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Comment by mkaic | Hacker News Reader

Princess Mononoke changed my life. It was the first Ghibli film I saw, and I only saw it for the first time about a year ago (yes, I'm aware I'm rather late to the party). Every preconception I had about how a movie had to be made, or how stories ought to be told, was completely swept away. One of those moments where I can clearly delineate the person I was before watching from the person I was after.

Miyazaki is a master of his craft. I aspire to tell stories like him one day.

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The film had a profound impact on my teenage years as well after watching it late one night on satellite HBO. I had the soundtrack on my pre-iPod Archos and torrented all of Ghibli's other films on 56k dialup.

It kept me involved in learning Japanese and eventually teaching English in Hokkaido. I even tried building a film and video startup contemporaneously with YouTube, but without the skills and VC connections.

I also made a bunch of dumb films with my friends that would embarrass me if I found them today. The memories are good, though.

I bought Miramax's (the US distributor) old marketing website for Princess Mononoke when they let it expire in 2002, and I kept it online (mostly) :

http://www.princess-mononoke.com

This year I find myself building a film-related startup yet again, but now with 15+ years of experience at my back and funds from an IPO exit. Maybe I'll succeed. If I do, I'll have to credit Miyazaki and Mononoke Hime in part for inspiring my journey.

That's awesome, man. Both the conservationist effort (have you talked to the Internet Archive yet?) and the subsequent inspired efforts.

The best art is what inspires others to make art themselves.

Wow - that site so very 90s!

Thank you for preserving it.

I know it makes me sound like a snob, but Ghibli has spoiled me. I don't enjoy Disney animated movies anymore, like at all.

Disney is for little kids. Ghibli is for older kids.

Do we lump Pixar films under the Disney label? Because Pixar has definitely put out some gems for “older kids” (Inside Out comes to mind). Although, to be fair, even those films tend to spell out the exact bits of wisdom they are imparting rather than letting audiences find their own treasure buried in a beautiful story.

I wasn’t a big fan of inside out, I much preferred Coco (which is a masterpiece imo)

Huh interesting, I was the exact opposite, I really liked Inside Out but thought Coco was entertaining/ok but obviously everyone enjoys different things! Have you seen The Book of Life? Came out some years before Coco and had similar themes (not exactly the same).

Apart from the senior people that have been there since the beginning and are still directing (albeit slowing their pace and involvements), I imagine Pixar is virtually indistinguishable from Disney's animation studios.

I think I can say the same, although I first watched it in an artsy downtown theater at a live screening 20+ years ago when it was first released in the US with English dubbing.

>One of those moments where I can clearly delineate the person I was before watching from the person I was after.

I think I know what you mean, for me it was Kill Bill.

Its like something clicked in my head and I have understood what a good movie/story is. And I never just mindlessly watched a movie again.

It’s an extremely traditional story arc, isn’t it?

This is like being presented with eg West Side Story and responding “oh hey but that’s just the same old Romeo and Juliet story isn’t it?”

It really doesn’t matter if you “spoil” most story arcs, because as it turns out, for most stories, it’s not the story arc that matters. On the contrary, if you follow the familiar, recognizable beats and cadences, it gives you a lot more room to experiment and build nuanced meaning, because a lot of the meaning comes pre-established.

An apple is just an apple, until you’ve tried a Gala, and a Honey Crisp, and a Braeburn…they are very different, and you can’t really appreciate that until you've first had some kind of apple.

We are in for the journey.

Is it? I was surprised how complex the heros as well as the antagonists are. One can understand their motivation of all and it has a couple of unpredictable twists.

Compare that to standard Disney movies .. You can guess from the beginning what will happen.

Also watched Mononoke first. My favorites are Naussica and Totoro :) all movies form Miyazaki are amazing and watchable. If you wonder about his skill,check some of the ghibli movies he was not involved in.

So much agree. Naussica and Toroto capture the highest expressions of depth and delight. Though Spirited Away speaks to me more and more...there is a tenderness about the human condition in that film, which becomes a call to courage.

I wouldn't say so. Anticlimax and ambiguity are two of its hallmarks.

in what way? It's one of the rare stories that have no true antagonist, everyone has a point and everyone grows by the end of the film

Like all of Miyazaki’s films?

I don't know, other films (Laputa, Nausicaa, Howl) have more traditional stories with good guys and bad guys

Maybe, but so what?

Kurt Vonnegut wrote about this when he was in graduate school. He noticed, for example, Cinderella and the New Testament have the same story arc.

His advisors rejected the idea for his thesis, but it stuck with him and he wrote about it a few times.

A story arc is just an extremely traditional storyline, isn't it?

I love studio Ghibli movies and Princess Mononoke is the best one I have seen. It is such a powerful, well done movie.

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