Japan Animation's Best

Rating: 9/10 (6 January 2006)

This film is Japan Animation's all time best to me. To be frank, i don't really like Japan Animation and Japanese either (may be because I am Chinese). But I certainly love this film and most Miyazaki's work.
Mononoke - Hime is a 2 hours plus epic featuring a brave young warrior named Ashitaka's journey to search for Demon that cure him when he kills a corrupted beast God to save his fellow villagers. Without doubt, Ashitaka journey is packed with adventure and fictional elements. But the height of the film and also I think the intention of Miyazaki, was to portrait the clash, between human civilization and the mother nature (especially tree and forest).
Without doubt, our young hero able to save himself, the wolf girl, and may be the forest too at the ending of the movie. But the consciousness that brought up by this film is certainly enormous. It seems that Miyazaki try to tell our kind to preserve the nature beside an unavoidable clash with development. And then, the plot, the sound track, was so fantastic that I can watch this film again and again.
When the film come to its peak, eg:- the battle between San and Wolf God against the Iron City, the ambush of the Pig God, the dead of Shishi Gami, and every tragical event that occur in the film later in the film, was perfectly displayed by the animation team. Just like my friend said when he watched it together with me, he said the later part of the film was so breath taking.
However, i need to point out that another Japan anime Pom Poko, made by Miyazaki's colleague Isaotaka. If Pom Poko made it with comedy elements and sense of humor, Mononoke was a darker version with enough tragic event to open our mind. That's why I give a 9 dough, coz Pom Poko and Mononoke - Hime share a same subject and if I am not mistaken, Pom Poko was released earlier than Mononoke. Any way, this is a great Anime that no one should missed. Marvelous! Btw, another thing I really appreciate about Miyazaki and Isaotaka is that they never exploit women's body shape in all their film. Considering the whole Japanese Animating Industry has this kind of stupid trend (have a look with Sailormoon, those are kid show and see how they drawn the heroine), Miyazaki and his pals should gain some regards on this matter too.