Bonnie Barlow

1-220
Title: Princess Mononoke
Language: Originally in Japanese, viewed English version
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Actors: Ashitaka Billy Crudup, San Claire Danes,
Analyze the social and philosophical issues the film addresses. Make sure you include the point of view
of the movie, the context of the movie, what audience the movie is targeting, and why. (i.e. you should
address and reflect upon the argument or meaning of the work. This should be analysis, not just
summary of issues in the movie). {at least 500 words}
Ashitaka must leave his village to find what drove the God creature mad that attacked their village,
never to return. His fate is death once he attacks the ill demon creature, but he has a chance of finding
the cause of the madness if he cuts his hair and leaves his village forever, never to return. He first meets
a man in the next village, name Jiko, and he speaks about a curse across the whole world. Ashitaka has
a chance to discover what his curse is on him as well as the one that seems to be spreading across the
world. After this, his travels to find where the pellet that killed the boar God came from he comes
across the Iron Town people. This is where he meets Lady Eboshi and San, the wolf child. Both of
these women are very strong and are completely oppositely the same. Eboshi wants to develop her
town and let her people grow strong and flourish, and while this happens they also have to kill the
forest that lies around them to continue to mine for the iron they want. On the other hand San fights
with the wolves and spirits to protect the forest and continually try to rebuild what the humans destroy.
Although these two women are on opposite sides, they are very similar, which is interesting to me.
They both have a strong conviction about what they are doing and think that their own opinion is
completely correct. While Lady Eboshi hates the spirits and ultimately wants to kill the god of the
forest to continue her growth, San hates humans and wants the forest to grow, she wishes the humans
would leave and has the utmost respect for the forest god. Ashitaka was cursed by one of the Gods
because it attacked his village and he killed him, but he still had respect for them and wished everyone
could live together in the forest. In the end Ashitaka seems to get what he ultimately wanted.Eboshi
killed the forest god, but not without causing the destruction of her own town because of it. San is glad
the town is destroyed, but would never be truly happy until the humans are completely gone and are not
able to destroy the forest anymore. I feel like the meaning can be several things, living in Harmony
with your surroundings, if you are destructive you draw destruction to you, and maybe also you can
never get everything you want, only compromise. I think the movie could be targeting several
audiences, one could be simply fans of war like movies, another could be environmentalists, another
could be political capitalists that take and never give back. You can really see all of these points
because if the humans had tried to live in harmony with the forest instead of destroying it they could
have really avoided the war that happened and killed a lot of people and animals. Another is the
destruction, when the town started destroying the forest first there is the war with the animals again, but
there is also war with other humans and their samurais. A lot of people attacked the village because
they saw the irons value. And in the end the real lesson I think I could get out of the movie is
compromise. No one can get everything that they want especially when it is affecting others negatively,
they have to give up some to get something back. In the end Lay Eboshi knew they had to change their
ways to keep living and to make sure in the end everyone stays alive. San realized she could never truly
get rid of all the humans without completely killing everyone, which she was not capable of doing
herself.
What is your response to the message of the film? Why do you respond this way? Show that you are
thinking about your own thinking here and the biases/assumptions about the world you bring to your

viewing. Did the film change the way you view the subject? Why, or why not? {at least 250 words}
In the end the message of living in harmony with our surroundings and with each other or basically
destruction will ensue feels like the main point of this movie. Maybe thinking it is about the harmony is
a bias of mine, I suppose it could be more about industry and the endurance of humans. Mostly after
watching the ending I think it could be about both. Living in harmony with your surroundings is
necessary while having endurance and strength and building and surviving is also a necessity. Really I
like the idea of living in harmony with the earth and needing to take care of it to protect everyone. If
you do not take care of your environment that you will not survive and likewise others would not
survive. In this movie it also showed how everything and everyone had the potential of turning against
each other for greed, and the desire to be high and mighty. I wonder if because I already had an ideal of
taking care of the earth and trying to not leave a large foot print really impacts me for how I am
taking this movie. Maybe I assume the movie is about being an environmentalist because I love the
environment and I already believe that people should be conscious of their decisions in how it will
impact the world and living for years to come. Although I think that is movie was about the
environment and our impacts on it, again maybe I missed the point because of my bias, it did not really
change my view point on the subject. If anything, I think it could give me a stronger opinion on taking
care of our world.
What cultural differences did you notice in the film (philosophical outlook, humor, architecture,
customs, clothes, cities, weather, food, music, dancing, lifestyles, etc.)? What did you learn about
history, economics or politics? (There are always differences; look for them). {at least 250 words}
I think if you were to take curtural differences just from character to character you can find a large list,
and maybe a list that could even fit into our own political parties that like to be separate from each
other. Take San, for instance, her outlook was basically huams are bad, even though she was one. San's
whole point was how the forest was being destroyed due to Iron Town and how they only cared for
themselves. She hated them for that and did all she could in her power as far as strength and knowledge
to fight against anyone who sought to destroy. And then take the main character Ashitaka, he truly just
wanted everyone to be equally taken care of and to reach an agreement, a compromise or an
understanding to some degree. While San would have been an extreme in one part of a political party,
Askitaka would have been someone in the dead center. Then you can take Eboshi, she fought hard for
the right of her villagers to get the best in life, but she did not care who or what else she destroyed in
the process. Eboshi's main plan was to get what she was after while she also took care of her villagers,
and if that meant killing a god, then she would do it without hesitation. Again, if you look at her in a
political party stance, she would be on the opposite side from San, with Ashitaka basically becoming
the mediator.
What techniques did the filmmaker use that were different from what you see in the films you
normally watch? Think about lighting, dialogue, atmosphere, setting, music, and how the filmmaker
might play upon your own biases, etc.{150 words}
I do not know if this is just because Myazaki is Japanese or if the normal disney I watch seems bias, but
I felt like equality for women and men is very different in this movie than what it is in others. Like take
most Disney movies, even if there is a strong female warrior character, nine times out of ten half of the
movie is literally obsessing that she is a female and she is not supposed to act that way. Basically
saying she is so completely different from what her social norm should be and what society expects
from her. While taking San and Eboshi, both are huge strong female characters but not once did it
really obsess or analyze them for their lead as a female, it felt like it was more as a person when they
spoke about her. I'm not saying that Princess Mononoke was free from social stereotypes, because the

women in Iron Town always had back and forth's with the men about their place and what was a man's
place. It is just that this was basically side human and not a focus of the movie like I have seen done in
so many other American animated films.
Discuss how what you saw in the film relates to one of the assigned readings or class discussions
( 150 words)
San and Ashitaka have a small romance on the side that I could relate to courtly love in a small way.
First, Ashitaka thought she was beautiful when they first met and told her so, throwing her off guard. In
courtly love many times you have a stronger woman in a sense that she may have more control in what
she wants in the relationship outcome that there may have been. Something else that I think can easily
relate is that Ashitaka had to first prove his true intentions and San had to know that he truly wanted the
forest and the humans to live in peace. Although in the end San could not truly be pleased because of
the loss of the forest spirit.
Why assign international film