| Princess Mononoke takes place in fourteenth century Japan, a time of unrest. Ashitaka (Crudup, Without Limits, The Hi Lo Country) is a young prince who becomes cursed after killing a mad forest god. The curse leads him to backtrack the god's movements to try to discover why the god went mad. He comes across an industrializing town known as Iron Town. Lady Eboshi (Driver, An Ideal Husband, The Governess) is the leader of Iron Town. She is slowly destroying the forest to expand her town. The iron her town produces is extremely profitable, and the surrounding newly deforested lands also experience an escalation in value. Eboshi has no place for the forest gods; to her, they are obsolete figures. Man is who will reign supreme. Her goal is to kill the Great Forest Spirit with her iron shooting rifles, the god responsible for all life and death in the forest. Opposing Eboshi is San (Danes, The Mod Squad, Brokedown Palace), also known as Princess Mononoke. San was raised by wolves, and considers herself a wolf. She hates the humans than their blatant disregard for the nature around them. Ashitaka's main goal is to seek the Great Forest Spirit and ask him to take his curse away. He stumbles into the conflict between Eboshi and Mononoke, and becomes caught in the middle. He wants to side with San, because he also believes that the forest should be preserved. But then he feels sorry for the people of Iron Town, who are mostly lepers and women saved from brothels. Eboshi saved them and now is the only one who treats them as humans. |
