Hi guys I'd like to amswer to Q.1 I think, the relationship between humankind and nature could be a main theme in Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki tends to stress the pivotal role of nature for all creaters on earth through his anime. princess Mononoke is too. Eboshi of Irontown can be a representative of human world where people have strong aspiration for developing technologies including destructive weapons. Such idea, ultimately destroy not only vital nature but also unique our planet. Although Eboshi seems to be a humanist as a leader of human realm protecting its people and providing employment for the outcastes such as prostitutes and leprosy patients, her unawarence of nature law causes huge devastation. The quetion is then, how we live in harmony with nature.Princess Mononoke tells us If we ruin the natural ecosystem for the shake of human's greed, we could be confronted with the boomerang phenomenon. Miyazaki hope that It would serve as a wake-up call to the human being. However, my point of view is that the relationship between nature and human is likely to Ashitaka's monologue: "you'll live in the forest, and I'll be in the irontown. Together we shall live on."
Another underlying theme could be feminism.Miyazaki creats female protagonists in Princess Mononoke differ from conventional Japanese culture.In this anime,I couldn't find the typical of the shojo's chracter: cutenes and sweetness.It is supported by critic Murase Hiromi, he points out, "ther are three important female characters in this film: Eboshi,the leader of Tatara; San, the human girl who has joined wild nature; and Moro, San's adoptive wolf mother."(p.274) All of them are independent, brave and violent that illustrate changing gender role or gender-neutral in modern society.On the other hand, personally I think, Miyzaki may intend to show tough image of female in Japan in order to lessen the stereotype of japanese female.Or subconsciously,the memory of unhealthy his mother makes him generate such powerful woman in his anime all the time.
Q.2 According to Napier(2005),historical setting of princess Mononoke is fourteenth-century but, it is not based on an actual historical events. In the 14th century,the so-called Muromachi period, was broadlly recognised as a golden age of high culture: culturally well-known tea ceremony together with brilliant form of garden and landscape especially, worship Kami. Also it was an era of relative peace rulling by samurai aristocracy,who settled in the capital of Kyoto. However,in princess Mononoke,Kami exist in opposition of the civilised human world and there is, of course,no imperial court of samurai nobility. Thus, Napier states that "this is a film in which the main protagonists are those who usually do not appear on the stage of history. Instead, this is the story of the marginals of history."(p.271)
Q.6 Princess Mononoke is the first film to use computer graphics which produce the cumulative effects.According to Cavallaro(2006),"Mononoke contains about 15 minutes of CGI.(Computer-Generated Imagery) Of these, 10 minutes are filled by the scenes that used digital ink and paint only. The remaining five minutes employed various digital techniques,such as 3D rendering, morphing,particles, digital composition and texture mapping."
Last night I watched the anime, ‘Howl’s moving castle’ which I missed a good chance to watch on Thursday class. My purpose was to see what the difference between three dimension and two dimension comparing it with the Princess Mononoke. However, I really wish to talk another thing that I felt quite unhappy or rather hurt. Why aged women are always depicted negative images? In Howl’s moving castle, witch of the waste who curses Sophie by aging her into a 90 years old woman, tries to take Howl’s heart. Also Madame Suliman who is Howl’s old mentor strives to control and exploit him. Nevertheless, I’d like to assert, getting older never be thought of cursing, it is natural progressing and can be a blessing. This is because Sophie, as becoming an elderly, she seems to be more strong, wise and thoughtful than she was young. I suppose that physical appearance is absolutely essential condition to get marry for man but, its value is not existed for long –term. I believe that most aged women possess valuable Know-how for solving problems and precious life experience which should be respected and also should bear in mind especially for younger generation.
Q1. In Princess Mononoke, as Grace says, the relationship between human and nature is one the themes. However, I feel it is Miyazaki’s elegy to expresses his disappointment that human never lives harmony with nature, and vice versa. Their conflicts are not just the contemporary human and environmental issues. Prince Ashitaka, Lady Eboshi and Princess Mononoke – San were all great people. They were all well respected by their own people. (San is respected by the wolves and other animals, of course). Eboshi’s hatred of forest creature was based on the aim of protecting her people. San detests human because she tried to save forest and its creations. Eboshi symbolizes the love of human being while San symbolizes the love of nature. In Miyazaki’s reality, these two can not live peacefully. San’s refusal to live with Ashitaka and her decision to stay in the forest strongly states this underlying theme.
Q 2. To add a bit to Grace’s, PM’s marginals comprise a diverse and unusual group that includes women, outcasts, and non-Yamato tribes and the Kami. For example: 1. Ashitaka was the young lord of Emishi, which was non-Japanese Ainu race. 2.Tatara is not governed by a man but by a woman, Lady Eboshi, who has constructed Tatara as a utopian refuge for outcast women and people with incurable illnesses like leprosy. (p. 235)
However, making and using firearms did match the history of Muromachi period. By the end of the Muromachi period, the first Europeans had arrived in Japan with the introducaiton of firearms.
I have read your comment on the way the aged women are portrayed in Howl’s moving castle and would like to discuss about it. I know it's a long comment to read and again I am not answering Paul's questions, but I hope you'll come back to this page and read it because you are one of my nicest classmates and I do not want you to feel upset after watching such a brilliant movie.
You said she felt “quite unhappy or rather hurt” from watching Howl’s moving castle. However, in my opinion, I do not think those women – Grandma Sophie, the Witch of the Waste, and Madame Suliman – are illustrated in negative ways. Instead, I feel that Miyazaki was trying to show us the positive side of aged women. Just like what you already said, Grandma Sophie is stronger, wiser, and more thoughtful as she grows old.
Grandma Sophie indeed made a lot of changes since she moved into Howl’s moving castle as a maid, both to the castle and people who live in it. Even when I was watching the anime, I felt quite impressed to see the woman at the age to be called ‘Grandma’ is so actively cleaning the whole castle, to make it a better and nicer place to live in. To me, this anime implies that elders are not necessarily burden for younger people and there is always something for younger people to learn from them.
Markl, the young boy who lives with Howl, is a good example of this because we saw since the beginning that he did not pay proper attention to Sophie even though he was a kid and she was, by her look, a Grandma. But as the story goes, we could see how Grandma Sophie takes care of Markl’s food (she tries to make bacons for him) and together they do the washing. Markl helps her to carry a chair back once she finished gazing at the sea (or the lake, I am not sure) and he also carries a basket full of potatoes for her when they went shopping. Isn’t that nice? After the reunion of Sophie and her mother, Markl hugged her and asked her not to live him because he loved her. I could not stop smiling when I watched that scene.
The Witch of the Waste, when she was evil, is in a form of a wealthy woman. Overweight though she seems, she is not somewhere near ‘an aged woman’ so I will just move to the time when she is stripped off her magic power and goes back, physically, to her real age. She might not be as energetic as Grandma Sophie but she is a pleasant companion, especially when Sophie talked to her about falling in love.
It reminds me of the old time when my grandfather and I had a conversation. Isn’t it elders we turn to when we are stuck with problems we can’t solve in life, listening to their past, learning from their experience, and feeling console that we are not the only ones struggling in this wild world? Personally, I think the Witch of the Waste looks very cute when she gets old with her innocent eyes and a genuine smile :) Though near the end of the story she tried to get hold of Howl’s heart, she eventually gave it back when Sophie begged for it – and that was all because of love, wasn’t it? Seeing the look in her eyes as she tries to take the heart, I understood how dearly it means to her. The scene that she is screaming from the heat of the heart that burns her but will never let go of it really touched me. For me, she is not an evil witch, just a broken-heart woman who wants the man she loves love her (and she just happens to have such strong power to curse every girl who is in her way hehe).
As for Madame Suliman, I thought the reason she threatens Howl is only because the good of the country, or the war (can I call it the ‘good’?). To be honest, I like her image and position: a woman, aged but so powerful that she is the king’s head sorceress. I am sick of the world which wizards rule, like Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore from Harry Potter (or even Harry himself).
There is one thing I strongly disagree with you. You said that “witch of the waste who curses Sophie by aging her into a 90 years old woman,” and that “getting older never be thought of cursing, it is natural progressing and can be a blessing.” I admit that there were times when I was younger that I wanted to forever stay at that age, but I’ve come to like myself as I gradually grow up and accept myself as an adult. I surely will welcome an aged version of myself when the right time comes but NOT before it. Being able to learn and experience things all along the way before you get old is very different from being taken away those 70 years of life and suddenly become old. Sorry but I still see that what the Witch of the West does to Sophie at the beginning is a curse.
Last but not least, (if you're really reading this, I thank you. you've come very far)I absolutely agree with you that aged women (and men, of course!) are respectable and rich of valuable experience, and I hope that you would see now that the anime ‘Howl’s moving castle’ does not destroy the idea but acknowledges it, so don’t feel hurt if you will watch it next time. Enjoy :)
Here comes some more comment to Q2 after my second reading. As we all know that PM physically takes places in a mythical space deeply removed from the capital. This is a movie in which few samurai, peasants, or feudal lords appear. PM is set in fantastic nonplaces characterized by vaguely European-style architecture and Western-looking characters. (p.237) Although in the 14th century Japan had developed its economy, several kinds of towns and new social classes, Miyazaki refuses to sentimentalize this period of history in PM.
Instead, Miyazaki problematizes the change of people’s value system from gods to money. (p.237) He problematizes the issue even further by making Tatara not just a site of industrial production but a site of weapons manufacturing. In addition, one of the weapons it produces, the iron ball that lodged in the boar, has engendered a lasting curse on humanity. (p.246)
I am so sorry to know you were upset and feeling hurt after watching Howl's Moving Castle. Personly I don't think the elderly appearance of Sophie after she was placed the curse makes me like her less. Still, Sophie possesses lots of female beauty - gentleness, tidiness, neatness. And most importantly, she has a lovely young heart. I've even found her facial expression only appears to young woman who is in love. She is always eager for Howl's return and loves to be with him forever.
Hi aw & Jean. Thank you for the your comment on my feelings about Howl's moving castle.Paticularly jean, you are right. I'm little bit embarrassed as I read your opinion yet,I've learned somethibg from you:we see the same thing but you find positive things that are totally diffrent from mine which is negative. That is why I determined to rewatch it during the study break at the moment. Thank you again.
“Traditional construction of Gender’ is my topic for now. Napier insists that Miyazaki destabilizes the conventional female characterization. I disagree with this idea. According to the history I know, matriarchal collectivity was the system in the early human society. The characteristic of matrilineal society is people living in matrilineal kin groups. An individual is considered to belong to his or her mother. Mother’s home is always all her children’s residence. Women and men do not have stable relationship, such as partnership or marriage. Miyazaki applies these characteristics in PM in the following ways:
1. Eboshi may be seen as a kind of artificial mother to the collectivity of Tarara without any apparent family ties or hint of male support. (p.239-240) She nurtures and protects her diseased and outcast citizens.
2. Moro appears to be a wise and brave mother. She raises San and her two wolf siblings as well as giving them wise advice. Again, her male partner is absent.
3. San and Ashitaka’s agreement to live apart but still visit each other also suggests marriage does not exit in the matriarchal society.
Miyazaki keeps PM away from patriarchal system, and encourages audience to re-think (or re-value maybe) matriarchal society. In deed, he is trying to reach for the original.
Brilliant comment, I agree that Miyazaki instill strong life values and depicted older people in a positive light.
I enjoy the film throughly and I think this is possibly Miyazaki's most intriguing movie.
I love how this movie is so higly emotional without a great deal of logic to get in the way. This film is simple, pure and extrely beautiful.
It is as if the characters go from one emotion to th other in a world that is as random as one's own dream.
I know there are people that complained the lack of plot or serious character development. Yes, it is true that the characters are kind of stationary in a way, but I think their emotions and physical changes they undergo as the go through these emotions brings out truth that is seldom given such artistic and natural freedom.
Awww, don't be embarassed. I think this film is a little bit complex and is hard to understand as it flirts from theme to theme as if it is suffering from an animated attention deficit!
I think you will see the film in a very different way if you re-watch it again.
Grace I'm happy to hear that you are now feeling better. there is nothing to be embarrassed of! It is just because we experience different things, so we view things in different ways. I am sure there is a lot I can learn from you :)
hope you like the movie when you watch it again!
Pear jin Thanks for your comment :) I enjoyed watching the movie too.
I don't agree with some people, according to you because I don't know what others think about it, that complain the lack of plot and character development. Yes, the plot is not that complicated but I'm absolutely fine with it. And for the character development, I think there are many examples to be seen.
It is as Grace said before that 'Sophie, as becoming an elderly, she seems to be more strong, wise and thoughtful than she was young.' Howl used to be so childish that he could not deal with his own disappointment and turned into...well, I don't know how to call that slimy glutinous thing, and he needed people to take care of him. However, both of them are much stronger in the end, knowing that they have someone precious to protect.
As for the Witch of the Waste, she needs to be mentioned here because she is my most favourite character haha, eventually she has learned to love, by giving not possessing. Yeah, it's the scene that she decides to let go of Howl's heart that makes me love her :D
I grow up with Japanese manga and anime so I am familiar with the ideas of the bound of friendship or the power within you when you want protect someone, which are always included in those works. It is a pretty optimistic way to see the world - thinking that if you truly want to protect someone you'll overcome everything, anything, and stuff like that - but I still like to look at it in that way :)
2. How does it ‘defamiliarise’ its historical setting, according to Napier (2005)? For the question 2, Napier(2005) stated that Princess Mononoke defamiliarises two icons in Japanese culture:1. "the myth of the feminine as long-suffering and supportive" "they myth of Japanese as living in harmony with nature, often expressed through a union of the feminine with the natural" 2. "the film defamiliarises conventional notions of Japanese history through Miyazaki's decision to set the film during the fourteenth-century Muromachi period and his subsequent subversion of conventional expectations concering what a film set in that era should be about".
There are lots comments for Q2. And I have some idea about Q3. Miyazaki is my favorite distortionist. I like his films’ color, quite shiny and clear. In his film, the female characters usually brave and additional they are beautiful. It’s a major difference between Miyazaki's and Disney's anime. Disney’s female also beautiful, but they are not the important one in the film, usually seems to be “assistance” for the male characters. I think this maybe because Miyazakis grew in a culture that women more oppressive than America. So Miyazakis lets his female powerful than others, hope they will be difference in the future society.
22 comments:
1. What are the underlying thematics of Princess Mononoke?
2. How does it ‘defamiliarise’ its historical setting, according to Napier (2005)?
3. According to Napier, how does this anime problematise traditional (or conservative) constructions of gender, class and race?
4. How do it and other Miyazaki films address the humanity/nature divide, according to Wright (2005)?
5. Could Miyazaki’s vision be described as in some sense religious (inasmuch as it conveys a sense of the sacred)?
6. Finally, with reference to Cavallaro (2006), what distinguishes Mononoke technically as being – it is generally agreed – a great work of anime?
Hi guys
I'd like to amswer to Q.1
I think, the relationship between humankind and nature could be a main theme in Princess Mononoke.
Miyazaki tends to stress the pivotal role of nature for all creaters on earth through his anime. princess Mononoke is too.
Eboshi of Irontown can be a representative of human world where people have strong aspiration for developing technologies including destructive weapons. Such idea, ultimately destroy not only vital nature but also unique our planet. Although Eboshi seems to be a humanist as a leader of human realm protecting its people and providing employment for the outcastes such as prostitutes and leprosy patients, her unawarence of nature law causes huge devastation.
The quetion is then, how we live in harmony with nature.Princess Mononoke tells us If we ruin the natural ecosystem for the shake of human's greed, we could be confronted with the boomerang phenomenon. Miyazaki hope that It would serve as a wake-up call to the human being. However, my point of view is that the relationship between nature and human is likely to Ashitaka's monologue: "you'll live in the forest, and I'll be in the irontown. Together we shall live on."
Another underlying theme could be feminism.Miyazaki creats female protagonists in Princess Mononoke differ from conventional Japanese culture.In this anime,I couldn't find the typical of the shojo's chracter: cutenes and sweetness.It is supported by critic Murase Hiromi, he points out, "ther are three important female characters in this film: Eboshi,the leader of Tatara; San, the human girl who has joined wild nature; and Moro, San's adoptive wolf mother."(p.274) All of them are independent, brave and violent that illustrate changing gender role or gender-neutral in modern society.On the other hand, personally I think, Miyzaki may intend to show tough image of female in Japan in order to lessen the stereotype of japanese female.Or subconsciously,the memory of unhealthy his mother makes him generate such powerful woman in his anime all the time.
Q.2
According to Napier(2005),historical setting of princess Mononoke is fourteenth-century but, it is not based on an actual historical events. In the 14th century,the so-called Muromachi period, was broadlly recognised as a golden age of high culture: culturally well-known tea ceremony together with brilliant form of garden and landscape especially, worship Kami.
Also it was an era of relative peace rulling by samurai aristocracy,who settled in the capital of Kyoto. However,in princess Mononoke,Kami exist in opposition of the civilised human world and there is, of course,no imperial court of samurai nobility. Thus, Napier states that "this is a film in which the main protagonists are those who usually do not appear on the stage of history. Instead, this is the story of the marginals of history."(p.271)
Q.6
Princess Mononoke is the first film to use computer graphics which produce the cumulative effects.According to Cavallaro(2006),"Mononoke contains about 15 minutes of CGI.(Computer-Generated Imagery) Of these, 10 minutes are filled by the scenes that used digital ink and paint only. The remaining five minutes employed various digital techniques,such as 3D rendering, morphing,particles, digital composition and texture mapping."
Last night I watched the anime, ‘Howl’s moving castle’ which I missed a good chance to watch on Thursday class. My purpose was to see what the difference between three dimension and two dimension comparing it with the Princess Mononoke. However, I really wish to talk another thing that I felt quite unhappy or rather hurt.
Why aged women are always depicted negative images?
In Howl’s moving castle, witch of the waste who curses Sophie by aging her into a 90 years old woman, tries to take Howl’s heart. Also Madame Suliman who is Howl’s old mentor strives to control and exploit him. Nevertheless, I’d like to assert, getting older never be thought of cursing, it is natural progressing and can be a blessing. This is because Sophie, as becoming an elderly, she seems to be more strong, wise and thoughtful than she was young. I suppose that physical appearance is absolutely essential condition to get marry for man but, its value is not existed for long –term. I believe that most aged women possess valuable Know-how for solving problems and precious life experience which should be respected and also should bear in mind especially for younger generation.
Q1. In Princess Mononoke, as Grace says, the relationship between human and nature is one the themes. However, I feel it is Miyazaki’s elegy to expresses his disappointment that human never lives harmony with nature, and vice versa. Their conflicts are not just the contemporary human and environmental issues. Prince Ashitaka, Lady Eboshi and Princess Mononoke – San were all great people. They were all well respected by their own people. (San is respected by the wolves and other animals, of course). Eboshi’s hatred of forest creature was based on the aim of protecting her people. San detests human because she tried to save forest and its creations. Eboshi symbolizes the love of human being while San symbolizes the love of nature. In Miyazaki’s reality, these two can not live peacefully. San’s refusal to live with Ashitaka and her decision to stay in the forest strongly states this underlying theme.
Q 2. To add a bit to Grace’s, PM’s marginals comprise a diverse and unusual group that includes women, outcasts, and non-Yamato tribes and the Kami. For example:
1. Ashitaka was the young lord of Emishi, which was non-Japanese Ainu race.
2.Tatara is not governed by a man but by a woman, Lady Eboshi, who has constructed Tatara as a utopian refuge for outcast women and people with incurable illnesses like leprosy. (p. 235)
However, making and using firearms did match the history of Muromachi period. By the end of the Muromachi period, the first Europeans had arrived in Japan with the introducaiton of firearms.
*re-post because of terrible spelling*
Hi Grace (and others who are reading),
I have read your comment on the way the aged women are portrayed in Howl’s moving castle and would like to discuss about it. I know it's a long comment to read and again I am not answering Paul's questions, but I hope you'll come back to this page and read it because you are one of my nicest classmates and I do not want you to feel upset after watching such a brilliant movie.
You said she felt “quite unhappy or rather hurt” from watching Howl’s moving castle. However, in my opinion, I do not think those women – Grandma Sophie, the Witch of the Waste, and Madame Suliman – are illustrated in negative ways. Instead, I feel that Miyazaki was trying to show us the positive side of aged women. Just like what you already said, Grandma Sophie is stronger, wiser, and more thoughtful as she grows old.
Grandma Sophie indeed made a lot of changes since she moved into Howl’s moving castle as a maid, both to the castle and people who live in it. Even when I was watching the anime, I felt quite impressed to see the woman at the age to be called ‘Grandma’ is so actively cleaning the whole castle, to make it a better and nicer place to live in. To me, this anime implies that elders are not necessarily burden for younger people and there is always something for younger people to learn from them.
Markl, the young boy who lives with Howl, is a good example of this because we saw since the beginning that he did not pay proper attention to Sophie even though he was a kid and she was, by her look, a Grandma. But as the story goes, we could see how Grandma Sophie takes care of Markl’s food (she tries to make bacons for him) and together they do the washing. Markl helps her to carry a chair back once she finished gazing at the sea (or the lake, I am not sure) and he also carries a basket full of potatoes for her when they went shopping. Isn’t that nice? After the reunion of Sophie and her mother, Markl hugged her and asked her not to live him because he loved her. I could not stop smiling when I watched that scene.
The Witch of the Waste, when she was evil, is in a form of a wealthy woman. Overweight though she seems, she is not somewhere near ‘an aged woman’ so I will just move to the time when she is stripped off her magic power and goes back, physically, to her real age. She might not be as energetic as Grandma Sophie but she is a pleasant companion, especially when Sophie talked to her about falling in love.
It reminds me of the old time when my grandfather and I had a conversation. Isn’t it elders we turn to when we are stuck with problems we can’t solve in life, listening to their past, learning from their experience, and feeling console that we are not the only ones struggling in this wild world? Personally, I think the Witch of the Waste looks very cute when she gets old with her innocent eyes and a genuine smile :) Though near the end of the story she tried to get hold of Howl’s heart, she eventually gave it back when Sophie begged for it – and that was all because of love, wasn’t it? Seeing the look in her eyes as she tries to take the heart, I understood how dearly it means to her. The scene that she is screaming from the heat of the heart that burns her but will never let go of it really touched me. For me, she is not an evil witch, just a broken-heart woman who wants the man she loves love her (and she just happens to have such strong power to curse every girl who is in her way hehe).
As for Madame Suliman, I thought the reason she threatens Howl is only because the good of the country, or the war (can I call it the ‘good’?). To be honest, I like her image and position: a woman, aged but so powerful that she is the king’s head sorceress. I am sick of the world which wizards rule, like Gandalf from the Lord of the Rings, Lord Voldemort and Dumbledore from Harry Potter (or even Harry himself).
There is one thing I strongly disagree with you. You said that “witch of the waste who curses Sophie by aging her into a 90 years old woman,” and that “getting older never be thought of cursing, it is natural progressing and can be a blessing.” I admit that there were times when I was younger that I wanted to forever stay at that age, but I’ve come to like myself as I gradually grow up and accept myself as an adult. I surely will welcome an aged version of myself when the right time comes but NOT before it. Being able to learn and experience things all along the way before you get old is very different from being taken away those 70 years of life and suddenly become old. Sorry but I still see that what the Witch of the West does to Sophie at the beginning is a curse.
Last but not least, (if you're really reading this, I thank you. you've come very far)I absolutely agree with you that aged women (and men, of course!) are respectable and rich of valuable experience, and I hope that you would see now that the anime ‘Howl’s moving castle’ does not destroy the idea but acknowledges it, so don’t feel hurt if you will watch it next time. Enjoy :)
Here comes some more comment to Q2 after my second reading. As we all know that PM physically takes places in a mythical space deeply removed from the capital. This is a movie in which few samurai, peasants, or feudal lords appear. PM is set in fantastic nonplaces characterized by vaguely European-style architecture and Western-looking characters. (p.237) Although in the 14th century Japan had developed its economy, several kinds of towns and new social classes, Miyazaki refuses to sentimentalize this period of history in PM.
Instead, Miyazaki problematizes the change of people’s value system from gods to money. (p.237) He problematizes the issue even further by making Tatara not just a site of industrial production but a site of weapons manufacturing. In addition, one of the weapons it produces, the iron ball that lodged in the boar, has engendered a lasting curse on humanity. (p.246)
Dear Grace,
I am so sorry to know you were upset and feeling hurt after watching Howl's Moving Castle. Personly I don't think the elderly appearance of Sophie after she was placed the curse makes me like her less. Still, Sophie possesses lots of female beauty - gentleness, tidiness, neatness. And most importantly, she has a lovely young heart. I've even found her facial expression only appears to young woman who is in love. She is always eager for Howl's return and loves to be with him forever.
Hi aw & Jean.
Thank you for the your comment on my feelings about Howl's moving castle.Paticularly jean, you are right. I'm little bit embarrassed as I read your opinion yet,I've learned somethibg from you:we see the same thing but you find positive things that are totally diffrent from mine which is negative. That is why I determined to rewatch it during the study break at the moment. Thank you again.
“Traditional construction of Gender’ is my topic for now. Napier insists that Miyazaki destabilizes the conventional female characterization. I disagree with this idea. According to the history I know, matriarchal collectivity was the system in the early human society. The characteristic of matrilineal society is people living in matrilineal kin groups. An individual is considered to belong to his or her mother. Mother’s home is always all her children’s residence. Women and men do not have stable relationship, such as partnership or marriage. Miyazaki applies these characteristics in PM in the following ways:
1. Eboshi may be seen as a kind of artificial mother to the collectivity of Tarara without any apparent family ties or hint of male support. (p.239-240) She nurtures and protects her diseased and outcast citizens.
2. Moro appears to be a wise and brave mother. She raises San and her two wolf siblings as well as giving them wise advice. Again, her male partner is absent.
3. San and Ashitaka’s agreement to live apart but still visit each other also suggests marriage does not exit in the matriarchal society.
Miyazaki keeps PM away from patriarchal system, and encourages audience to re-think (or re-value maybe) matriarchal society. In deed, he is trying to reach for the original.
Jean:
Brilliant comment, I agree that Miyazaki instill strong life values and depicted older people in a positive light.
I enjoy the film throughly and I think this is possibly Miyazaki's most intriguing movie.
I love how this movie is so higly emotional without a great deal of logic to get in the way. This film is simple, pure and extrely beautiful.
It is as if the characters go from one emotion to th other in a world that is as random as one's own dream.
I know there are people that complained the lack of plot or serious character development. Yes, it is true that the characters are kind of stationary in a way, but I think their emotions and physical changes they undergo as the go through these emotions brings out truth that is seldom given such artistic and natural freedom.
Grace:
Awww, don't be embarassed. I think this film is a little bit complex and is hard to understand as it flirts from theme to theme as if it is suffering from an animated attention deficit!
I think you will see the film in a very different way if you re-watch it again.
enjoy the movie! :)
Grace and Pear jin
Grace
I'm happy to hear that you are now feeling better. there is nothing to be embarrassed of! It is just because we experience different things, so we view things in different ways. I am sure there is a lot I can learn from you :)
hope you like the movie when you watch it again!
Pear jin
Thanks for your comment :) I enjoyed watching the movie too.
I don't agree with some people, according to you because I don't know what others think about it, that complain the lack of plot and character development. Yes, the plot is not that complicated but I'm absolutely fine with it. And for the character development, I think there are many examples to be seen.
It is as Grace said before that 'Sophie, as becoming an elderly, she seems to be more strong, wise and thoughtful than she was young.' Howl used to be so childish that he could not deal with his own disappointment and turned into...well, I don't know how to call that slimy glutinous thing, and he needed people to take care of him. However, both of them are much stronger in the end, knowing that they have someone precious to protect.
As for the Witch of the Waste, she needs to be mentioned here because she is my most favourite character haha, eventually she has learned to love, by giving not possessing. Yeah, it's the scene that she decides to let go of Howl's heart that makes me love her :D
I grow up with Japanese manga and anime so I am familiar with the ideas of the bound of friendship or the power within you when you want protect someone, which are always included in those works. It is a pretty optimistic way to see the world - thinking that if you truly want to protect someone you'll overcome everything, anything, and stuff like that - but I still like to look at it in that way :)
Dear Jean:
It's always good to view the glass as half full instead of half empty. :)
2. How does it ‘defamiliarise’ its historical setting, according to Napier (2005)?
For the question 2, Napier(2005) stated that Princess Mononoke defamiliarises two icons in Japanese culture:1. "the myth of the feminine as long-suffering and supportive" "they myth of Japanese as living in harmony with nature, often expressed through a union of the feminine with the natural"
2. "the film defamiliarises conventional notions of Japanese history through Miyazaki's decision to set the film during the fourteenth-century Muromachi period and his subsequent subversion of conventional expectations concering what a film set in that era should be about".
There are lots comments for Q2. And I have some idea about Q3. Miyazaki is my favorite distortionist. I like his films’ color, quite shiny and clear. In his film, the female characters usually brave and additional they are beautiful. It’s a major difference between Miyazaki's and Disney's anime. Disney’s female also beautiful, but they are not the important one in the film, usually seems to be “assistance” for the male characters. I think this maybe because Miyazakis grew in a culture that women more oppressive than America. So Miyazakis lets his female powerful than others, hope they will be difference in the future society.
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