1.
Title of film:
Princess Mononoke
2.
Year of release:
July 12, 1997
3.
Language of the original film:
Japanese
4.
Director:
Hayao Miyazaki
5.
Actors:
Billy Crudup,
Claire Danes, Gillian Anderson, Minnie Driver, Billy Bob Thornton, Jada Pinkett
Smith, Keith David, John DiMaggio, John DeMita, Tara Strong, and Debi
Derryberry.
6.
Give a brief plot summary.
The main
character Ashitaka was attacked by the great boar spirit Naga. Because of his
encounter and fight with Naga Ashitaka was left with a demon mark on his arm.
The tribal wise lady told him that he would die no matter what. She then told
him it would be best to leave the village and never return. Ashitaka then
leaves on a journey in order to find the spirit of the forest. He hopes that
the spirit of the forest who takes life and gives life will know what he should
do with the rest of his life. On his way to find the forest spirit Ashitaka
encounters a town called Iron
Town Iron Town Iron Town Iron
Town
7.
Analyze the social and philosophical issues the film
addresses. Make sure you include the point of view of the movie, the context of
the movie, what audience the movie is targeting, and why.
The big issue
that the movie addresses is the relationship between nature and humans. The
humans of Iron Town Iron Town Iron Town
8.
What is your response to the message of the film? Why
do you respond this way?
My response the
message of this film was that I agreed with it. I think that humans and nature
can live together in harmony. They just have to try to get along with each
other. The biggest problem in this relationship is the humans. The biggest problem is that the humans are
destroying the forest which is the animal’s home. The animals fight back in
order to protect their home but this just makes the humans even angrier and
then they retaliate and kill the animals. I think that the animals and nature
could give up some land to the humans and in return the humans not destroy the
forest and kill the animals. I find that if humans and nature work together
they can not only not destroy each other but bring out the best of each other.
Humans can use their knowledge in order to help heal plants and animals and
make them grow better. Nature and animals can provide good and healthy food
sources for humans along with giving them a wonderful place to live, explore,
and enjoy. Together humans and nature can live in a mutually beneficial
relationship. As for the greed portion of the film I think that no one should
be greedy. Greed always makes me think of the capitol in the Hunger Games. It
makes me think how they would greedily horde all of the riches and food for
themselves and make the districts live in terrible conditions, practically as
slaves barely surviving off of their meager earnings.
9.
What cultural differences did you notice about the
film?
I noticed that
there were a lot of cultural differences from our movies. Even from the
beginning the outfits and building that they live in are far different from any
American clothing or dwellings. They often wear a lot more layers of clothing
than we ever have here. They also use face masks pretty often when I can’t
think of any Americans who cover their faces with masks. The buildings were
primitive, wooden, and tall. While the movie was set in an old time period the
buildings still were far different from any American buildings. As the movie
progresses you also saw them eating Japanese food and it is different from any
American food. They also used chop sticks which is a very Asian chose of
utensil. Another big difference from American films that I noticed was the
amount of violence that it had. There was a lot of decapitation and chopping
off of limbs in the movie that I don’t think would be allowed in American
movies unless there was a higher rating on the movie. Another difference that I
found was that women had many positions of leadership in this movie. In an
American film this would be very rare or nonexistent because America
10. What
techniques did the filmmaker use that were different from what you see in the
films you normally watch?
The techniques
used in this movie were very different from those of usual American movies
especially since it was an anime. Even compared to American cartoons it was
very different. In the anime the screen moves a lot different from how I was
used to and it took some time to get adjusted to. There would often be sections
were the screen would look around like a giant panorama. It would also do these
crazy zooms that look weird and took time to get used to. The anime was also
very fast and sometimes hard to follow. It was also interesting to see the
difference in an anime in comparison to a cartoon. In anime there was a lot
more attention to detail. There were complex light patterns that came into play
along with shadows of trees that wouldn’t be added in a cartoon because it
would have been a lot of work for pretty much nothing. It was interesting to
see how all of these details and light patterns were added with such intricacy
while in an American cartoon they wouldn’t even be there.
11. Why
do you think I assign a foreign film?
I think that you
had us watch foreign films in order to further understand other cultures. By
having us watch other cultures movies it exposes us to how they think in their
daily lives and they customs that they have. This is probably one of the best
ways to study the humanities because it can easily show a people’s beliefs
including during different time periods by older or newer movies.
