Princess Mononoke and Ecocinema

*Your Name*

HUM 2291

Dr. Danielle Simard

January 1, 2022

Figure 1 – Princess Mononoke riding through the forest

As evidenced by the given frame, Princess Mononoke is a film which belongs in the category of ecocinema, as it is described by Paula Willoquet-Maricondi (2010). In particular, Princess Mononoke decentralizes humans in what is otherwise a human-centred story. The film, represented by Princess Mononoke herself, considers what it means to be human when faced with an environment in crisis.

When it comes to the ecosphere, humans can be assets and productive members of the ecology. According to Willoquet-Maricondi, “ecocinema can offer us alternative models for how to represent and engage with the natural world; these models have the potential to foster a healthier and more sustainable relationship with that world” (44). This is precisely what Princess Mononoke does. The film presents human villages being terrorized by nature spirits because the natural world is being destroyed by human industry. However, instead of demonizing human technology, the film centralizes images of the natural world as a counterpoint to overindustrialization in the figure of Princess Mononoke. Because of these physical features, Mononoke is a balanced figure which “foster[s] a healthier and more sustainable relationship” with the natural world. Although she is human and she wears human clothes including shorts and a shirt, Mononoke also wears animal furs, a necklace of teeth or claws, and a very unhuman face mask. In addition, her face is painted. Later in the movie, this red face paint also blends in to the blood which covers her face after battles or as she eats fresh raw meat. As a post-industrialized human with cropped hair and clothes, she is biologically on the side of the human settlements which clear-cut forests and pollute rivers. However, as a champion of the forest, Mononoke covers these ‘human’ traits with furs and claws and masks which distort her human form, making her more animal than human. As a result, Mononoke is a figure balanced between the natural and the industrial, an icon of healthy environmental stewardship who is presented as a foil to the environmentally destructive potential of humanity.

Mononoke is neither displaced nor isolated within the natural frame; instead, she is represented as one far end of the natural spectrum, reinforcing the film’s focus on ecocentrism without undermining the human’s value. Willoquet-Maricondi points out that ecocinema is a “paradigm shift [which] moves us from a narrow anthropocentric worldview to an earth-centred, or ecocentric, view in which the ecosphere, rather than merely the human sphere, is taken as ‘the centre of value for humanity’” (46). The shift from anthropocentric to ecocentric worldviews which nevertheless value humanity can be seen in Princess Mononoke. Princess Mononoke herself is clearly the subject of the above frame, as the leading lines of the tree branches and the eyelines of the Kodama all point to her. At the same time, the frame composition is asymmetrical and unbalanced. Mononoke is not at the centre of the frame, but to the left, effectively decentralizing her as a human within the natural environment. This effect is counterpointed by the colour palette of the frame. The forest is coloured in deep saturated greens and blacks, dappled with yellowed lighter areas. In contrast, Mononoke is wearing bright white, and has very pale skin. Her colours make her stand out against the natural forest landscape in a way that seems to make her the visual focus of the frame. Mononoke demonstrates a “shift in the way we regard the place and function of humans on the planet” because she is compositionally decentralized, indicating her displacement from the centre of the natural space (Willoquet-Macondi, 2010, 45). At the same time, she looms large in the foreground, easily identifiable as the subject of the frame. She is decentralized but not diminished in importance, reinforcing her inclusion as a human within the larger ecosphere. In the same way, while her colour scheme seems to set her apart from the natural environment of the forest through its stark contrast, she nevertheless becomes part of its larger spectrum. The wolves are also bright white. They are part of the natural environment, and their colour relationship with Mononoke indicates that she and the wolves are indeed occupants of the same environmental spectrum. Effectively, while Mononoke does not fade into the environmental sphere, she also doesn’t dominate or subjugate it. The above frame, because of its composition and colour scheme, therefore demonstrates Willoquet-Maricondi’s conception of how ecocinema is ecocentric rather than anthropocentric, while simultaneously recongnizing the value of humanity within the larger ecological sphere.

The selected frame from Princess Mononoke allows for a complex understanding of ecocinema as Willoquet-Maricondi discusses it. Through characterization, story, composition, and colour, it is clear that Mononoke herself represents the possibilities of ecocentrism, and the potential of humans to become a balanced part of the biosphere.

References

Miyazaki, H. (Director). (1997). Mononoke-hime [Princess Mononoke] [Film]. Studio Ghibli.

Willoquet-Maricondi, P. (2010). “Shifting paradigms: From environmentalist films to ecocinema.” In P. Willoquet-Maricondi (Ed.), Framing the world: Explorations in ecocriticism and film (pp. 43-62).