Elwood's Essentials #16 - Princess Mononoke

Title: Princess Mononoke

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Released: 1997

Starring: Billy Crudup, Billy Bob Thornton, Minnie Driver, John DiMaggio, Claire Danes, John DeMita, Jada Pinkett Smith, Gillian Anderson, Keith David

Plot: After being cursed defending his villiage from a rampaging boar-god turned demon, Ashitaka (Crudup). Now he must venture to the western lands to true and find a cure, only to soon find himself caught in the battle between the residents of Irontown lead by Lady Eboshi and the forest gods.

 

Review: When we look at key Anime titles its often far too easy to go straight to the likes of “Akira” and “Ghost In The Shell” and overlook the titles of Studio Ghibli which unquestionably played a key part in bringing Anime to western audiences with this film in particular being of the key titles in their extensive back catalogue while this film would also be the highest grossing film of all time in its native Japan until the release of Titanic which came out the same year.

Returning from his four year break from directing after “Porco Rosso” here legendary director Hayao Miyazaki brings a much darker vision to this film than had been previously produced by “Studio Ghibli” aswell as a more revolutionary animation style for the time as elements of the film used computer animation to blend and support the traditional cel animation with a prime example being the writhing worm like demon flesh which appears throughout when one of the gods is corrupted. At the same time Miyazaki ever the perfectionist personally corrected / redrew more than 80,000 of the 144,000 animation cels which make up the film.

A sweeping and epic production, the film really hits the ground running with the opening attack on Ashitaka’s village this is another film which really shows the potential for animation as Miyazaki once more refuses to believe that the medium should be limited to childish fare as here he crafts a very grown up fantasy tale as limbs are torn off and battlefields are shown covered in mass casualties. This of course is nothing new for Studio Ghibli as the previous films have featured some surprising moments of violence such as a villain being crushed between then hands of a clock and a small army being dropped out of the bottom of a flying airship its just before they’ve been covered more by the general charm of the film, though I don’t think Disney where expecting what they got here when they agreed to distribute the film which also under their agreement couldn’t even edit the film to fit in more with their catalogue, though they did release it into fewer theatres than originally planned seemingly in response to their editing request being refused.

The environment, a long time favourite theme of Miyazaki and here he once more get to make it the central theme as the meat of the story is based around the ongoing battle been man and nature in this case the residents of Irontown whose expanding town and need for resources puts them in constant conflict with the forest gods in particular the wolf goddess Moro (Anderson) and her adopted human child San the self-dubbed Princess Mononoke. The ongoing rivalry between San and Lady Eboshi is one of the highlights of the film with Eboshi having command of explosives and advanced weaponry, while San rides into battle on her giant wolves while demonstrating lightening sharp reflexes which makes their confrontations such a thrill to watch. It's intresting though that Miyazaki never brands either of those characters as being the villian, even though it can be assumed that San is the heroine of the pair, while Eboshi on the other hand is hardly the villian as she does only what she think is best for Irontown than actively seeking to destroy the surround forests.

Also thrown into the mix is the wandering monk Jiko-bo (Thornton) who despite his friendly nature might be the most devious character of them all, as he plans to use Ashitaka to locate the Great Forest Spirit whose head he plans to capture for the Emperor believing it grants the powers of immortality.

For Miyazaki the forests which surround Irontown are home to giant animal gods and playful spirits presided over by the forest spirit which has the power over life and death, Miyazaki here managing to combine his sense of fantastical wonder and delight with much darker moments than we have come to expect from his work and yet somehow it all complements each other so that we can have scenes of Joko-bo’s men infiltrating the forest wearing the skins of the slain boar army along the adorable head rattling kodama.

As to be expected from a Studio Ghibli film the animation is sumptuous throughout while complemented by the orchestral soundtrack composed by Joe Hisaishi. At the same time the dub track while not perfect does feature a fantastic cast who all embrace their roles while including a subtle turn for Gillian Anderson as the giant wolf god Moro.

While perhaps not having the same surface charms of the other Studio Ghibli films this one has real depth especially with its characters and storytelling which never feels the need to dumb things down for its audience, while also knowing just how dark to go before pulling back. Here Miyazaki is clearly working at the heights of his powers crafting something truly special which truly lives up to its reputation of being an essential anime classic.

Porco Rosso

Title: Porco Rosso

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Released: 1992
Starring: Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes, Kimberly Willams

Plot: Set in 1930s Italy, veteran WW1 pilot Porco Rosso (Keaton) makes a living hunting the local sky pirates, when not drinking away his evenings at his long-time friend Gina’s bar. However when the local sky pirates hire the arrogant American Ace Curtis (Elwes), Porco finds his peaceful life thrown into turmoil as he heads towards an inevitable showdown for dominance of the skies with Curtis, while also unintentionally gaining a feisty mechanic in the form of Fio (Willams).

Review: As I’ve covered in my previous Studio Ghibli reviews, studio founder Hayao Miyazaki has always held a fascination with flight and flying machines, which really make this, his love letters to these passions, even more so when he is given such free reign to explore these passions here in a way hadn’t had with his previous films and it’s an opportunity he fully embraces

One of the more overlooked titles in the Ghibli back catalogue alongside the likes of “Little Norse Prince” and “Pom Poko” it is still unclear to myself why it isn’t viewed as being on the same level of "Kiki’s Delivery Service” and “Laputa: Castle in the Sky” especially when this is perfect entry title to Ghibli’s  with its fast and humorous plotting, colourful characters and exciting flight scenes all make for an accessible film even for viewers getting their first taste of anime. As a result it joins a rather unique club of movies alongside films likes of Kurosawa’s “Red Beard”, Hitchcock’s “I Confess” and Spielberg’s “Amistad”. All films equally on a par with their better known films, yet for one reason or another seemingly destined to remain as lower ranked films on their resume.

Opening to Porco rescuing a group of kidnapped schoolgirls from the Mamma Aiuto Gang, the tone of the film is set from the start, with the bumbling sky pirates and Porco’s philosophy of only damaging the pirates planes to put them out of action temporarily rather than permanently to ensure he can hunt them another day as part of an unspoken symbiotic relationship they share, if more from Porco’s side so he can maintain his carefree existence. The fact that he also has the face of a pig being of minor concern to everyone it would seem, even in terms of plotting were it is never fully explained and instead alluded to an act of cowardice committed by Porco while serving in the Italian Air force during WW1 and from whom he is still being AWOL.

The world the film is set is far from a realistic one as it bars all the usual fantastical touches which have become so reknown with Miyazaki’s work, even if this time he not setting the film in a fantastical land, but instead Miyazaki’s vision of the Adriatic coast  and Milan in a pre-war Italy. The tone though is kept intentionally light hearted throughout, as established in the opening were we see the kidnapped schoolgirls being far from concerned at the prospect of being kidnapped by the Mamma Aiuto Gang, especially when they spend the experience generally causing mischief and havoc for the gang.  

Despite the humorous tone the film still manages to fall somewhere between the two distinct styles of film making Miyazaki, with his film either falling into a cynical or positive categories, here he has made a film which can never be placed in either categories as here he focuses on the small things which make life worth living, while alluding to the horror which we create for ourselves with war during a flashback were Porco remembers seeing a spectral trail which upon closer examination turns out to be the souls of lost fighter pilots. Still this is a film which isn’t going for heavy social commentary but wonder and amazement instead as here he is clearly firing on all cylinders as both storyteller and craftsman.

Unquestionably though this is a film which Miyazaki has made for himself first and foremost, as clearly seen by the amount of references to the pioneers of aviation through to the  details which have gone into the various planes and thrilling Ariel sequences none the more seen than during the final showdown between Porco and and Curtis which starts despite starting as a traditional dogfight soon takes on a mischievous edge as the two pilots resort to throwing junk from their planes at each other, before finally deciding to land and settle things with a spontaneous boxing match.  Such a sequence is only really pulled of on the strength of the characters with Curtis being everybit the brash American while at the same time clearly being modelled after the heroes Errol Flynn was renown for playing while the two also clearly share a jawline to boot.

Unlike the other dubs which Studio Ghibli have received on their other titles the English voice cast on hand here certainly contains a lot less star power than some of the more popular titles, with Michael Keaton being the closest the cast list comes to an A-list name. Despite this the dub is none the less superb, with Keaton once again being unrecognisable as seems to always be the way whenever he lends his voice to an animated  character. Despite the lack of star power each of the cast really embody their characters and really make them seem believable.   

While it might not be as deep as “Princess Mononoke or as playful as “My Neighbour Totoro” but this is still an enjoyable film none the less while Miyazaki proves himself more than capable of working outside of his comfort zone.

Kiki's Delivery Service

Title: Kiki’s Delivery Service
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Released: 1989
Staring: Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Keiko Toda, Minami Takayama, Keppei Yamaguchi

Plot: Having turned 13, witch in training Kiki (Takayama) leaves homes with her talking cat Jiji (Sakuma) as is traditional for all witches to leave home for a year on their thirteenth birthday. Despite processing almost no witch skills beside her ability to fly on a broom, which she is still not overly great at doing, she arrives in the city of Koriko were we is soon using her skill to setup a delivery service.




Review: For the longest time when I was starting off my own personal Anime obsession, this film was seen almost like a secret handshake between Anime fans, were a fan’s status was largely judged on if they had seen certain films, a list of which this film was one of those titles. Now while it might be hard to realise it now, with such a huge variety of anime titles easily available, back when I started collecting anime, the only label which was putting out anime titles here in the UK was “Manga Entertainment” who tended to favour the more violent and graphic titles like “Fist of the North Star” and “Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend” giving the misguided impression that all Japanese animation was like this, though in their defence they were also responsible for bringing two legendry anime titles “Akira” and “Ghost In The Shell” to Western audiences so it's hard to question if thier influence was detrimental to the cause or not. Still it would be much later that a lot of Anime fans got to discover the simple and innocent beauty of Studio Ghibli’s movies, which showed a polar opposite side to anime than most fans had been used to and ultimately has paved the way for less violent anime to gain distribution outside of bootlegs and late night showings on TV.

Out of the Studio Ghibli’s back catalogue “Kiki’s Delivery Service” is certainly one of my favourites, despite the fact that fan’s tend to frequently over look it, opting for the colourful characters of “My Neighbour Totoro” or the nature versus industry epic “Princess Monoke”, which is a shame as it’s certainly one of their best with its childlike (but not childish) innocence and curiosity, while also proving shockingly for a lot of western audiences at the time that Anime doesn’t have to be all giant robots and fan service schoolgirls.

“Kiki’s Delivery Service” differs from a lot of the Ghibli title, bar perhaps “My Neighbour Totoro” in that it has no real set course and instead starts off with the idea of Kiki leaving home, eager to prove to her family that she can make her own way in the world and is essentially just watching her daily progress towards this goal, with no major crisis or big evil to combat, the closest the film gets to either of these things being with the climatic Zeppelin chase which in itself comes almost out of nowhere, much like Kiki suddenly loosing her powers in the third quarter, which in itself is essentially more of a moral lesson in believing in your own abilities even when you feel like a failure. Still Kiki’s abilities are portrayed less as magical and more like an artistic skill, meaning that this loss of her powers could also be seen almost as a kind of writers block.

While Kiki going about day to day tasks as she goes about settling into her new life and unexpectedly setting up a delivery service, might not sound like the most gripping of viewing, it surprisingly is never dull and even more amazingly gives these things an almost magical feel. It could also be argued that for these reasons, that the film would seem almost intentionally aimed at a female audience, but somehow director Miyazaki still manages to keep the attention of both sexes a fact best highlighted in a comment one of my friends made, were he pointed out that he was knowingly watching a very girlie anime yet still strangely gripped by what he was watching.

Miyazaki’s obsession with flight is fully on show here from Kiki on her broom, to the Zeppelin and plane filled skies and her nerdy friend Tombo’s flying contraption (essentially a bicycle with a propeller) and the feeling of flight is truly captured from the gentle flights across the countryside to the thrilling climax which see’s Kiki whizzing through the streets and alleyways in pursuit of the runaway Zeppelin, while still maintaining the detailed crowed streets of the city packed with onlookers, rather than switching to the plain background as the character moves slowly towards the screen, as more traditionally seen as Miyazaki never risks losing this sense of flight, by scrimping on the finer details and these only make this finale only all the more chaotic and exciting to watch, event after repeated viewings.

Being a Ghibli film there are several options available when it comes to watching the films, with purists no doubt options for the subtitle track, while dub fans get a choice of two equally great dub tracks, with Disney providing a more star studded cast which see’s Kirstin Dunst take on the role of Kiki, while Phil Hartman provides the voice of Jiji, with this trend for star studded dub tracks continuing into future Ghibli releases. Still there isn’t much difference between the subtitle version and the dubbed version really outside of Jiji who in the dub track comes off as more of a wiseass than he does in the original subtitled version.

“Kiki’s Delivery Service” truly deserves to have it’s place amongst the best titles in the Ghibli back catalogue, especially with Miyazaki here on top form, with a project which was seemingly made with him in mind, especially seeing how it allows for such freedom to include his various trademarks, while also providing a gentle introduction to Anime for newcomers to both the genre as well as the films of studio Ghibli and Miyazaki.