January 7 movie: Princess Mononoke. I had intended not to watch this movie -- it's brilliant, but emotionally wrenching, and I was by myself because Georg was out of town. But I started watching the intro with John Lassiter, and then I was hooked and had to watch the whole movie.
It's just as amazing as I remembered. I love the depth of Miyzaki's characters. No one in this movie is completely good or completely bad. (Well, actually, Jiro is uniformly bad now that I think about it.) It occurred to me on this viewing that Ashitaki is the hero because he's the only character with empathy for all sides of the conflict. Eboshi is a villain because her compassion is so limited. She's profoundly generous to the people within her community but couldn't care less about anyone outside it.
I don't know if I was just feeling maudlin because of being by myself or what, but between this and A Night to Remember I was a basketcase that night. I mean it, I was sobbing while I brushed my teeth and made the bed up.
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