Comprehensive information and links about Mononoke Hime

Mononoke Hime Mononoke Hime is a Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki and was first released in Japan on July 12, 1997).

It is a jidaigeki set in late Muromachi period Japan, and centers on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who need its resources as seen by the outsider Ashitaka. "Mononoke" is not a name but a deion that might be rendered in this context as "spirit[s]", making the title of the film "Princess of the Spirits

Ashitaka, an Emishi prince [1], saves his village from Nago, a cursed boar-god, but is cursed in the process himself. As the curse spreads, he has a short amount of time to find a cure before it kills him. He discovers the curse originated from an iron bullet shot from an arquebus made in Irontown. Upon travelling there, he finds Lady Eboshi, who is fighting a war against the spirits of the forest so she can extract its resources for her people. Tribes of intelligent boars, apes, and wolves, along with San (the mononoke princess of the title) who was raised by the wolves, defend the forest. Ashitaka tries to mediate and falls in love with San in the process.

Theatrical run

The film was massively successful in Japan and with both anime fans and "arthouse" moviegoers in English-speaking countries. In those countries, it was widely interpreted as a film about the environment told in the form of Japanese mythology. Disney's Miramax subsidiary purchased U.S. distribution rights, but wanted to cut the film for American audiences (and for a PG-rating). Miyazaki balked at this, and the film was released uncut. Miramax also chose to put a lot of money into creating the English dub of the movie with famous actors and actresses, yet when they released it in theatres there was little or no advertising and it was given a very limited run, showing in only a few theatres and for a very short time. Disney later complained about the fact that the movie did not do well at the box office. In September of 2000, the film was supposed to be released on DVD in the U.S., but Miramax announced that only the English dub would be included on the disc. Outraged fans demanded the Japanese track be put on the disc as well, and the threat of poor sales prompted Miramax to hire translators for the subtitles, which held the DVD release back by almost three months. When the film was finally released on DVD it sold very well due to no limitation in availability.

English translations

The United States and United Kingdom DVD releases have both the English and Japanese soundtracks, and the US release additionally includes two different sets of English subtitles (the dialogue used in the dub and a "literal translation").

The English version of ) received mixed reviews from critics. Although most of the reaction was positive, others felt that some of the actors, notably Billy Bob Thornton as Jigo, detracted from the experience. Despite this love-hate atmosphere, the dub has been hailed as one of the best ever done alongside . In fact, the English version might not properly be a dub at all; the normal procedure for an English dub is to write the dialogue to match the mouth movements of the characters, which can lead to the odd rushed sentence structures seen in many dubs. However, for is somewhat misleading, being a translation of only half the Japanese title. It leaves the impression that . The concept embodied by the word "mononoke" is a complex one with no exact equivalent in English: hence the decision to leave it untranslated.

in Animation Division; The 1st Media Arts Festival (by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of the Ministry of Education)