Princess Mononoke (もののけ姫 Mononoke Hime) is a Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki that was first released in Japan on July 12, 1997 and in the United States on October 29, 1999 in select cities and on November 26, 1999.

Roger Ebert soon placed the movie sixth on his top ten movies of 1999. Mononoke also became the highest grossing movie in Japan until Titanic took over the spot several months later. Overall, Mononoke is the third most popular anime movie in Japan, next to 2001's Spirited Away and 2004's Howl's Moving Castle, both also by Miyazaki.

Although the title may suggest otherwise, it is neither a family film nor a fairy tale. It was rated PG-12 in Japan, PG in the UK, M in Australia and PG-13 in the U.S. for images of violence and gore.

It is a jidaigeki set in late Muromachi period of 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 general term in Japanese for a spirit/god/monster of the natural world.

Ashitaka is the last Emishi prince, who saves his village from an assault by a demon. After killing the demon, Ashitaka finds out that the demon was the Boar God Nago suffering under a curse. Having received a demon mark on his right arm during his battle with Nago, Ashitaka is cursed by the Boar God's hatred and pain. However, after consulting the shamanistic wise woman of the village, it is found that a lump of metal was in Nago's corpse and was likely the source of the curse. Though currently limited to just his arm, the curse will eventually spread throughout Ashitaka's body, and then Ashitaka will die. The curse is a double-edged sword; should Ashitaka experience any rage or hatred, he gains immense strength and fortitude, but the curse will spread faster. Whenever this happens, the curse will manifest itself as writhing purplish-black tendrils floating around the arm, similar to the ones Nago had.

Ashitaka sets out from his home to head to lands to the West, where Nago originated. During his travels, he will seek a cure. In order to do so, the wise woman warns him, he must "see with eyes unclouded by hate." By accepting this mission, Ashitaka also accepts exile from his homeland. He rides out with his steed Yakul, his loyal red elk. Since it was considered taboo to see off one who is banished, only one person dared to say goodbye to Ashitaka: his 'little sister,' Kaya (according to Miyazaki,[citation needed] actually his bride-to-be; calling herself his 'little sister' was a term of affection), who gives him her crystal dagger so that he would not forget her.

As Ashitaka travels westward, he encounters a group of samurai slaughtering defenceless villagers. Angered by such injustice, Ashitaka attempts to restrain the samurai with his bow and arrow, but his anger activates the heretofore latent forces of Nago's curse, which imbues his arm with supernatural strength. Although he meant only to scare the samurai away, the curse makes him fire his arrow with such force and accuracy that it cuts off both arms of one samurai and decapitates another. Afterwards, Ashitaka discovers that the curse has spread further on his arm, growing bigger.

After the battle, he meets a strange monk, Jigo, who was saved by Ashitaka during the attack. Ashitaka shows Jigo the iron bullet that was in Nago, and Jigo tells him that he may be able to find some answers at a place called Irontown.

Meanwhile, a pack of wolf gods assaults a wagon train transporting rice to Irontown. One of the wolves attacking the train is ridden by a human girl, Princess Mononoke, or the Princess of the Spirits. The wolf goddess Moro, mother of the other two wolf gods, is shot by Lady Eboshi, the leader of Irontown, and falls off a cliff.

On his way to Irontown, Ashitaka passes by the wreckage and remains of those who fell down the cliff in the battle, including a nearly comatose soldier and a wounded cattle herder. Ashitaka also sees Princess Mononoke sucking the blood from the wound of Moro in an attempt to purify the wound and remove any infection from the site. He tries to talk to her, but she just tells him to "go away."

Several kodama, or tree spirits, appear and, having been asked by Ashitaka for help getting through the forest, lead him and the wounded men to Irontown.

At Irontown, Ashitaka has the opportunity to meet Lady Eboshi, who explains much of the plotline to him. There is a great war between Irontown, which cuts down the forest in order to mine the mountain's iron, and the Mononoke (or forest spirits), whom the humans weaken or kill by destroying their habitat. In this war, there was a great battle against the Boar clan, during which Nago sustained his evil wound from Eboshi's gunners. Ashitaka is naturally angered by Eboshi's wanton destruction, especially since it has cost him so much. However, he finds that she has created in Irontown a community in which social outcasts, such as lepers and former prostitutes, are treated equally, and given employment. Only by continuing to create iron can the haven survive.

San, the Princess Mononoke, has tried several times to assassinate Lady Eboshi, since Irontown will probably fall apart without her leadership. Ashitaka witnesses such an attack that night, when San enters Irontown and engages Eboshi in a duel. Ashitaka, however, realizes that the duel is a trap that the townspeople have set for San and becomes angered at San's predicament. He stops the two women from fighting and says that he is going to take San, unconscious, back to the forest. As he leaves, one woman accidentally shoots Ashitaka with her gun, but he continues out of the town, almost unfazed. He uses his cursed arm to push open the town gate (which normally requires the strength of ten people) and leaves Irontown on Yakul.

As Ashitaka is riding from Irontown on Yakul, with San as a passenger, he loses the strength bestowed by the curse, and falls off of Yakul. The two wolves who are San's "brothers" immediately want to eat Ashitaka, but San stops them. She senses that Ashitaka is dying, and is confused as to why a human would fight on her side, and furious that Ashitaka interfered in her chance to kill Eboshi. San demands that Ashitaka explain himself, to which he simply responds that he wanted her to live. This only enrages her further, as she considers herself a wolf, and is ready to die for her cause. As she is about to deliver a killing blow, Ashitaka startles her by telling her she is beautiful, before falling unconscious due to his wounds. A group of Apes then appear, telling San to leave the human so that they may eat Ashitaka to possess his strength, so they can rid the forest of the humans, but she refuses.

Touched by his compassion, San takes Ashitaka into the forest to a sacred pond deep within the heart of the forest. There, she lays him on an island in the center of the lake, plants a plant next to Ashitaka's body, as an offering. She then tries to set Yakul free, but the elk refuses to leave, and San departs to allow Shishigami, the Forest Spirit, to arrive in solitude and decide Ashitaka's fate. Shishigami heals Ashitaka's bullet wound with a touch of its lips, but does not remove the curse.

The next day, Boar God Okkotonushi (Okkoto in the English translation) and his herd arrive at Shishigami's forest after months of travelling. Their mission is to kill all the humans and thus protect the forest of Shishigami, or die trying, picking up where Nago left off.

Ashitaka wakes up from days of recuperation in the den of the Moro tribe. He confronts Moro, trying to get her to "free" San, who is a human, but the wolf explains that she rescued the human child whose parents had abandoned her. This makes San neither human nor wolf, but a child of the wolf tribe all the same; when the forest dies, so does she. After healing fully, Ashitaka is told by Moro to leave the forest or be killed. Moro despises humans, but not with the unrelenting passion of San.

Ashitaka tries to mediate the conflict between man and the creatures of the forest. Ashitaka cares for San, and shares her concern for the forest's welfare, but he has also come to sympathize with the people of Irontown. He sees Eboshi and San as two people who are blinded by their hatred for one another, and wants to find a solution that will please both sides. However, he fails, and thus the war begins.

The war is three-way. A powerful samurai lord, Asano, has led troops to attack Irontown, demanding half of all the town's iron. Meanwhile, Okkotonushi's attack force prepares its own war. Eboshi realizes that the ones most feared are humans, not beasts or gods, for humans are capable of treachery and their weapons are much more powerful than claws or teeth. Eboshi leads the Jibashiri, the emperor's agents who arrived with the manipulative monk Jigo, as well as the ishibiya troops to fight the boars and kill Shishigami. The Emperor believes that the Forest Spirit's head will grant him immortality and will pay a mountain of gold for it. Eboshi leaves the women to defend Irontown, knowing that they are strong enough to hold their own. Eboshi does this partly because she knew the men were powerful hunters, but also because she knew they would likely betray her after their task was over.

The boars, despite their huge numbers, are no match for the humans' mines and ishibiya. Only Okkotonushi, fatally wounded, is still alive. In order to kill Shishigami, the Jibashiri skin the dead boars for use as disguises to confuse Okkotonushi, who is blind. When Okkotonushi senses the "ghost boars," he thinks his warriors have returned from the dead, and wants Shishigami to revive them. Before Okkotonushi can reach the island, the Jibashiri attempt to finish Okkotonushi off, which causes his rage to engulf him. Okkotonushi turns into a full demon, with many red tendrils of burning hate seeping through his skin. San tries to push the tendrils off of Okkotonushi, but a hunter with a sling knocks San unconscious. San is engulfed by the red tendrils as Lord Okkotonushi plows towards the sacred lake.

Ashitaka senses that San is in trouble. With one of San's brother wolves, rescued from the battlefield, Ashitaka delves into the forest to find San. Along the way, Ashitaka attempts to tell Lady Eboshi about the attack on Irontown. Eboshi's men have already gone back, but Eboshi continues to hunt Shishigami. By the time Ashitaka gets to San, Okkotonushi has already reached the sacred island. Ashitaka tries to reach through the red tendrils to save San, but cannot reach her, and Lord Okkotonushi throws Ashitaka off into the pond. Moro, who was unconscious from the progress of infection caused by the ishibiya rifle wound she earlier received, awakens, and rushes towards Okkotonushi, demanding her daughter's return. Moro is able to dig San out, using her remaining strength to save her daughter instead of fighting Eboshi. Ashitaka takes San from Moro's mouth, and rushes San into the water to clean the tendrils off of her body.

Shishigami, the Great Forest Spirit, finally arrives. Eboshi, having arrived at the pond clearing, attempts to kill Shishigami with her gun, but Shishigami continues on, ignoring the wound. Okkotonushi, despite being blind, half-mad, and without much of a sense of smell, still is able to sense Shishigami. When Shishigami reaches Okkotonushi and Moro, Shishigami touches the nose of Okkotonushi, and the giant boar falls over, dead and at peace. Moro, succumbing to the rifle wound she got earlier, as well as her struggle with Okkotonushi, falls as well.

Eboshi rushes out once again, attempting to shoot Shishigami. Despite Ashitaka and Shishigami's attempts to stop her, Eboshi manages to shoot Shishigami in the neck just as he begins to change into the Nightwalker, and his head is severed completely. As this happens, Shishigami's body sends out a black ooze, which drains the life from everything in its path, trying to get its head back. With her last ounce of strength, Moro's severed head bites off Eboshi's right arm before falling into the black ooze. Jigo and his men put Shishigami's head in a box and try to run off.

Ashitaka brings Eboshi and Gonza to the island in the center of the sacred pond, escaping the Nightwalker's headless body. San wants to kill Eboshi in order to end the human threat, but Ashitaka refuses, saying that Moro has already avenged the Wolf clan. Angered, San demands that Ashitaka take Eboshi away, accusing Ashitaka of always being "on the human's side." Ashitaka then explains to San that he is human and that San is, too. San insists that she's a wolf and, out of rage, stabs Ashitaka in the chest with his crystal dagger. Taken aback at what she has just done, she stares at Ashitaka, who simply steps forward hugging her in his arms. He apologizes to San for not being able to stop them. San insists that the forest is doomed, and that "it's all over." Ashitaka refutes her point by saying that "We are still here," and that they can save the forest.

The Shishigami's corpse begins an ever-widening search for its head, killing much of the forest and its kodama and destroying Irontown in the process. Ultimately, San and Ashitaka force Jigo to return the Shishigami's head. As the two present the head to its former owner, both of their curses begin to rapidly accelerate, quickly covering their entire bodies. Thus appeased, the corpse's killing touch is abated, and the Nightwalker falls as the sun rises. Its disappearance is followed by a great wind, which blows out the flames consuming Irontown's remains, and sweeps away the samurai encampment. When the wind stops blowing, the surviving humans are astonished to witness the Shishigami's final gifts: a blanket of green grasses, flowers, and the shoots of new trees covering the vast empty plain that the rampage turned the forest into. The lepers among the Irontown survivors are healed of their disease, and Ashitaka and San are both healed of the demon curse, though Ashitaka has a few faint burn scars left.

The Irontown survivors and Lady Eboshi vow to build a new and better town where they can live in peace with the forest. Jigo quietly mocks Ashitaka and San for being fools, but is also seemingly impressed with what they have done and departs without any more fuss. San mourns the death of the Great Forest Spirit, but Ashitaka insists that Shishigami cannot truly die, as it is life itself. San returns to the wilderness, saying that though she cares for Ashitaka, she cannot forgive the humans for what they have done. Ashitaka announces that he will be staying at Irontown, but that he will come to the wilderness and visit her whenever he can.

Finally, somewhere in the ruins of the forest, a single kodama emerges from the new growth, studying a group of tiny seedlings.

This story takes place in Japan during the Muromachi Period, which is considered to be the transition period between the medieval period and the early modern period. It is notable that the power of the shoguns greatly declined in this period.

This is a time when Japan started to grow rapidly in population, and Japan also began to cut down many forests, not just to acquire more living space for the people, but also to dig out the Earth's natural resources, especially iron. Primitive guns were manufactured as well in China. In Japan, the technology of gun manufacture was acquired from the Portuguese.

On the animal side, this is a time when the power of beasts has diminished much. It is implied that ancient creatures were very wise, and many times larger than normal animals. These creatures were capable of using and communicating in human speech, as well as having the ability to live hundreds of years. However, as each generation passes, the animals get smaller and smaller, as well as becoming less intelligent.

It is unclear how many animals were once like this, but by the Muromachi period, only the wolves, apes, and boars are intelligent. The apes are known for their wisdom, thought, and knowledge. They cannot fight, but they can plant trees to attempt to reforest the mountains. Being as wise as they are, the apes realize that their attempts are fruitless, and thus they wanted to eat Ashitaka. The boars are known for their brute strength. They are usually the defenders of the forests, because of their physical might and the large numbers of their tribes. They are not as intelligent as the other two species, and they pride themselves for "attacking from the front, even though it is useless." The boars are the strongest of the three, and they could grow to a tremendous size. The wolves are somewhere in between the boars and the apes, not as intelligent as the apes, not as strong as the boars, but also with a bit of cunning within them. These three species could be compared to the sage, the warrior, and the leader.

Ashitaka comes from a tribe called the Emishi, which used to be a glorious people, natives of northern Honshu, that had been resisting subjugation by the Japanese emperor for centuries. However, the Emishi were defeated by the samurai of the Yamato clan, which proceeded to become the rulers and government of the Empire. The Emishi thus went into hiding, around the Northeast part of Honshu, Japan's largest island. By A.D. 1300, the Emishi were completely integrated into Japanese society. However, Ashitaka supposedly comes from a tribe of the Emishi that had resisted integration and still lived in exile.

Irontown gets its name from its purpose: to dig up iron, refine it to steel, and make top-quality weapons. Their latest invention is the ishibiya gun, a cross between a musket and a grenade launcher, shooting an iron ball at high speed, able to penetrate wood, animal, and samurai armor. They also have a sort of a primitive flamethrower, usually used in conjunction with the ishibiya guns for maximum effect.

To get iron, the townsfolk strip the mountains bare of forests. The wood is used to fuel their giant smelter, which is used to extract the ore. This plan is complicated with the presence of the animal spirits within the forest, who fight with their lives to protect the forest. This includes many acts, such as night ambushes, surprise attacks on supply trains, and skirmishes with the humans that go outside of Irontown.

Irontown cannot even trust its own species, as neighboring samurai warlords desire control of Irontown. They are not stupid, and they know that the future lies with iron and steel. They frequently demand quotas of iron whenever they feel strong, and when Irontown refuses, they attack. However, Irontown is strong enough to defend itself.

Irontown itself grew prosperous because of one woman: Eboshi Gozen. When Irontown first was built, the people simply used the iron sands at the beaches where Irontown was built. Unfortunately, the iron sands were soon used up, and the men looked enviously toward the unreachable iron within the mountains. There existed a large boar, Nago, who was the master of the mountains. He and his clan could not be defeated, and all of Irontown's strong and able men were wiped out. That was when Eboshi came, with the ishibiya troops lent to her from the Emperor. After a great battle over the entire mountains, the boars were wiped out, and then Irontown became prosperous.

Eboshi, then began to endear herself to the people of Irontown. She bought the contracts of prostitutes to free them, and took in lepers as well, and gave them jobs in Irontown.

From Wikipedia