Reported By: Javeline Camposagrado

I believe many of us have at the very least heard of a famous Ghibli movie: My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Ponyo,  

It’s hard not to have a Studio Ghibli movie as a precious memory, the soft colors and vivid art styles along with whimsical themes are things that any child would have burned into their memory.  

Princess Mononoke, written and directed by renowned Hayao Miyazaki, takes a drastic turn from the classic light-hearted stories to tell a more towards a deep, detailed story.   

The premise of the movie follows the stance of the main character, Ashitaka, being an outsider looking in on his home and surrounding nature being overtaken by an industrialist town, Iron Town, that is trying to deal with its own problems.  

In short, the movie takes place in 14th century Japan. The harmony between humans, nature, and the supernatural starts to crumble when one side tries to tip the power balance.  

Ashitaka gets caught up in the middle of the conflict while traveling to find the Deer God to undo his “curse of hatred”.  

The movie gives a watching experience that is both frustrating and eye-opening as the position of Ashitaka is similar to the watcher. A position where we have enough information to understand but the question lies, do we have any right to interfere?   

Ashitaka suffers from “the curse of hatred” which starts to eat away at him more and more as the forces of nature and the people of Iron Town continue to clash.  

According to an interview with Miyazaki, he did not want the distinction of the characters to have a fine line between good and bad. He states, “That’s how people are.” The complex characters and story make the emotions all the deeper.   

The rich historical references still make it a fantastic watch even today.