Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain

The anime film Mononoke is a masterpiece of animation, which causes a very good suspense and intrigue effect with its unusual animation, which simulates a living painting that tells a beautiful and confusing story, I guarantee that this story deserves a chance for everyone who will watch it, this film is by far bad, and presents itself as a good suspense film that even revealing and giving away a lot, still manages to keep a very restless mystery in the air, causing very genuine joy, even though the animation is sometimes nauseating, it is still very good and greatly attracts the viewer's vision, and becomes, at times, an excellent relief for the eyes.

The story continues with the hunting down of the malevolent mononoke spirits, this time in the Edo Castle of the servant women quarters during the feudal Japanese period. With two young women who have just joined, embroiled in the haunting madness.

What transpires is a hypnotic and surreal animation with strong rainbow pastel colours of psychedelic wonderment. Very dreamlike and nightmarish images that will have you tripping, along with an editing rhythm that is disjointed and askew, just like being in a dream. All this enough to put you under the dangerous spell of the mononoke, where hopefully the Medicine Seller will come and save you...

The visuals are mind-bending and overwhelming in a positive way but the story is deeply intriguing as well, exploring the themes of self preservation and awareness, and the identity of women. My mouth was hanging open for a good ten minutes during the climax of the movie. Superb animation that looks way ahead of its time, like a celebration Japanese art from the year 2080. Worth a second watch to really uncover all the rich visual details including the stylistic references and homage to ukiyo-e paintings, as well as the hidden meanings behind the storyline. It felt like taking a magic carpet ride through a Japanese painting.

Call me superstitious for enjoying the detailed animation of the movie (oh wait, you can't. It's so detailed it's impossible to be counted as vain) but the movie had my heart in a chokehold. They took the very specific aesthetic and storytelling of mononoke and somehow, somehow, not only did they not mess it up, but they also improved upon it!

I can safely say that for me at least, the storyflow of the movie was a lot more comprehensible than the anime. But I also should probably rewatch the anime a few dozen times before I get a right to talk about it like that, so...

now, visual storytelling aside, as for the story itself, I have to say that I loved both the plot and the place it took place in. Even though the idea of a medicine seller and a "women/servants of the emperor" castle is, at this point, nothing new (lookng at you, apothecary diaries, Jewel in the palace, etc) with Mononoke's special touch and more importantly, it's ever present deep message in losing oneself, that is seen in every single 'mononoke' that gets exorcised (be it in the ayakashi horror tales, Mononoke (tv) or this movie) I find the setting to be exactly on point.

Short of it is this: this movie lived up to everything I wanted as a diehard 'Kusuriuri-san no' fan. It had high quality animation, high level of details, a worthy plot for a mononoke mystery, and just enough screentime of the nameless main character that it didn't compromise the story itself.

I'd have to say though, some opinions might be subject to change compared to what will be revealed in the next movie. The ending slapped a cliffhanger on the Medicine Seller's own story in the last 2 minutes and I certainly hope that more will be shown, and it will be shown soon. Or else I might just call that thrill-baiting...

In preparation for watching this film, I also watched the series, itself an offshoot of another anime that I had not seen. Watching the Mononoke series I was left with questions and uncertainties that I felt were due to be resolved in this film, released 15 years after the series was. No such luck.

Instead more questions, more obscure references, a more 3-D animation that felt less impactful than the series and a promise to continue the Mononoke tales in another upcoming movie. In short, I got less from it that I got from the original. That doesn't mean it wasn't an interesting, informative and beautiful animation film, it was just that I would have preferred a second season of the series, with the same attention to detail and less focus on the feature's length. In truth, this should not have been a movie at all.

Bottom line: the stories in this universe are interesting and very Japanese, they make me feel like I begin to understand more of their culture, but I fear the direction the productions are going is not the right one.