Capsule reviews

Princess Mononoke, Emma Cline, Jeanine Basinger, Rosemary Edghill

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Princess Mononoke (Hayao Miyazaki, 1997)

Technically a rewatch but it had been so long I only remembered little bits of it clearly. I do remember being left cold by this movie back whenever it was that I watched it—it was clearly big and ambitious but it also just seemed like a mess. I had been wanting to give it another shot recently, though, and now I have.

This time around it all fell into place for me. I don’t really want to try to summarize the movie here though because I think summary is—kind of—part of where the viewing experience can go awry. There are so many factions in Princess Mononoke and they all have their own, incompatible goals. We’re watching our hero, Ashitaka, try to grapple with this. The way Ashitaka is essentially a hero without a side is why I couldn’t really follow the movie the first time around.

So, I dunno, go watch it, then come back.

Princess Mononoke is interesting on multiple fronts, but two things jumped out at me this time. The first is that i…