Princess Mononoke (1997)

Grandmaster of Japanese animation Hiyao Miyazaki took 13 years to bring Princess Mononoke to the screen. In Japan, it was the highest-grossing film ever (until Titanic came out a few months later and just barely topped it) but it got short marketing shrift in the U.S. and Europe. DVD sales have been strong though esp. as people discover and come to love the creative ingenuity and attention to detail seen in all of Miyazaki's work. Our story begins as a giant demon (in the form of a great boar covered in writhing tentacles) attacks a town and a noble young warrior attempts to turn it aside or bring it down. He pays for his valor with a wound that will eventually kill him, according to the town's wise woman. From her, he learns scant more but he chooses to accept a quest to find what turned to boar into a demon and to seek healing for himself or to save others who may be in danger. His journey takes him far and wide, through pursuits and negotiations and battles, as he discovers the human, natural, and supernatural agents who are at work, many at cross purposes. He consistently seeks peace and to avert others' deaths, though many choose to set other paths in motion. Though tragedy befalls many in this intense and sometimes gory narrative, no one is strictly a villain here since even the primary antagonists show great virtue and selflessness by other means. One beautiful dimension of this film is its acceptance not just of magical realism but of Japanese magical folklore such as talking wolves, boars, and apes (who together seek to defend the forests from man's industrial proclivities), and the walking shadow. Princess Mononoke is like nothing you have ever seen; though Miyazake's My Neighbor Totoro comes close, this film is much more about an urgent quest and the attendant battles required by those who play offense and defense, sometimes on the same side. It is a film much-loved by my youngest child and I as well as a movie we will be sure to own. 5 stars. (3-21-2011, posted 3-3-2016)