Week 4 - Kenrick Chiang

In Hayat Miyazaki's film, Princess Mononoke, it discusses the idea of animism and spirits in a more literal form. Throughout the film we are able to see the conflict between the humans and the forest. This in turn creates demons made of hatred which essentially curses one of the main characters. This curse in turn eventually will kill him while also giving him superhuman strength. Spirits in this film take on a more positive role in the sense that they are the symbol of life and nature. The animals in this film embodies the idea of animism because they have spirits within them that allow them to speak and have emotions. The plants in the film also take on the form of spirits as well because they show how healthy the forest is. In the film, there are little creatures that also represent the forest's health and they play an important symbolic role in the sense that they are the depiction of life.
I myself have seen this film before in the past for an Anthropology class so when I rewatched this film, I never really though about it in a spiritual point of view, but rather an anthropological point of view. We would have to make connections to how the forests and humans were all connected to each other, but when watching this film again, I've noticed much more "behind the scenes" meaning to the spirits and demons of this film.