Studio: Studio Ghibli
Distributor: Toho
Short Synopsis
In medieval Japan, a monstrous boar god, maddened by an iron ball lodged in its body, attacks the village of Ashitaka, a young prince of the Emishi people. Ashitaka kills it, but his arm is cursed; the curse will spread and kill him. He travels west to find the cause. He reaches Irontown, a fortified ironworks led by Lady Eboshi, who has given work and dignity to lepers and former prostitutes, and who is clearing the forest to dig for iron, waging war on the animal gods who defend it. Among those gods is San, a human girl raised by the wolf goddess Moro, who hates humans and tries to kill Eboshi. Ashitaka refuses to take sides, saves San, and is shot; the Forest Spirit, the god of life and death, heals his wound but not his curse. Eboshi, backed by the emperor's agents and the monk Jigo, sets out to kill the Forest Spirit and take its head. In the battle, the boar clan is destroyed and Eboshi shoots off the god's head; its headless body spreads death across the land, until Ashitaka and San return the head. The forest begins to grow again, Ashitaka's curse lifts, and the two part, San to the forest, Ashitaka to Irontown, promising to visit each other.
Why It Matters
- Miyazaki refuses easy villains. Eboshi, who destroys the forest, also frees the outcasts of society, and San, the forest's champion, is full of hatred; the film's sympathy for both sides makes it one of the most morally complex animated films ever made. The hand-drawn forests and the terrifying, writhing curse are among Ghibli's greatest images.
- It became the highest-grossing film ever released in Japan until Titanic, and it introduced Miyazaki to many Western audiences through Miramax's English version, with a script by Neil Gaiman. It established the international reputation that led to Spirited Away's Oscar.
Notes and Trivia
- It used computer graphics for some effects, including the curse's tendrils, a first for Ghibli on this scale.
- Miyazaki personally checked tens of thousands of frames and redrew many himself.
- See also: Ocean Waves (1993), Ghost in the Shell (1995).