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1998-09-05
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12) Mononoke Hime
Official Web page: http://www.ntv.co.jp/ghibli/ (in Japanese)
Home pages: http://www.tcp.com/~miyazaki/mh/
Quick Time Movies and pictures: http://www.tcp.com/~miyazaki/mh/relmedia.html
Q: When will it be released?In Japan, it will be released in theaters in July, 1997. The world
release by Disney will follow, but we don't know when it will be.Q: Is it coming to the US?Yes.
According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter (4/8/97), so far it has been decided that
Mononoke Hime will be *theater* released in the US, UK, Spain, and France by Disney.
However, we don't know if it will be released under the Disney name, or under some other label,
such as Miramax, Touchstone, or Hollywood Pictures.
Q: Will it be dubbed?
As far as we know, yes. The press release states that the movie "will be dubbed into local
languages". At the press conference, Mr. Tokuma, the president of Tokuma Publishing, said that
he wants Madonna and Michael Jackson to do the voices. But you need not be alarmed:
apparently, Mr. Tokuma is known for big talk when he is facing journalists (he once said that he
wanted Princess Diana to play the part of Queen Victoria for a movie he was producing.)
Q: Who will do the voices in the Japanese version?
Ashitaka, the protagonist, will be played by MATSUDA Youji, who played Asbel in "Nausicaa".
SHIMAMOTO Sumi, who played Nausicaa, is also in the cast. This time, she plays Toki, a
working married woman. Mononoke Hime will be played by ISHIDA Yuriko. She is a popular
actress who appears in a lot of "trendy drama", the fashionable shows on Japanese TV. She
played the part of Okiyo (Shokichi's girlfriend) in "Pom Poko". Another familiar voice is that of
KAMIJO Tsunehiko, who will play Gonza. He did the voice of the Mamma Aiuto Boss in "Porco
Rosso".
As in other Ghibli movies, the cast of "Mononoke Hime" is filled with great movie and stage
actors, instead of Seiyuu (voice actors). Some of the very best Japanese actors are in the cast.
MORISHIGE Hisaya, whose signature role is Tevye in "Fiddler on the Roof", will play
Otsukotonushi, a 500 year old Boar God. Moro no Kimi, a 300 year old Dog God will be played
by MIWA Akihiro. He is an actor very well known for playing mysterious female roles.
MISHIMA Yukio, the famous Japanese novelist/ playwright wrote several plays for him. MORI
Mitsuko, who is a sort of Angela Lansbury in Japan, will play Hii-Sama, the old medium of
Ashitaka's village. Eboshi Gozen (Lady Eboshi), the competent leader of the iron making people,
will be played by TANAKA Yuuko, another popular actress (and a very good one).
Q: Will Joe Hisaishi do the music?
Yes, of course. ^_^ Currently (5/97), the Image Album, "Mononoke Hime" is available (TKCA-
70946, 3,000 yen). The Soundtrack Album will be released on 7/2, for 3000 Yen (incl. tax).
Hisaishi also wrote the song "Mononoke Hime" (lyrics by Miyazaki), which will be used in the
movie. It will be sung by MERA Yoshikazu, a Japanese coutertenor (a male who sings in a high
range). The single CD of the song will be released on 6/25, for 700 yen (incl. tax).
Q: Who are other staff members?
Miyazaki is credited for the original story/screenplay/directing.
Supervising animator - ANDO Masahi. He is one of the young rising stars at Ghibli. After
joining Ghibli in 1990 and worked as an inbetweener for "Only Yesterday" in 1991, he was
quickly promoted to a key animator for "Porco Rosso" (1992). He worked as the supervising
animator for "On Your Mark".
Art - "Mononoke Hime" has five art directors, something totally unprecedented. They are: OGA
Kazuo (Totoro, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko), YAMAMOTO Nizou (Holmes, Laputa, Grave),
KURODA Satoshi (Mimi), TANAKA Naoya (Ocean Waves), and TAKESHIGE Youzou (On
Your Mark).
Q: I heard that it will be a very big movie. How big is it?
It's "big" in several senses. With a 2 billion yen (about $20 millon) production cost, "Mononoke
Hime" is the most expensive animated movie ever made in Japan ("Akira" cost about 1 billion
yen). It's about 135 minutes long, and uses more than 125,000 cels. ("Laputa" was 124 minutes
and "Pom Poko" used about 82,000 cels).
Q: Will it use computer graphics?
Yes. Ghibli bought several Silicon Graphics workstations and set up the CG division since
"Mononoke Hime" uses CG extensively, in more than 100 cuts.
Computers will be used in three ways: Digital painting, Digital composition, and Computer
generated images. You can see that CG was used in the previews of the movie.
Q: What does "Mononoke Hime" mean?
Hime means "Princess" in Japanese. So far, Ghibli has given Mononoke Hime the English title,
"Princess-mononoke". Mononoke Hime (or Princess Mononoke) is what San, the heroine, is
called by other people, since she was raised by a mononoke and looks and acts like a mononoke.
So, what is a mononoke? Good question. ^_^; It's a monster/ghost/sprit.
Mononoke literally means "The spirit of a thing". Basically, the Japanese blamed mononoke for
every unexplainable thing, from a major natural disaster to a minor headache. A mononoke
could be the spirit of an inanimate object, such as a wheel, the spirit of a dead person, the spirit
of a live person, the spirit of an animal, goblins, monsters, or a spirit of nature. Totoro is also a
mononoke.
In this movie, a mononoke is something monstrous which an Animal God turns into if it was
consumed by hatred and anger. And since San wears a scary mask and acts like an animal,
"Monster Princess" wouldn't be a bad translation.
Q: I heard that it was based on "Beauty and the Beast". Is it true?
What you have heard about was the old version of "Mononoke Hime". Originally, Miyazaki had
planned to make "Mononoke Hime" as a story about a princess who was forced to marry a
Mononoke by her feudal lord father. You have probably seen a picture of Mononoke who looks
like Catbus in Totoro's body and a girl in a Kimono (see http://www.tcp.com/~miyazaki/mh/hairston/).
That is from a picturebook "Mononoke Hime", which compiled image boards Miyazaki wrote back in
1980. Miyazaki tried to make it into anime, but the project never materialized (it was even considered
as the second project by Tokuma after "Nausicaa", but eventually, "Laputa" was chosen), and Miyazaki
put it in the book.
The story of the movie "Mononoke Hime" is completely different from that in the picturebook.
Mononoke Hime is a girl who was rasied by Mononoke, not who marries one. There is a new
cahracter, Ashitaka, as the hero. In fact, Miyazaki even wanted to changed the title to "Ashitaka
Sekki (The Tale of Ashitaka)".
Q: I heard that it's very violent. Is it true? Why?
Yes. This is not a movie for small children, like "Totoro". Miyazaki puts the targeted audience
as "anyone older than 5th grade". The movie trailer has several cuts which graphically depict
scenes where arms and heads of characters are cut off and fly (see
http://www.tcp.com/~miyazaki/mh/Movies/). The movie poster features Mononoke Hime with
her face smeared with blood (see http://www.tcp.com/~miyazaki/mh/Images/san6.jpg).
You have to wonder if Disney would be able to sell it as a PG13 movie.
There is a reason for violence in "Mononoke Hime". In this movie, Miyazaki tackles the themes
he covered in the manga "Nausicaa": the meaning of living in the middle of destruction and
despair, and overcoming hatred and vengeance. "Mononoke Hime" deals with the war between
Gods and Humans, and intense hatred between them. Miyazaki said that "When there is a fight,
some blood is inevitably spilled, and we cannot avoid depicting it." In the project proposal, he
stated, "However, even in the middle of hatred and killings, there are things worth living for. A
wonderful meeting, or a beautiful thing can exist. We depict hatred, but it is to depict that there
are more important things. We depict a curse, to depict the joy of liberation."
Q: The preview said "13 years since Nausicaa". Why?
Because "Mononoke Hime" is very close to Nausicaa in terms of its genre (action adventure
story) and its theme (the relationship between humans and nature).
Miyazaki wasn't satisfied with the ending of the movie "Nausicaa", which needed a miracle to
bring a happy ending to solve the conflict between humans and nature. So he took another 10
years pursuing this issue (the relationship between nature and man), writing the manga
"Nausicaa", which he finally concluded in 1994. "Mononoke Hime" will be based on this
conclusion: "there is no happy ending to the fight between humans and Raging Gods" (from the
project proposal).
Q: What is the thing which looked like a gun in the preview?
It is called Ishibiya (Stone Fire Arrow). It seems to be a kind of original firearm developed in
Japan. Firearms were first introduced to Japan by the Portuguese around 1550, so there were no
guns in the Muromachi Era, the time of "Mononoke Hime". But Fireworks came from China
prior to that, so Miyazaki seems to have taken some creative liberties, and made characters
develop their own version of the gun.
The Ishibiya are manufactured at Tataraba (the iron making encampment) by Lady Eboshi's men.
People fight against Mononoke Hime and the Animal Gods using Ishibiya.
Q: What is Emishi?
The Emishi were "barbarians" who lived in the northeast region of Honshuu (the main island of
Japan). Ashitaka, the hero, is a descendant of the Emishi Royal family. The Emishi kept their
independence from the Yamato regime (the Japanese Emperor's government) for a long time, but
were finally defeated by the first Shogun at the end of the 8th century. Their culture did not
survive, and very little is known about them today. By the Muromachi era, when "Mononoke
Hime" takes place, they had long been assimilated into Japanese society. Miyazaki used his
creative freedom and made a clan of Emishi survive in a hidden village in the Northern land.
Written by Ryoko Toyama (who else??)