Princess Mononoke

Description

Princess Mononoke is Hayao Miyazaki’s most non-childish film. I would even call it a soft form of social and eco-horror. It reflects humanity’s core flaws: the inherent need to wage war and destroy. Everyone is fighting everyone, annihilating everything around them. It has reached the point where a small group of people decided to kill God just so He wouldn’t stop them from causing even more destruction.

The film undoubtedly carries a powerful message. But unfortunately, as with all such works: it got a bunch of glowing reviews, prestigious awards, and that’s it. People watched it, said, “Okay, cool,” and went right back to waging war and destroying.

Despite the film not being visually dark and wrapping its events in the sauce of a fairy tale, Princess Mononoke leaves an unpleasant aftertaste after the credits roll. The aftertaste of realizing that war, war never truly ends.