Nada Amin

Stephanie Kim

Xenia Lardas

21M.284 Spring 2008

Princess Mononoke Segmentation

#	Start Time	Description	Duration

1	0:00:00	The Legend of Ashitaka

Narrator off-camera.  View of mountains in clouds transitions downwards
to forest.  Narrator stops (0:00:37). Main Title (0:0069).  Ashitaka
riding Yakul discusses danger with girls met on the road. The melody,
played by strings, gives feelings of adventure and solemnity.	0:01:39

2	0:02:59	The Demon God

The demon god appears and heads towards the village.  Ashitaka pursues
and kills him, though he is cursed with an evil wound. Music starts with
distant clapping drums, followed by stringent strings. Then, a fast,
Indian-like, drum beat is sustained, while strings, keyboards and
trumpets, play menacing, sometimes rhythmic, tunes in counterpoint. 
0:03:48

3	0:10:01	The Journey to the West

Music starts when Ashitaka cuts his ponytail during his meeting with the
wise woman and men.  Ashitaka journeys to the West. Music stops when he
reaches a village. New theme.	0:02:33

4	0:13:19	The Demon Power

Ashitaka tries to prevent a massacre in the village.  His wound controls
his hand as he shoots his arrows. Menacing trumpets and rhythmic
strings.	0:00:34

5	0:15:40	The Land of the Impure

Ashitaka and Jiko, the man who defended him when he bought rice, runs
from the villagers, settle in a devastated region, have dinner and chat.
 Ashitaka leaves. Music starts with pizzicato strings, and then mixes
new motifs with the theme from The Journey to the West.	0:03:00

6	00:21:00	The Encounter

Ashitaka sees Princess Mononoke in the forest.  Her face is bloody from
the wound of the mother wolf. Music starts with voices (singing
“ah”) and keyboard, and then moves to instrumental variations on the
theme from the Journey to the West.	0:00:50

7	00:22:30	Kodamas

Ashitaka just rescues two survivors from the wolf attack.  Music starts
when Kodama forest spirits appear. Music starts with sustained clicking
and beating. The instruments play pizzicato, with a brief final
acceleration.	0:02:27

8	00:25:00	The Forest of the Gods

Ashitaka and the survivors arrive at this beautiful lake in the middle
of the forest.Slowly extended strings.	0:00:39

9	00:31:39	Evening at the Ironworks

Ashitaka and the survivors arrive at the Ironworks.  Music starts in a
sequence showing life in the village. Sustained bass & new theme.
0:00:39

10	0:33:39	The Demon God II – The Lost Mountains

Ashitaka is dining with the men of the Ironworks.  Music is present
during the two flashback sequences narrating the fight against the
boars. Rhythmic strings and menacing melody.	0:00:57

11	00:36:50	Lady Eboshi

Lady Eboshi shows Ashitaka the private garden and the hut where the
lepers build weapons. Music starts with a walking bass and sustained
extended strings, then transforms into the theme from the Journey to the
West, returns to sustained strings, and ends with the theme from Legend
of Ashitaka.	0:02:48

12	0:40:35	The Tatara Women Work Song

Ashitaka visits the working women and experiences their difficult job.
Japanese song for solo and chorus (all women).	0:01:27

13	0:44:24	The Furies

San stands up and reveals herself to the waiting gunmen.  A horn fanfare
is heard as a declaration of war between the two parties.  A snare drum
pattern is like a march to battle.  Music shows her running towards Lady
Eboshi until she lands on the ground and gets shot in the face.  The
gunshot ends the segment.	0:01:26

14	0:46:48	The Young Man From the East

Ashitaka has had enough of the fighting between San and Lady Eboshi. 
Energy flows from his body as the strength of his curse is summoned and
gives him resolute power that is inhuman and almost evil.  Starts with
Ashitaka’s theme and goes into a newly developed variation in a
different key when his curse is revealed to the crowd.  Only
orchestrated with strings, this is a highly dramatic part.  Ends with
him stunning both women with the butts of their weapons.	0:01:19

15	0:49:25	Requiem

Ashitaka, mortally wounded and carrying San, leaves the Ironworks,
summoning his cursed strength to open the gate.  The Requiem is sad and
dark and leaves a lot of mystery.  It is difficult to tell what is to
happen yet, as the music doesn’t move the plot along, but instead
provides background to what Ashitaka is doing.  Simple intervals and
stepwise motion in the soundtrack add to the pensive mood.  The music
takes us into the forest.  Segment ends when he falls off Yakul and hits
the ground.	0:02:01

16	0:52:12	Will to Live

San takes Ashitaka’s blade and prepares to finish him off.  A light,
celeste-like instrument starts the theme and is taken over by reed
instruments.  Their theme song introduces their relationship with each
other as she cannot bring herself to kill him.	0:00:27

17	0:55:04	San and Ashitaka in the Forest of the Gods

San treks through the forest leading a wounded Ashitaka to a sacred
island.  The Kodama show up and follow them around.  The Forest theme is
mystical, quiet, and mysterious.  It echoes over a blanket of high
string tremolos, with low interjections by the bassoons adding to the
mysteriousness of it all.  It transitions into a new theme for Ashitaka
and San with reed instruments, the introduction of the Princess Mononoke
Theme Song, as San takes care of Ashitaka.	0:01:33

18	0:57:25	The Forest of the Gods

More forest music as the Kodama reach the top of the trees to watch the
Night Walker transform back into the deer-god.  Jiko and his bounty
hunters meanwhile watch from cover.  Odd instruments add to the oddity
of the scene.  Cue ends when the Night-Walker starts to disappear and a
huge wind blows through the forest, covering all other sounds.	0:01:57

19	1:0:45	The Battle Drums

Jiko and the bounty hunters see Okkoto and the boar tribe on the move. 
Only percussion provides a soundtrack to this scene, emphasizing the
impending battle.  Segment ends when Okkoto squeals and his tribe
answers him; their cries echo through the forest.	0:00:46

20	1:02:54	Requiem

Ashitaka, after waking up to see his wound healed, starts when he
realizes that the curse on his arm remains.  Dissonances in the chords
add reflect his confusion of the situation.  This segment is short and
subtle and quickly disappears as the next one begins.	0:00:02

21	1:03:06	San comes to check on Ashitaka and shares with him her
conversation with Yakul and her commitment to help him.  Their tender
theme comes out as she feeds him and their connection grows.	0:01:28

22	1:07:06	Requiem

Ashitaka shows the boar and wolf tribes his cursed hand.  Okkoto comes
to inspect the curse.  Everyone is discouraged by hopelessness of the
situation.  Okkoto resolves to die fighting to the end.	0:02:55

23	1:15:15	Theme Song introduction

Lady Eboshi warns her women to keep their guard against the men of the
Ironworks.  Transitions directly into next segment.	0:00:34

24	1:57:49	Princess Mononoke Theme Song

Non-diegetic vocal music in Japanese.  Ashitaka wakes up to find San has
taken him to a cave to rest.  The song is sung as he runs into the wolf
standing guard.  The song starts over, but this time is in the
background.  Ashitaka fights for San’s fate.  The song fades away to
an end when their conversation ends.  The song served as an effective
connecting agent between both scenes, showing the two different worlds
are connected.	0:02:58

25	1:21:48	The Battle Drums

Percussion; absence of tune.  Makes it seem like diegetic sounds coming
from the ironworks.  Rhythms become more intense and sound like a march
as the boars head to battle.	0:02:37

26	1:25:37	The Battle in Front of the Ironworks

Ashitaka sees that the Ironworks is under siege heads to aid them. 
Dissonant short notes from the strings suggest incoming trouble, and the
interjecting bass notes confirm it.  The music picks up pace as Ashitaka
fends off attack as he fights his wait to the Ironworks.  Stepwise
chromatic motion adds suspense.  Segment ends when Toki yells out to
greet him from the fortress.	0:01:10

27	1:28:07	The Demon Power

Ashitaka rides to find Lady Eboshi and fends off the opposing forces. 
Characteristic dissonant arpeggio identifies this as the demon theme. 
The music is unpredictable in both notes and rhythms, with timpani and
celli creating an ominous mood and violins with tremolo add tension and
urgency to the action.  Yakul is wounded and Ashitaka uses the strengths
of his curse to dispatch the warriors.	0:02:19

28	1:29.01	Requiem III

Begins as one of the shell-shocked men of the Ironworks describes the
battle, the trap set for the boars and the betrayal set for the force. 
As he talks, the image fades into a montage from the battle, while the
mournful music plays over the cut, rich and serene in stark contrast to
the scenes being shown. The music tapers and stops as Ashitaka’s face
fades in ending the montage.	0:00:46

29	1:32:21	The Retreat

Begins slightly after the scene cuts to San guiding Okkoto through the
woods to the realm of the Forest Spirit.  Low and mournful at first, it
simultaneously reflects the ominous atmosphere and the sorrow for the
inevitable change heading this way.  Horns introduce and element of the
hunt, introducing an obvious element of danger right before a gunshot
sounds.  The scene continues to show disharmony as the music rises and
descends dramatically and all the creatures of the forest flee.  The
camera fixes and zooms in on a warrior disguised as a boar as the
strings reach their highest point, and the cue ends suddenly.	0:01:15

30	1:36:20	Restatement/adaptation of “Demon God II—Lost Mountains”

This cue begins as Ashitaka learns San is in danger and runs to help
her.  Lord Okkoto is amidst transformation into a demon and entangling
San in the process. The music is punctuated, with very high strings
suspended above the punctuations (almost a perversion of the ethereal
strings in the Forest Spirit’s music).  The music changes to a more
running sound with a militant beat, with the POWER sound coming in as
Ashitaka and the wolf brother run to help San.  The music stops at
1:37.29, as San stumbles across Lady Eboshi, but there are punctuating
sounds afterwards that could either be drums of gunshot.	0:01:09

31	1:39:54	Demon God III

Begins after the demon lord Okkoto screams/squeals at Ashitaka when he
begs Okoto to let San free.  The tense, suspended sound builds, and then
a forward-moving, militant sound introduces and becomes the underpinning
for a twist on a section from “The Legend of Ashitaka.”  Ashitaka
tries to pull San out from Okkoto’s grip and the cue fades as he’s
flung away unsuccessfully into the water.	0:01:01

32	1:42:59	Adagio of Life and Death

Characterized by high strings, but not quite those of the forest
realm—these are gentle, sweet, lots of suspension and growth—which
trades off with low, brassy, reedy sounds.  It begins after the Forest
Spirit is shot, briefly begins to sink into the water he was walking on,
and then recovers.  The Forest Spirit heads towards demon Okkoto and
San’s mother, Ashitaka pulls San out of the demon mess and begs her
not to die.  The Forest Spirit takes the demon god and San’s
mother’s lives, and the devious monk wonders why.  At 1:44.21, as the
camera shows the moon—the sign that the Forest Spirit is
vulnerable—all the lower parts cut out briefly, leaving the high
strings suspended, alone.  At Lady Eboshi’s “How to kill a god”
speech,  the “demon music” is hinted at, while the high strings
remain suspended over it.  The Forest Spirit begins its change, and at
1:45.05 the music stops as Ashitaka’s blade hits Lady Eboshi’s gun
in an attempt to thwart her from shooting.	0:02:06

33	1:45:59	The World of the Dead

Starts as the blackness that came forth from the Forest Spirit’s
decapitated body begins to spread.   The scene is full of scary scenes
(the forest dying, Kodamas falling in massive quantities to the ground,
etc) and scary sounds (terrifying wordless voices, sliding glissandos,
electronic sounds, all running upwards and never settling).  In between
shots of the forest turning into an ugly, violent, dying place, San’s
mother’s decapitated head bites Lady Eboshi’s arm off as she and her
troupe truck away the head of the forest spirit.  The music, full of
powerful chords, suddenly cuts out at 1:47.23 as San and Ashitaka jump
underwater to run away.	0:01:24

34	1:48:36	The World of the Dead II

Begins as Ashitaka falls into San’s arms.  The sweet, gentle sounds
begin the cue, in ironic contrast to the destruction that initiated it
and the montage of scenes from the dying forest playing underneath. 
Crescendoing horns build and lead into the previous world of the dead
theme as Ashitaka and San decide nothing’s over yet, and they can
still try to remediate the situation.  Lots of scenes of fleeing
accompany the harsh music, and suddenly at the climax, the cue ends and
there’s complete silence (shocking contrast).	0:01:27

35	1:52:15	Shortened restatement of the World of the Dead

Comes in—this time with hints of other themes intertwined as well, and
without the wordless voices—as the Forest Spirit comes towards the
Ironworks and the people flee.  It continues over to a clip of Ashitaka
and San riding, and to another of the men carrying the Forest Spirit’s
head, and the music stops directly after Ashitaka demands of those
fleeing to “STOP RIGHT THERE!”	0:01:14

36	1:55:04	Adagio of Life and Death II

Begins as they open the box with the Forest Spirit’s head in it, and
Ashitaka offers it to the headless body.  The music climaxes as we see a
distant shot of the mass of the Forest Spirit’s body and it appears to
come towards the camera (which is from Ashitaka and San’s point of
view), closer and larger.  The music builds, and at 1:55.58 ends as the
Forest Spirit encompasses those offering his head.	0:00:54

37	1:57:31	Ashitaka and San

Starts as the people of the Ironworks realize that the Forest Spirit
made the flowers grow.  The theme—initially played on the piano and
later by various groups of instruments—is a broadening and growing
theme, and plays throughout this concluding scene as each party of
characters wraps up their storyline.  The townsfolk realize they need
nature, a love theme plays as San and Ashitaka decide their future
together (but apart!), Lady Eboshi is grateful to those she had seen as
enemies, the monk moves on with his life, and the forest shows signs of
rebirth, and the cue ends as one of the Kodamas makes his clicking
noise.	0:02:59

38	2:00:35	Princess Mononoke Theme Song/End Credits	0:02:10

39	2:02:45	Legend of Ashitaka Theme/End Credits	To end