Hayao Miyazaki’sfilms are brimming with fantastical creatures, lush natural landscapes, and sweeping journeys, but their heart lies in something far simpler and far more human: the belief that life, no matter how cruel or broken, is still worth living. This sentiment, subtle and often unspoken, quietly anchors even his most grandiose works. And nowhere is it captured more perfectly than in a single line fromPrincess Mononoke, spoken not by a main character, but by one of Lady Eboshi’s lepers.
“The world is cursed, but still, you find reasons to keep living.”
It is an easy line to miss amid the film’s epic clash of gods and men. Yet this quiet utterance encapsulates the emotional and thematic core of Miyazaki’s decades-long career. This statement does not offer comfort through denial.It recognizes the pain and injustice of the world, and yet insists that there is still meaning to be found.It is not just a line of dialogue, it is a worldview. FromNausicaä of the Valley of the WindtoThe Wind Rises, this paradox of beauty amidst decay and hope amidst despair repeats again and again, shaping everything Miyazaki creates.
Princess Mononoke Shows a World That is Broken, But Not Beyond Redemption
At the heart of Miyazaki’s filmography is the idea that the world is fundamentally flawed, polluted, war-torn, and corrupted by greed, yet it is still something worth fighting for.Princess Mononokeis perhaps his most overtly political film, openly grappling with environmental collapse and violent conflict.But it never gives in to hopelessness. Instead, Miyazaki offers a delicate balance, where humanity causes great harm, but it can also heal. Ashitaka, the film’s protagonist, embodies this tension as he seeks understanding between two violently opposing sides.
Lady Eboshi herself is one of Miyazaki’s most complex characters. She leads the charge against the gods of the forest, and yet she also rescues lepers, empowers all kinds of workers, and builds a new kind of community. This complexity and this refusal to reduce people to simple heroes or villains is essential to Miyazaki’s vision. The world is cursed, yes, but even those participating in its destruction carry within them the potential for compassion. InPrincess Mononoke, as in life, the good and the bad are inseparably intertwined.
This recurring moral ambiguity shows up in film after film. InNausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Nausicaä lives in a poisoned world overrun by toxic jungles and giant insects. But even here, Miyazaki reveals an ecological balance beneath the devastation. Nausicaä learns that the jungle is not simply a threat, it is a system trying to cleanse the earth. The world is trying to heal, even if the scars remain. Again, the curse is real, but so is the hope.
Miyazaki Creates Characters Who Persevere in the Face of Cruelty
Endurance Is the Quietest Form of Resistance in Miyazaki’s Works
Miyazaki’s protagonists are rarely invincible. They are often young, vulnerable, and caught in circumstances beyond their control. Yet they endure, not because they are blind to pain, but because they choose to move forward anyway. This is what gives his films such emotional power: his characters carry the full weight of sorrow, and still choose to live. The leper’s quote inPrincess Mononokeis not merely a commentary on the film’s world, it is a quiet act of bravery, a testament to survival with dignity.
InSpirited Away, Chihiro is thrust into a magical world ruled by spirits and capricious gods. Her parents are transformed into pigs, and she must navigate an often cruel and bewildering environment. But she adapts. She works. She shows kindness where others show selfishness. She never escapes the strangeness of the spirit world, but she finds ways to make it bearable. Chihiro does not “win”, she learns how to live in a place that doesn’t always make sense. That, too, is a form of resistance.
This theme, that adversity can be transformative, not just destructive, is a throughline across Miyazaki’s work.
Similarly, inHowl’s Moving Castle, Sophie is cursed and turned into an old woman. She loses her youth and physical freedom, but not her sense of purpose. Rather than succumb to despair, she discovers inner strength she never knew she had. Her curse becomes a kind of liberation. This theme, that adversity can be transformative, not just destructive, is a throughline across Miyazaki’s work. The world may be cursed, but his characters don’t simply endure it; they find ways to transcend it.
EvenThe Wind Rises, one of Miyazaki’s most somber films, reflects this mindset. The story of Jiro Horikoshi, the engineer who designed fighter planes used in World War II, is told with deep ambivalence. Jiro creates beauty in the form of flight, yet that beauty is co-opted for destruction. Still, Miyazaki does not judge him harshly. Instead, he portrays Jiro as a dreamer caught in a tragic time. “The wind is rising,” the film concludes. “We must try to live.” It is, once again, the same idea that the world is flawed, but people keep going.
Beauty, Grief, and the Need to Carry On Shown Through Princess Mononoke
Miyazaki Masterfully Shows the Bittersweet Harmony of Joy and Loss
An image from My Neighbor Totoro. Two children and Totoro on a grassy hill.
For Miyazaki, nature is both a source of inspiration and a symbol of the world’s contradictions. Forests teem with magic and wonder, but they’re also threatened by humanity’s ambition. Towns and machines possess their own quiet grace, yet they often signal encroaching doom. What unites these elements is not perfection, but the tension between creation and destruction.Even in his most tragic narratives, Miyazaki insists that there is something beautiful left to protect.
InMy Neighbor Totoro, the world is not at war, and no great evil threatens the land. And yet, the story’s emotional weight comes from the quiet fear that hovers over Satsuki and Mei’s lives, their mother is gravely ill, and they do not know if she will recover. The girls turn to wonder, to play, to the joy of meeting forest spirits like Totoro, not to escape their reality, but to survive it. This gentle film shows how imagination and love can coexist with sadness, especially for children trying to understand mortality.
Grief and loss are also central toPonyo,a film that at first glance seems like a vibrant reimagining ofThe Little Mermaid. But beneath its whimsy lies a sense of emotional urgency. Sosuke’s mother, Lisa, is a fiercely independent woman raising her son during his father’s long absences. The sea becomes a site of both magic and danger, and the story subtly explores the anxieties of a family weathering change and uncertainty. Yet again, the world feels unstable, even frightening, but it also inspires awe. The characters do not deny the darkness, they move through it together.
This insistence on life’s worth, despite, or perhaps because of, its hardships, mirrors the leper’s line inPrincess Mononokeperfectly. The world is cursed. It may never be fully healed. But there are still small joys, quiet acts of care, and moments of connection that make it worthwhile. For Miyazaki, to live with open eyes is a radical act of hope.
Miyazaki’s Quiet Thoughts on the Human Spirit
Why Fans Return to Miyazaki’s Films, Again and Again
Miyazaki has never been didactic in the way he tells stories. His films do not end with easy answers or grand resolutions. Instead, they leave viewers with a feeling that is sometimes melancholy, sometimes bittersweet, and always deeply human. He understands that no single story can fix the world’s problems. But he also understands that stories can help us endure them.That’s why the line inPrincess Mononokeresonates so powerfully.It speaks not just to the characters on screen, but to the audience beyond it.
Over the course of his career, Miyazaki has created worlds full of complexity, contradiction, and beauty. He has shown fans that innocence can survive even in the most difficult times, that kindness matters even when it goes unnoticed, and that the world, no matter how cursed, is still humans' to care for. His films do not ask people to be perfect; they ask them to try. That is what makes the movies endure.
In the end, “The world is cursed, but still, you find reasons to keep living,” is more than a line; it is a quiet worldview. It is the reason Chihiro keeps walking, the reason Sophie finds her courage, the reason Ashitaka chooses to see with “eyes unclouded.” It is the reason fans, too, return toHayao Miyazaki’sfilms time and time again, not to escape the world, but to remember how to live in it.
Hayao Miyazaki
Discover the latest news and filmography for Hayao Miyazaki, known for Spirited Away and My Neighbor Totoro.
Princess Mononoke
Cast
In this epic animated fantasy by Hayao Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke explores the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who consume its resources. The story follows Ashitaka, a young warrior inflicted with a deadly curse, as he navigates a battle that pits the industrialized human society against the gods of the forest, alongside San, a fierce girl raised by wolves.
