The Hayao Miyazaki anime film Princess Mononoke will be returning to limited theaters for two nights in early January to celebrate both the director’s birthday as well as the film’s 20th anniversary. The dates are Thursday, January 5th at 7PM and Monday, January 9th at 7PM (local time both dates). The former will be the dubbed version, which features the voices of Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup, Claire Danes, Minnie Driver, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Billy Bob Thornton. The latter will be the original subtitled version. Theaters and showtimes can be found here.
While defending his village from a demonic boar-god, the young warrior Ashitaka becomes afflicted with a curse that grants him super-human power in battle but will eventually take his life. Traveling west to find a cure or meet his destiny, he journeys deep into sacred depths of the Great Forest where he meets San (Princess Mononoke), a girl raised by wolf-gods who is waging battle against the human outpost of Iron Town, on the edge of the forest.
The film was a box office smash in Japan, becoming the highest grossing film of 1997 and it would’ve been the highest grossing film of all time in the country had it not been for James Cameron’s Titanic. The soundtrack to the film was composed by Joe Hisaishi, who frequently collaborates with Miyazaki.
