劇場版モノノ怪 唐傘
Gekijouban Mononoke Karakasa
AKA Mononoke Movie: Paper Umbrella; AKA Mononoke the Movie: Phantom in the Rain
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DIRECTED BY: Kenji Nakamura
FEATURING: Voices of Tomoyo Kurosawa, Aoi Yûki, Hiroshi Kamiya
PLOT: Two new attendants arrive at Lord Tenshi’s pleasure palace, and a karakasa is poised to infiltrate the world of humans unless it is thwarted by a mysterious medicine man loitering by the castle doorway.
WHY IT MIGHT JOIN THE APOCRYPHA: Psychedelic colors and flourishes permeate the grand castle, nearly overwhelming the eye. Mononoke then finishes the job with its massive bursts of vibrant imagery and unceasing kinetics whenever the demon attempts to slam into our world.
COMMENTS: From start to finish—and this includes the credit sequence wherein we circle around a beautifully detailed temple chamber as the characters whiz by—Kenji Nakamura’s Mononoke grabs and throttles the eyes with a palette both wondrous and classic, as fluid images in Edo style play across a rice-paper surface. The mundane is majestic, the majestic is mysterious, and the mystery unfolds in one of the most intense exhibits of swirls, spirals, whirls, and wonderment I’ve laid my eyes on in quite some time. If, perhaps, ever.
While the visuals hog the screen (as they are wont to do), the story is more than just a backdrop for artistic razzmatazz. Taking place during the Edo period, almost completely within a pleasure palace, intrigue aplenty fuels the adventure. Crammed into under ninety minutes, we follow the daily struggles of two new “recruits,” Asa and Kame; we learn dribs and drabs about conspiracies and power struggles; we take in the hijinks of the gate’s guardian as he alternately attempts to shoo away the medicine man (insisting, often and emphatically, he does “not need a love a potion!”) and relishes his company. The plot threads move forward at a steady clip, interweaving delightfully into an iridescent tapestry of secrets, emotions, and supernatural to-dos, all held less and less in check by the palace’s strict protocols and the overarching devotion to duty.
Beyond the mad flights of demonic fancy, Nakamura’s vision dazzles from moment to moment. In colored geometric form, we see the delicious scent of food; the air and gusts loom blue or brown, as the circumstances demand; and the faces of the innumerable women in the background spiral and shift color. This third touch evokes their ambitions, for they are trained to blend beautifully into the background, standing out only if they have authority or are irredeemably awkward (Kame, I’m looking at you). Scenes end with forcefully slamming ornamental doors. We often see the shifty medicine seller in close-ups of his ever-moving eyes. He knows something bad is coming, and only he has the avian-form scales, sheeves of binding paper, and Sword of Exorcism. (That toothful, piebald little weapon is practically a character in its own right.)
This is nutso, this is fast, and it is a full-frontal assault on the eyes. (I opted to sit in the center of the front-most row. I have no regrets.) You’ve been warned, and I’ll warn you further: you will not want to miss out on this spectacle.
WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:
