Mononoke Hime Review: Live with Nature In Hatred
作者： Benjamin
Recently, Hayao Miyazaki’s “Princess Mononoke” was released in mainland China for the first time. I have heard about the greatness of this work for a long time, but I have never actually watched this movie. With this opportunity, I finally had the opportunity to watch this work, which I think is the greatest work Hayao Miyazaki has ever done.
One of the great things about this work, and the strength of Hayao Miyazaki, is that there is no villain in this work. Intuitively, Jigo and Lady Eboshi may seem to be villains, but when we shift our stance away from the protagonists, it seems that this “justice” will also change.
As a revolutionary, Lady Eboshi built an ironworks after driving away Nago. In the ironworks, Eboshi took in some sold girls and lepers as a leader. For the human camp, Eboshi is definitely an excellent leader who is willing to work for the people, treat everyone equally, and let the people in the ironworks at least live happily and have enough food. For shooting and killing the Yamagami, Eboshi can really be regarded as a hero in the human camp.
Another point that this work wants to achieve is the control of the emotion of “hatred”. There is a concept of “evil gods” in this work, and both Nago and Okkoto become evil gods in the work. The formation of evil gods is due to the accumulation of fear and resentment. Ashitaka can shoot Nago to death with one arrow because his arm has been cursed by the evil god and has the “power of hatred”. This “power of hatred” will become uncontrollable with Ashitaka’s negative emotions. Throughout the animation, Ashitaka has actually been trying very hard to control his resentment and anger. “How to control hatred” is also one of the themes of “Princess Mononoke”. This actually involves the environmental problems in Japan at the time. In the late 1990s, the Japanese economic bubble burst, and the entire society was filled with depression and negative emotions. Anger and resentment slowly grew in people’s hearts. When this emotion dominated, people were no longer under control, and many terrorist incidents such as gas incidents broke out. Miyazaki Hayao hopes that after watching Princess Mononoke, everyone can reflect on “Why Ashitaka can control his hatred, but I can’t”.
Another obvious theme of this work is the relationship between man and nature. Eboshi’s ability to kill the yamagami with a musket represents that humans have the ability to defeat nature, or that at least humans have lost their awe of ancient nature. “Princess Mononoke” is set at the end of the Muromachi period, a period of Japan’s industrial leap forward and rapid development of urban technology. In the past, Japanese people always subconsciously believed that there was a world of gods in the mountains and seas that humans could not touch, and they were always full of awe for ancient forests and nature. But when technology and finance developed and reasonable calculations were born, people’s desire for wealth became stronger, exceeding their awe of nature. Arrogance, greed and desire filled humans. Miyazaki believes that humans have lost the sense of compassion that has no choice since this period, because humans have the ability to match or defeat gods and nature — muskets. Miyazaki actually used Eboshi’s behavior to warn people at the time that humans have always thought that they can conquer or master nature, but humans are only a part of nature, or even a small part. And awe of nature, Miyazaki believes, is the root of Japan.
What does Princess Mononoke really want to express? Is it just environmental protection? Or anti-war? Or love? I think what Princess Mononoke wants to tell us is “survive”. In the end, Ashitaka and San said goodbye and agreed to live together, one in the forest and the other in the ironworks. Although the contradiction is irreconcilable and everything is unavoidable, the only hope is to survive. No matter how difficult it is, there is hope only if you survive.
At the end of the animation, Miyazaki also threw us a question: “What is the relationship between man and nature?” Ashitaka once said to Eboshi, “Can’t forests and ironworks coexist?” The relationship between humans and nature is complicated. Many people think that the destruction of forests is caused by large-scale logging by humans, but in fact, the real reason for the large-scale reduction of forests and animals is agriculture. So it is a very wrong idea to blindly think that the destruction of nature is just human greed. Early humans reclaimed forests for life, but now people call for the protection of forests, not because humans can empathize with nature, but because the loss of forests will have an impact on human life. So when we advocate the protection of forests, should we only leave the parts that are beneficial to ourselves, or should we leave the unfavorable parts together? Nowadays, humans think that only things that are beneficial to themselves are called nature, but in fact, flies, mosquitos, cockroaches and all things in nature have equal survival value. Humans should not only think about their own survival, but also give other nature corresponding living space. But if humans live humbly and pray for peaceful coexistence with nature, human development will be restricted, and even in the end, there will be less and less living space. So how do humans and nature coexist?
Looking back at the ending, San stands on the side of nature, but she is not a representative of nature. She is angry and hateful about the mistakes made by humans. Second, the real representative of ancient nature is the mountain beast god. It has a very beautiful and gentle side that makes people feel comfortable, but it also has a terrifying and cruel side. Human civilization has been trying to tame it, but it ends up facing the crisis of natural destruction.
What is the new nature at the end? The nature would not easily become the desert after human destruction. Nature will continue to recover. The newly recovered nature is in tender green, no longer in deep green of the forest before. Because the recovered forest may appear bright, but it is not the ancient nature with vigorous vitality in the past. Just like what is said at the end of San, “But this is no longer the forest of yamagami.”
