What filmmaking techniques does Princess Mononoke use?

CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Princess Mononoke (1997): Moral Complexity Without Villains, Ecological Animism, Hand-Painted Environmental Scale and Female Agency as Structural Default.

Who directed Princess Mononoke?

Hayao Miyazaki directed Princess Mononoke, released in 1997. CineCode also covers The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992).

What films are similar to Princess Mononoke?

Films that share techniques with Princess Mononoke include Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986), Spirited Away (2001), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).

Animation · Adventure · Fantasy

Princess Mononoke

Hayao Miyazaki, 1997

A young warrior prince gets caught up in a war between a human mining colony and the ancient gods of the forest, and he refuses to take a side. The film is about industry and nature. Its tragedy is that both sides need things that cannot both be had.

3 Narrative 1 Cinematography

At a glance

Princess Mononoke is a 1997 animation, adventure and fantasy film directed by Hayao Miyazaki. This breakdown covers 4 techniques (3 narrative and 1 cinematography), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Moral Complexity Without Villains

Writing a conflict with no villain whose defeat would fix things. Every side has real reasons, and the harm comes from ordinary people protecting themselves, so nothing resolves cleanly.

How this film uses it

Lady Eboshi is building a community for people with nowhere else to go, and she fights the forest to do it. San is defending her home and her gods. Neither of them is evil or unreasonable, and Ashitaka sees both sides. Miyazaki refuses to settle the conflict neatly, because it mirrors a real tragedy in history and in nature.

Where to see it

Ashitaka's refusal to choose sides. He is forced to watch a war where both sides are right.

Narrative

Ecological Animism

Treating nature as alive and aware, with its own will, hierarchy and sacred status. Animals and spirits respond to people, which argues that the natural world has value of its own.

How this film uses it

Miyazaki draws on Japanese Shinto animism, the belief that things in nature have spirits, to make the forest actually conscious. The Forest Spirit is a god and the kodama are spirits. The boar and wolf gods have personalities and political goals. The forest has as much of an inner life as any human character, so destroying it is shown as a moral catastrophe.

Where to see it

The Forest Spirit's night form. The Nightwalker moves through the forest, impossibly huge and beautiful.

Cinematography

Hand-Painted Environmental Scale

Painting backgrounds by hand with exceptional detail and scale. The settings feel real in texture and fantastical in presence, and they look both beautiful and irreplaceable.

How this film uses it

Ghibli's background artists painted the ancient forest in extraordinary detail (specific moss textures, light through the treetops, root systems). Everything looks so particular that you feel this world is worth saving. That is, you can't separate the beauty of the backgrounds from the film's point about protecting nature.

Where to see it

The ancient forest sequences. The backgrounds are so detailed that the forest feels sacred and unlike anywhere else.

Narrative

Female Agency as Structural Default

Putting women at the center as leads, leaders and villains, and letting their choices drive every major plot turn. The story treats this as normal and never makes their gender the subject.

How this film uses it

Lady Eboshi leads Irontown. Moro, a wolf goddess, leads the wolf pack, and San fights beside her. Former prostitutes stoke Irontown's furnaces. Miyazaki never points this out. He simply builds a world where women leading is normal.

Where to see it

Eboshi in Irontown. She leads a community that shelters former prostitutes and people with leprosy.

Questions

Princess Mononoke: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Princess Mononoke use?: CineCode breaks down 4 techniques in Princess Mononoke (1997): Moral Complexity Without Villains, Ecological Animism, Hand-Painted Environmental Scale and Female Agency as Structural Default.
Who directed Princess Mononoke?: Hayao Miyazaki directed Princess Mononoke, released in 1997. CineCode also covers The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986), My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), Porco Rosso (1992).
What films are similar to Princess Mononoke?: Films that share techniques with Princess Mononoke include Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984), Castle in the Sky (1986), Spirited Away (2001), Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).

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