Politics, motherhood, loss, and pure horror. These are just some of the themes explored in the newest installation in the Mononoke film project “Ashes of Rage”.
The movie was released exclusively on Netflix in the United States on Aug 14 after being originally released in Japan on March 14.
The Mononoke films are originally spin offs from the 12-episode horror show by the same name from 2007, Which was originally a spin off from yet another horror series “Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales”.
All of these spin offs and evolutions combine to create a beautiful, horrific movie chock full of symbolism, mythology, and vision. The animation is absolutely gorgeous, the voice actors are incredibly talented, and the plot is complex and mind bending.
The plot of the movie follows a medicine seller/exorcist in the late Edo period of Japan. The medicine Seller returns to a palace built for the concubines of the emperor after another spirit threatens the lives of those that live there.
Inside the palace, multiple powerful forces wrestle to gain control and the emperor’s favor, this gives the movie another side plot that often intertwines with the mission of the medicine seller.
The films were animated by Twin Engine EOTA, who also animated the hit 2019 anime “Vinland Saga”. Although they were both animated by the same studio, the Mononoke movies have a unique form that utilizes chaos to catch the eye, the settings are a beautiful blend of shapes and colors and even the side characters feel unique.
There isn’t really anything you can say to properly describe how beautiful this movie is.
The voice cast is very expressive, bringing the characters to life. There are some heavy hitters in the cast as well such as Hiroshi Kamiya, as the medicine seller in both movies. He has also played characters in several famous projects such as Trafalgar Law in “One Piece” and Levi Ackerman in “Attack on Titan”.
Now my one criticism of this movie is that sometimes, although the animation is beautiful, it can make the story hard to follow. The chaos gives the movie a lot of personality, but it’s still chaos, and chaos is often confusing.
Despite this, “Ashes of Rage” is still one of the best movies that I’ve seen in a good long while and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for an interesting Jinji Ito-like story.
