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Mononoke Hime (Princess Mononoke) |
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| Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) |
| From the Main FAQ by Ryoko Toyama |
| Contents |
Q: How can I see it?
The original Japanese version is now available on video and laserdisc, but not on DVD.
Disney (through Miramax and Buena Vista
International) is going to distribute it worldwide. The theatrical
release date in the United States is tentatively scheduled to be
October 29, 1999.
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Q: Is it coming to my country?
According to an article in the Houchi Newspaper (Jan.28, 99), Disney plans to release it in the US, Canada, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil, Australia, and so forth.
Miramax is handling the distribution in the US (the release might be through its subsidiary, Dimension Film, known by such movies as "Scream"). According to Houchi, it will be released in "1,000 theaters in 100 cities across the US."
However, there has been no offocial annoucement from Miramax or Disney about the details of the release.
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According to an article in the Hollywood Reporter (Sept. 30, 97), Michael Johnson, the president of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, said that it "will be released in both dubbed and subtitled versions, predicting that older audiences will prefer to see the latter." However, the inside information now says that the wide theatrical release of the English sub is "not likely".
The voice cast of the English version includes Billy Crudup as Ashitaka, Claire Danes as San, Gillian Anderson as Moro, Minnie Driver as Eboshi, and Billy Bob Thornton as Jiko Bou. Angelina Jolie and Sean "Puffy" Comb (a.k.a. Puffy Daddy) are also in the cast.
Neil Gaiman, a writer who is known by such works as "The Sandman" has worked on the English script of Mononoke Hime. He did not "rewrite" the script. He just made the literal English translation of the script into "lines that people can say". According to the news release by Miramax, Gaiman stated, "I couldn't be more excited to write this script," and "My goal is to remain faithful to the story while providing a translation that a non-Japanese audience will be able to follow. To that end, I've been researching Japanese folklore."
According to Houchi News paper (Feb. 3,
99), French and German dub will be also made.
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Q: Is Disney going to cut violent scenes for the US release?
So far, all information suggests that the answer is "No." The contract between Disney and Tokuma states that Disney cannot make any changes to the film other than dubbing it. Mr. Tokuma, the president of Tokuma Publishing, and Mr. Suzuki, the producer at Ghibli, both have stated "There will be no cuts," in various interviews. That does not prevent Disney from asking (or pressuring) Tokuma to make some cuts. However, judging by the reaction from Miyazaki and Ghibli concerning the cuts in the dubbed "Nausicaa" (a.k.a. "Warriors of the Wind"), it is very unlikely that Tokuma would agree to it.
For more information, see the Disney-Tokuma Deal page at Nausicaa.net, or join the Nausicaa Mailing List.
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Q: I heard that Madonna is going to sing a song for the English dub. Is it true?
According to Tokuma International, Disney
was indeed considering to hire Madonna to sing a song for the
English dub, and might have contacted her. However, this
information was at the point of November, 1998. And since then,
there has been no mention of Madonna in news articles about
Mononoke Hime.
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Q: Who did the voices in the Japanese version?
Ashitaka, the protagonist, was
played by MATSUDA Youji (http://www.happysize.co.jp/~matsuda/), who played Asbel in "Nausicaa".
SHIMAMOTO Sumi, who played Nausicaa, was also in the cast. This
time, she played Toki, a working married woman. Mononoke Hime was
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 played 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",
played Okkotonushi, a 500 year old Boar God. Moro no Kimi, a 300
year old Dog God was 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,
played Hii-Sama, the old medium of Ashitaka's village. Eboshi
Gozen (Lady Eboshi), the competent leader of the iron making
people, was played by TANAKA Yuuko, another popular actress (and
a very good one).
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Q: Did Joe Hisaishi do the music?
Yes, of course. ^_^ The Image Album, Soundtrack Album, and Symphonic Album are available today. Hisaishi also wrote the song "Mononoke Hime" (lyrics by Miyazaki), which was used in the movie. It was sung by MERA Yoshikazu, a Japanese coutertenor (a male who sings in a high range). The single CD of the song is available for 700 yen (incl. tax).
Hisaishi has received the "Japan Record Award", a sort of Japanese Grammy, for his work in Mononoke Hime.
(For more information, please see Sampsa Virtanen's MH CDs page)
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Q: Who are other staff members?
Miyazaki is credited for the original story/screenplay/directing.
Supervising animators - Masahi ANDO, Kitaro KOSAKA, and Yoshifumi KONDO.
Ando 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".
Another one of young talents at Ghibli, Kosaka worked as the supervising animator for "Whisper of the Heart".
A veteran animator, Kondo had worked as a character designer and supervising animator for "Grave of Fireflies", "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Only Yesterday". Sadly, he passed away on January 21st, 1998.
Art - "Mononoke Hime" has five
art directors, something totally unprecedented. They are: Kazuo
OGA (Totoro, Only Yesterday, Pom Poko), Nizou YAMAMOTO (Holmes,
Laputa, Grave), Satoshi KURODA (Mimi), Naoya TANAKA (Ocean
Waves), and Youzou TAKESHIGE (On Your Mark).
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Q: I heard that it is a very big movie. How big is it?
It's "big" in several senses.
With a 2.4 billion yen (about $20 million) production cost,
"Mononoke Hime" is the most expensive animated movie
ever made in Japan ("Akira" cost about 1 billion yen).
It's about 133 minutes long, and uses some 144,000 cels.
("Laputa" was 124 minutes and "Pom Poko" used
about 82,000 cels). It earned more than 18.65 billion yen in
Japan, with more than 13.53 million attendance. It became the
No.1 movie of all time in Japan, beating the record held by
"E.T." for 15 years (the Mononoke Hime's record has
been then broken by "Titanic"). It was also the all-time best selling video in
Japan, seling more than 4 million copies, until the record was
broken by "Titanic" (the previous video sales record
was held by "Aladdin", which sold about 2.2 million
copies in Japan).
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Q: I heard that Miyazaki is retiring after Mononoke Hime. Is this true?
No, Miyazaki is not retiring. He is going to make short films to be screened at the "Ghibli Museum" in the Mitaka City Tokyo (to be opened in 2001). The films will be based on children's books. Ghibli's younger staff members are supposed to make these films, and production is supposed to start after they've taken a rest break following the recent completion of My Neighbors the Yamadas. Whether Miyazaki would "direct" these films or not is still unclear, although he has written storyboards for them.
Miyazaki is also said to be planning a film for young girls (10-11 year old), but nothing has been officially decided yet.
At
a press conference following the completion of
Mononoke Hime,
Miyazaki did say "I think that this (Mononoke Hime)
will be the last
(feature-length) movie that I make in this way."
You have to understand what "this way" means.
Miyazaki
is an animator, first and foremost. He personally checks
almost all the key animation, and often redraws cels when he thinks they
aren't good enough or characters aren't "acting right."
This isn't the
typical way in which a director works. (For example, Mamoru Oshii
doesn't even check key animation. He has a technical director to do
that. Takahata checks key animation, but he tells the key animators to
redraw the cels.) However, Miyazaki feels that this is the only way for
him to make the films he wants to make. However,
Miyazaki felt that he was getting too old. He says that his
eyes aren't as good as they used to be, and his hands can no longer move
so quickly. And he felt that spending every day for more than two years
working on Mononoke Hime
took too much out of him. Hence, he said
that he wouldn't direct a film in that way anymore. (He also said that
his career as an animator has ended.) Of course,
most journalists in Japan didn't bother to check what he
meant by "in this way,"
so they just wrote big headlines like "Miyazaki
announced retirement!"
Since then, this news has taken on its own life. Miyazaki
also said that he is leaving Ghibli to make way for young
people. However, he also stated that he "may
assist in some capacity in the future," such as
producing and writing scripts. Sadly, judging from
his eulogy for Yoshifumi Kondo,
it seems that he was planning to write and produce
another film for Kondo to direct, as he did with
Whisper of the Heart. Miyazaki
formally quit Ghibli on January 14th, 1998. He built a new
studio, "Butaya" (Pig House), near Studio Ghibli
as his "retirement place."
However, on January 16th, 1999, Miyazaki "formally returned"
to Studio Ghibli as Shocho
(this title means roughly "the head of office"). Q: I heard that Miyazaki personally
drew 80,000 frames of the film. Is it true? No. Miyazaki personally checked and
often redrew them, but he did not drew 80,000 frames.
Being an excellent animator himself, Miyazaki 's directing style
requires him to personally check drawings by other animators and
often redraw them to make them closer to his image. Of 144,000
cels of animation used in Mononoke Hime, about 80,000 were key
animation, and he supervised each of them. This is an enourmous
task, and Miyazaki says that his eyes and hands no longer permit
him to work this way. This is why Miyazaki says that he would not
make a film in this style (personally checking each frame of
animation). In the "Making of Mononoke
Hime" video, you can see
Miyazaki checking and redrawing to make characters "act
right". Q: Did 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 were used in three ways: Digital
painting, Digital composition, and Computer generated images.
About 15 munites worth of CG were used in Mononoke Hime, of
which, 10 minutes were for digital painting. You can see that CG was used in the
previews of the movie. For more information, see the Mononoke Hime CG page. Q: What does
"Mononoke Hime" mean? Hime means "Princess" in
Japanese. 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/spirit. Mononoke 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. 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
the picture below). 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.
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. The movie
poster features Mononoke Hime with her face smeared with blood.
It has recieved PG-13 rating from MPAA. Q: The movie trailer
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: When does the story
take place? It takes place in the Muromachi Era
(1392-1573, or 1333-1467, depending on the scholar), around the
time of the War of Onin (1467-1477). Miyazaki chose this era
since the relationship between the Japanese and nature changed
greatly around that time. During the Muromachi Era, iron
production jumped, which required great numbers of trees to be
cut down (for charcoal), and people came to feel that they could
control nature. Also, it was the time before Japan as we know it
was formed. It was a confusing, yet lively era. Women had more
freedom, and a lot of new arts were born. The rigid class
structure of Samurais, farmers, and artisans was yet to be
established. Miyazaki sees similarities between the Muromachi era
and the current era, which is going through various changes and
confusion. Q: What is the thing
which looked like a gun in the trailer? It is called Ishibiya (Stone
Fire Arrow). Ishibiya is old Japanese for "hand
cannon". Firearms were first introduced to Japan by the
Portuguese in 1543. However, fireworks came from China prior to
that, and there are some speculations that hand cannons are
imported from China before 1543. 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 the
strange creature which appeared at the end of the trailer?
It is called Kodama. It means
"echo" (its literal meaning is a "tree
spirit"). However, since its name is written in Katakana,
not in Kanji, it could also mean "small ball" or
"small spirit". They (there are many, in various sizes
and shapes) are a kind of spirit who live in the forest. Although Kodama (a tree spirit) appears in many
Japanese folktales, Kodama as a little white creature is
Miyazaki's creation. 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.
"Tatara Ba" means "Iron
making place". A "Tatara" is a foot bellows which
was used to make iron, and it also came to mean a particular
process of iron making, and people who made iron using that
process. In the Tatara iron making process, iron sands and
charcoal are put in a furnace made of clay, and burned for
several days. Then, the furnace is taken down to take an
iron ingot out. In this process, a great amount of charcoal is
needed to melt the iron sands, and therefore, trees are a very
important resource (sometimes more than iron sands) for the
Tatara people. In "Mononoke Hime", the Tatara
people try to cut the forest down to keep their iron
manufacturing going, and the Gods who live in the forest fight
against them. Iron signifies human
civilization. Weapons (war) and tools (agriculture) made of iron
are what made human civilization. Agricultural tools such as axes
and spades made it possible for humans to turn forests (nature)
into farmland (the human world). Agriculture made it possible to
support a higher population, and a higher population means more
forest being cut down. The fight between the Tatara people and
the Gods of the forest really signifies the (irresolvable)
conflicts between humans and nature. Q: What is the
animal with horns on which Ashitaka is riding? It is called "Yakkul". That is
its own name, its species is called "Akashihi (Red
Deer)". It is a fictional animal Miyazaki created, based on
a yak. A similar animal appears in Miyazaki's manga,
"Shuna's Journey". (Q: What is a "fansub"? A: A
fansub is a video tape that is an illegal copy of a
foreign-language video tape or LD or Video-CD or other medium,
onto which subtitles (superimposed text translations of the
dialog, written text, or song lyrics) were applied, based on a
script that has been translated (with varying degrees of
accuracy) by fans (read: non-professionals) for the purpose of
making a film available to fans before any commercial effort to
release that feature in their country is underway. Context: fans
of popular anime are often impatient with the delays between the
Japanese release of their favorite titles and the commercial
release.) We would highly recommend that you do not
use or distribute fan-subtitled versions of this or any other
Studio Ghibli film scheduled for release by Disney, Miramax, or
Buena Vista Home Entertainment. This is because every fansub that replaces
the purchase of a legally produced copy of these films: Therefore, all we will tell you is that we
have heard of a fan script that might be available from Karinkuru
Anime, anime fan subtitlers. We are not associated with them, and
neither control nor guarantee the accuracy of their translation.
We will not tell you how to find them or how to get the script or
a fan-subtitled tape from them. Please do not e-mail us with requests for
the fansub of this or any other Studio Ghibli film. We don't make
them. We will not give you one. We will only recommend that you
read FAQ pages like this one, and be patient for the official
releases.
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The story of the movie "Mononoke
Hime" is completely different from that in the picturebook.
Mononoke Hime is a girl who was raised by Mononoke, not who
marries one. There is a new character, Ashitaka, as the hero. In
fact, Miyazaki even wanted to change the title to "Ashitaka
Sekki (The Tale of Ashitaka)".
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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."
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