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Rating: 9/10 (17 October 2017)

From the title Princess Mononoke ,one may think that the movie's main center is around the story of a princess ,but in fact it is not. The movie Princess Mononoke follows the journey of a prince named Ashitaka as he leaves his homeland in search for the someone to reverse the curse he received. In comparison to many animated motion pictures this movie contains violent scenes. Although, these scenes are partnered with the voice of nonviolence and its aim is to achieve peace through understanding each other's perspective. By using this, the director and writer ,Hayao Miyazaki, brings to life his story with his excellent directing skills, making this one of the best animated motion pictures of all time
In the first few minutes of the film the violence already begins. Ashitaka takes on a demon infested boar as it comes charging toward his town. As he is fending off the boar, his arm becomes burned, leading him to become cursed. This cursed arm protects him as he leaves town ,but does so by enchanting his arrow, causing him to decapitate enemies more than once throughout this film. Because of the humans' destruction to the forest, many of the stronger animals seek vengeance upon the humans. These animals such as the wolves lead by Moro, attack the humans and try to kill the leader of Irontown, Lady Eboshi. Throughout the film the violence escalates between the two sides and the corpses of some of the creatures are depicted. This violence, although strong at some points, is used show how violence can escalate into more violence.
The violence pictured in the film is used to show how understanding each other can be more beneficial. Throughout the film both sides, the animals and the humans, constantly see each other through their own view lens. The humans are at first shown as the evil character in the film ,but as the movie begins to unfold reasons are made for both sides. Lady Eboshi destroyed the forest for land ,but had good intentions to use it for her people, while the animals care for the land and are just reacting to what the humans had done to it. Ashitaka is the one who acts as the mediator between both sides as he tries to stop them from attacking each other. He does not chose a side and is more interested in preventing other creatures from dying. In the end it shows how violence and seeking revenge can be destructive. This is shown when Okkoto, the boar spirit, leads his stampede of boars to attack the humans ,but is instead surprise attacked by the people. This allows the people a chance to follow his dying body to find the forest spirit and take it's head, causing the forest to be destroyed until the head was returned and the forest was reset.
Hayao Miyazaki beautifully brings this complex story to life through his brilliant directing. Each character throughout the movie has life to it whether it is San ,the girl known as Princess Monoke, or a minor characters in the background. Body language in the characters are skillfully thought over as Yakul's feelings after the wolves begin attacking Ashitaka's body is shown. Yakul, a red elk creature, is shown trying to buck San off and even when San tries to get him to come over he paws at the ground in uncertainty. The small white spirits called kodama are also all given varying expressions as some would be appearing in different places. When each appeared they would be shown doing various things like tilting their head or carrying each other. The music choice and timing fits the action and dialogue, especially in the beginning when the monster is shown attacking the village. The music begins speeding up in apprehension and even changes as the monster comes closer to the people to show apprehension of a looming fear.
Princess Mononoke is a beautiful movie about conflict that will take any viewer young or old away into it's world. It cautions the viewers of the movie about the effect of only understanding one view and teaches how learning about others reason can help to bring to a mutual understanding that is closer to peace. Each frame of careful constructed animation makes this movie not only one of the best animated movies in Japan ,but the best movie of all time.