fter centuries of isolation, the Emishi tribe is weak and thin-blooded.
Their line is dying out. When a demon suddenly sweeps out of their
woods, destroying everything in its path, only the young prince Ashitaka
(Crudup) is quick and strong enough to face it. He kills the creature, but
it grabs his arm, leaving a malignant scar.
Dying, the demon becomes a titanic boar that curses Ashitaka's people.
The village wise woman finds a crude iron ball embedded in the ribs of the boar's corpse, and she suggests it caused the agony, fear and hatred that turned the animal
into a demon. Then she pronounces Ashitaka dead to the clan and sends him out
alone, suggesting that if he finds the source of the boar and the ball, he
might find a cure for his cursed wound. If he doesn't, the mark will
spread, eat into his flesh and bone, and finally kill him.
Rumor, perseverance and luck eventually lead Ashitaka to a distant
forest where giant beast-gods--called "mononoke"--are at war with a human
enclave that is expanding and killing their woods. Once, Irontown mined its
ore from the sand around the neighboring lake. Now, with that source
exhausted, it sends its men to cut down trees and tear up the mountains.
Beset by angry gods on one side and a greedy feudal lord on the other,
Irontown would likely have been destroyed if not for the intervention of
the arrogant, ruthless Lady Eboshi (Driver). Irontown's inhabitants all but
worship Eboshi, who rules them with the same courage and ambition--and the
cadre of hired gunmen--that saved them.
Ashitaka is furious when he realizes how Eboshi's actions have made
people and spirits alike suffer and die. But he also sees that Irontown is
a cheerful, lively, contented place, where Eboshi provides safe homes and
useful, dignified lives to society's outcasts. Unable to fully support
either the mononoke or their human tormentors, he pleads for peaceful
coexistence on all sides. But Eboshi is being manipulated by a wily monk
(Thornton) with a hidden agenda, and she has made a deadly enemy of the
wolf-goddess Moro (Anderson) and her adopted human daughter San (Danes).
None of the players in this drama seems likely to back down until all the
others are dead.
This ain't a Disney film
Hayao Miyazaki has often been called "the Walt Disney of Japan," less
because his works resemble Disney's in any way than because the U.S. has
only one universally known animator to use as a yardstick. Certainly the
sophisticated, adult Mononoke, with its complex sociopolitics,
insoluble problems, graphic violence, and somber ending does not resemble
anything Disney the man or Disney the studio ever produced. But it also
doesn't much resemble any of Miyazaki's other works. Joy and innocence have
long been the distinguishing marks of Miyazaki's characters and of his deft,
beautiful stories. There's little of either in this harsh allegory. It's
not surprising Disney chose to shunt this release over to Miramax, whose
name isn't synonymous with "child-safe."
Despite its grimness, Mononoke is an extravagantly gorgeous and
well-characterized movie. Miyazaki gives both sides of the conflict their
due--the natural world is depicted in fantastic detail and rich colors,
as Ashitaka passes by wind-dappled ponds and fields of shifting sunbeams,
or gallops through lavishly painted greenery. Irontown, while visually
plainer, is shown as a warm nest full of enough love, hope, bravery, humor
and loyalty to overpower its moments of greed and ignorance. Both places
are beautiful, but neither is wholly good or wholly right. Ashitaka,
despite his youth, clearly knows this. His unswerving determination and
too-complete understanding make him at once sadder and more evocative to
watch than Miyazaki's usual blithe, good-hearted child-warriors.
Miramax's English dub of this 1997 Japanese film is reasonably good, though it has its rocky spots.
Neil Gaiman's translation can be a bit too dry at times, losing personal
interaction in order to add cultural and religious exposition. The casting
is also slightly off--Thornton is too twangy, and Driver hasn't
stopped doing Jane from Tarzan. Anderson is a particularly odd
choice for a role played by a man in the original. But Crudup is perfect as
the quiet Ashitaka, the heart of the film. And anyway, it doesn't matter
terribly. By Mononoke's end, the characters are nearly lost in the
film's epic themes and preternatural beauty. Viewers probably will be as
well.
Mononoke's biggest fault as a film is its preachiness--Miyazaki covered these environmental themes more subtly in Nausicaa of
the Valley of the Wind, and with more humor and focus in his studio
Ghibli's Pon Poko. Mononoke is comparatively stiff, though
visually and thematically more sophisticated.
-- Tasha
ince the beginning of time mankind has existed between the world of
light and the world of darkness. This journal chronicles the work of our
secret society, known as The Legacy, created to protect the innocent from
those creatures that inhabit the night.
Derek Rayne (de Lint) is having terrible nightmares and visions of killing his father.
One of his visions is based on what happened when he first
met Rachel Corrigan (Shaver) in Ireland. It shows him a terrified Rachel and Kat as they are
nearly destroyed after evil has been released from one of the five
sepulchers.
Derek wakes to discover that something has torn through the Legacy
library. Then transcription of the Testament
of Golgotha he has been working on erupts in flames. The other Legacy members
try to help Derek,
but he sends them away. As Nick Boyle (Cummins) and Alexandra Moreau (Chong)
try to research the
Testament anyway, their computer system is destroyed. However, they manage to
discover that the book is an ancient text
which explains the steps that must be taken to stop the coming of the
Antichrist.
Derek is determined to finish the translation. He explains to the team
that if he doesn't, the forces of hell may be unleashed on humanity.
As Derek struggles to complete his task, evil seems to inhabit every inch of the
Legacy House. And when he finally finishes the translation, he realizes that in order to keep
the portal to hell closed, he may have to destroy everything he cares about. And his
actions may change the Legacy forever.
A fitting finale
"The Beast Within" is the final episode of Poltergeist: The Legacy, a
TV show that has run for four seasons on two different cable networks. Fittingly, the finale
of The Legacy is based on events from the pilot episode, "The Legacy,"
bringing the series full circle.
Poltergeist has always been an uneven endeavor, but the creators have never
hesitated to push the show's characters to the edge. The Legacy members have been through
hell or worse, and several have been killed. But in "The Beast Within"
fans learn that these sacrifices were made for a
reason. Derek tells Rachel, "No matter how many times I smite them, the
forces of evil still keep coming back." Rachel replies, "True. But did you
ever think they feel exactly the same way about you?" It's a perfect note
to end the series on.
This finale also gives The Legacy's characters a chance to say
goodbye to viewers in one way
or another. And beyond that, "The Beast Within" is an episode that's both
satisfying and well done. It leaves fans with the sense that while this chapter in the
Legacy chronicles may be over, others are yet to come. And that's the best
way for a series to conclude.
In fact, most series haven't ended so well. That's one
of the problems with SF TV. When a new show begins, usually either it's canceled right away or
it runs for several years but ends badly (like Forever Knight).
SF fans invest time and energy in their TV shows, and it's a crime when
the characters they've come to know and love aren't treated better. Luckily The Legacy isn't
guilty of such an offense.
Producer Brent-Karl Clackson and his team have done it just right.
Poltergeist: The Legacy comes to a logical and satisfying end. While
fans will no doubt be extremely disappointed by the cancellation of the
show they've loved for four years, they won't be disappointed by the way the
Poltergeist creators have chosen to say goodbye.
-- Kat
ince the beginning of time mankind has existed between the world of light and the world of darkness. This journal chronicles the work of our secret society, known as The Legacy, created to protect the innocent from those creatures that inhabit the night.
fter centuries of isolation, the Emishi tribe is weak and thin-blooded.
Their line is dying out. When a demon suddenly sweeps out of their
woods, destroying everything in its path, only the young prince Ashitaka
(Crudup) is quick and strong enough to face it. He kills the creature, but
it grabs his arm, leaving a malignant scar.
