Distance II
Cathy responds:
Although l too love Princess Mononoke, I seem to enjoy just the things that you find silly. I think that the supernatural stuff, though maybe too far on the spiritual realm for you, adds a density and poetry to it that grabs the viewer’s imagination. So what if it’s dark, maybe too heavy-handed. For me, the symbolism is as rich and enigmatic as the prince’s physical and internal moral journey must be. I admit that none of this is stuff kids would pick up, but then this isn’t entirely a kid movie, is it? Elena loves the martial arts stuff and the power it gives the female characters in the movie, and she has appropriated this power for her own play. It is, after all, the most concrete aspect. But here is the movie’s biggest flaw: I hate the depiction of the men who work in the service of Lady Iboshi, whether they are the useless spouses of the gutsy women or the drudges who merely carry the weapons and do as they are told. The men are reduced to caricatures, clowns, with the interesting exception of the leper who, in his deathbed, utters some words of wisdom. But he doesn’t really count, does he, because he’s not “whole” either, in a different way. I don’t mind strong women, as you know, but it should never be at the expense of ridiculing men. The other thing about Lady Iboshi is that though her motives are repugnant, Miyazaki is in conflict over depicting her too harshly. I think it’s his ambivalence over portraying women negatively. The effect, of course, is that they turn out to be multidimensional and interesting, but that is tarnished by his one dimensional treatment of the men, I think, with the possible exception of Ashitaka. The more I think about it, though, Miyazaki is trying too hard, doing too much here, which explains all the loose ends that we’re finding as we look closely at this movie. My Neighbor Totoro is growing on me, for the same reasons I like Mononoke — the magical, almost Alice in Wonderland realm. It also plays with some of our darker fears of loss, while playing host to the most fantastic flights of imagination. And I’ll always love Kiki. It presents a balanced and healthy view of female independence and the first blush of love without poking fun unnecessarily at men and boys.
Categorised as: Read this to me