More on Princess Mononoke...

Yes, I could read the summary on Wikipedia, but that's not the point. The plot needs to be understandable while you're watching the movie without having to resort to Cliff's Notes. Also, that summary is really long, and contains sentences like this:

Jigo, who is now revealed to be a mercenary-hunter, plans to give the head [of the Forest Spirit] to the emperor; in return the emperor promises to give Irontown legal protection against the envious daimyos coveting the town's prosperity.

Huh?

The environmental aspect of it. This is your basic Space Whale Aesop, where the lessons are "Don't destroy the forest, because doing so will anger the boar-god and transform him into a demon" and "Don't shoot the forest gods in the head with a shotgun, because they will turn into this giant blue thing and destroy your whole town." Whatever you say, Matlock.

Although, to be fair, I will give the filmmakers props for not making the villain 100% evil. I mean sure, she's plundering the environment, but she is good to her workers, and she does have a reason for cutting down the forest. I's not like on Captain Planet where they would just bulldoze rainforests for the hell of it.

The movie is rated PG-13, but has some pretty hard-core violence; we're talking Kill Bill shit here with people's arms getting chopped off and pigs vomiting blood. Also the monsters are pretty scary. Don't let young children watch it.

#18 Princess Mononoke - Gods and Princesses and Little Mushroom Looking Wood Creatures, Oh My!

1997. dir Hayao Miyazaki, starring Yôji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yûko Tanaka. Japanese with subtitles*.

Seen it before? No.

The plot summary is pretty much what Sam wrote but for a more clear and (frankly accurate version) I went to Wikipedia.

The visual effects were cool. The story was somewhat difficult to follow...especially since I was multi tasking and therefore wasn't reading all the captions that were at the bottom of the screen since Sam wanted to make our experience "authentic" and therefore that meant having to listen to the real Japanese actors reading their lines.

Characters:
Ashitaka (a prince from the East) aka the hero
Lady Eboshi (the head of Iron Town who rescues women from working in brothels and is trying to create weapons that surpass China's weaponry) aka the antagonist
San/Princess Mononoke (the wolf princess who has renounced humans and whose mission it is to save the earth's natural resources) aka the protagonist
a variety of townspeople
Shishigami (the god who can restore life or take it away) aka the Deer God
Moro aka the Wolf God
Okkoto aka the Boar God
Kodama (the little mushroom looking wooden creatures)

I'm sure that there is something lost in translation but the film can be construed as one of two things:
a) a beautifully created anime fantasy masterpiece
b) a political message about what will happen if humans continue to misuse/destroy natural resources for their own wealth or rather the struggle between nature and industry.

Would I see it again? Sure, but this time maybe in English so I CAN multi task!!!
Would I add it to my collection? I'm not a huge fan of anime so probably not.

#18 Princess Mononoke: No, Okkoshi! Don't turn into a demon!

1997. dir Hayao Miyazaki, starring Yôji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Yûko Tanaka. Japanese with subtitles*.

Seen it before? No.

OK, what the HELL was that about?

Here's what I think happened. There's this kid, Ashitaka, who is a prince, and pretty good with a bow and arrow. One day, this boar-monster... thing... attacks his village. He kills it, but gets wounded in the process. The obligatory wise old woman tells him that the wound is cursed, and he should travel west for... some reason. Telling a fantasy story is tricky. A story where anything can happen at any time is not very interesting. You need to delineate the rules clearly so the audience knows what the logic of the story is and what's at stake. One trick a lot of storytellers use is to include a character like the wise old woman. This gives the audience the necessary exposition in a way that fits into the story. You know... Dumbledore, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Gandalf, that sort of thing? This old woman sucks. She's only in one scene early in the movie, and doesn't really explain anything.

So anyway, he travels west, and he eventually finds this city where they forge iron. And then there are talking wolves, and talking boars, and talking apes, and... the whole thing just goes off the rails.

The woman who runs the iron works is trying to destroy the forest so she can get more sand to make more iron, and doing so involves killing the Deer God... I guess? So she tries to do this with a shotgun. Yeah. A fucking shotgun. Hey Einstein, what part of "Deer God" don't you understand? So needless to say her plan goes horribly awry, and.. oh yeah, there's this girl who was raised by wolves. She's Princess Mononoke, but everybody calls her "San" for some reason, and what is she supposed to be the princess of anyway? Princess of the wolves? The whole thing just makes no goddamn sense whatsoever.

You know, I took a Japanese culture class in college, so theoretically I should have learned about some of the mythological underpinnings to this story (like the weird little white ghost guys who live in the woods, WTF were they?) but I guess I slept through class. This movie wasn't a total waste of time; the backgrounds and effects animations look nice, and there's a cool scene where Ashitaka shoots a samurai in the neck and his head pops off like a dandelion. but unless you're really into Anime or bizarre confusing stories, I would pass on this movie.

Position in the list: 120
Did I make up that quote in the post title? No, I swear; the whole script is like that

*NOTE: The DVD also includes a dubbed version with the voices of Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, and Gillian Anderson.