Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Starring: YUji Matsuda, Yuriko Ishida, Y*ko Tanaka, Kaoru Kobayashi (voices)

It is some time in Japan’s Muromachi era, and the young and handsome Prince Ashitaka (YUji Matsuda) is patrolling his idyllic village kingdom. His peaceful wandering is interrupted by the arrival from the forest of a Boar God possessed by demons of vengeance, hell-bent on destroying all in its path. Ashitaka, a great warrior, subdues the boar, but not before becoming infected by its deadly curse, which takes root in his arm and condemns him to a slow but certain death.
Ashitaka’s villagers are sure that the only way for him to be saved is to leave the town and head to the forests of the far east, where the Deer God may speed his recovery. On his journey, he comes across an iron processing plant on the edge of the forest, run by the wiley Lady Eboshi (Y*ko Tanaka), a passionate advocate of technological advance, particularly in the areas of deforestation and gun manufacture. Eboshi has set up the plant as a refuge for society’s outcasts, buying up prostitutes from the cities to run the machinery and defend her land.

In the forest, Ashitaka discovers that the animal gods who have lived peacefully for an eternity are being destroyed by the industrial onslaught of Eboshi’s aggressive tactics. While the apes tirelessly replant trees every night, the wolves, led by feisty wolf-child San, the Princess Mononoke (Yuriko Ishida), attack Eboshi nightly, hoping to drive her from the land and leave the woods in peace. Through San, Ashitaka finally discovers the Deer God who may heal his arm, which has become increasingly possessed by rage and ultraviolence. At the same time, however, a shady group of hunters sent with orders from the Mikado are searching for the Deer God’s head, which is said to confer immortality. As the boars mobilise for attack on the humans, the humans hunt for the Deer God, and the apes lose their mind, all that stands between Eboshi and total destruction of the forest are Ashitaka, San and her wolves, and one final, almighty battle.

Hayao Miyazaki is quite rightly thought of as a god in animation circles, beating paths of innovation which Disney can only follow in delighted awe. The Japan across which Ashitaka travels is a backdrop of stunning watercolours, full of intricate detail and sweeping grandeur. Character movement is both graceful and studied, and the kaleidoscopic colour palette of the medieval setting makes for a landmark exploration of the possibilities of traditional animation.

At its heart, this is a tale of eco-adventure, with a moral that wouldn’t be out of place in ‘Fern Gully’. However, as trite as it is, in Miyazaki’s hands, the battle between the cute animals and spirits of the forest and the onslaught of human progress becomes far more compelling than it should rightly be. This isn’t Disney, and there is no need for a wisecracking sidekick to lighten the message’s burden for its youthful audience — there is only a forest full of confused, fearful animals ready to go to war to protect their future.

Miyazaki’s battle is not one between good and evil, and indeed Eboshi is not portrayed as a cartoon villain. Her iron town is a refuge for those with nothing else in life, and she truly believes that her actions in destroying the forest are with just cause. In the spirit world, the good guys quickly turn on their friends and are overrun by evil at the drop of a hat, as even Ashitaka’s increasingly murderous arm testifies.

Two hours of Japanese mythology wrapped in ever-increasing layers of unfamiliar custom can make for difficult viewing, particularly for the children it is intended for (apart from all the decapitations and mutilation and such). There is a dubbed version in circulation featuring the voices of Billy Crudup, Claire Danes and Gillian Anderson, with a script adapted by fantasy legend Neil Gaiman, which supposedly translates the message of ‘Mononoke’ into something more easily palatable for Western audiences. However, if given a chance to wash over you, this non-dubbed ‘Mononoke’ is a wild ride, unadulterated from Miyazaki’s groundbreaking vision.

Although it is now four years old, ‘Mononoke’ is a true landmark in animation. While Hollywood is rushing to computer-generated techniques to find the future of the genre with films such as ‘Shrek’ and ‘Final Fantasy’, Miyazaki’s mastery proves that there’s magic still to be found with such outdated tools as pen and ink.