meet San; San doesn’t want under any circumstance for the forest to get destroyed.  She is willing to kill people from Iron Town including their leader, Lady Eboshi, to put an end to their forest destruction.  We see Ashitaka try to choose a side; he appears to be constantly flip-flopping sides.   

The other aspect that I found myself not indulged in as much as the character of Princess Mononoke herself.  San is the defining character that the entire movie is based on, she is Princess Mononoke.  And with that, she doesn’t have that much to add to the overall story.  Being the daughter of the wolf spirit could have made for an interesting backstory.  Most of the time we see her attaching Iron Town and shouting things at people.  San and Ashitaka are both seen as outcasts, there was a decent amount of relatable things they had in common.  They could have dived into San’s backstory of how the wolf found her and why they thought her that the forest was a sacred place and why the people of Iron Town were in the wrong.  If it was my story, then I would have given a bit more backstory on San.  She could later tell Ashitaka why Iron Town is so evil and needs to be stopped.         

I enjoy seeing the protagonist go on a life-changing journey.  From the beginning, there’s a reason for the journey, in this case, Ashitaka was banished for having the demon monster touch him.  On his journey, we can see him grow as a character.  We can see it’s hard for him to choose a side between San and Lady Eboshi, he wants to be on both of their sides and for both of them to get along.  We witness the Ashitaka struggling to keep the forest alive, but can also see why having Iron Town is so important to Lady Eboshi and her people.     

I liked how the story was two-sided; with San and the wolves on one side and Lady Eboshi and Iron Town on the other.  Ashitaka found himself in the middle of a battle between both of them and was forced to choose aside.  The story is not just about Ashitaka’s journey and demon scar, but about his ideologies he has.  He wants to get healed so he meets San to get into the spirit forest.  Ashitaka keeps going back and forth between Iron Town and the spirit woods where San is.  This could be seen as him trying to choose aside, but it’s not.  The simple basic story would have been to say the people of Iron Town are the bad guys since they are destroying the forest.  This happens in a lot of movies with the nature vs technology aspect; Avatar, Ferngully, and so many more.  Princess Mononoke does do that cliché story, it’s different with no real bad guy.  Both Lady Eboshi and San end up helping Ashitaka, just in different ways.  On top of that, they both end up hearting him.                 

When I have observed while watching this film was the two sides are just how divided they both are.  On one side you have San who just wants to keep the forest safe from people trying to destroy it.  On the other side is Lady Eboshi, who wants to use advance her technology and keep her people safe.  It’s hard for her to that when she is constantly getting attacked by spirit monsters.  Recently with the black lives matter protest, both officers and black people at the protest are reacting violently.  And it can be hard to decipher who is in the right.  Depending on the person and depend on the cop, I’m sure there are good people and bad people on both sides, but in a protest whoever the bad people are that’s what gets elevated. 

We can see this sort of thing in the Princess Mononoke film; Lady Eboshi starts to hunt the great spirit of the woods, so she deserves to get attacked by San.  But there was also a time when San would just attach Iron Town just because she didn’t want them there, which could be uncalled for.  It differently goes back and forth on who is doing something, and who is pushing it a bit too far.