Actor Yoji Matsuda appeared on stage to greet the audience at the 4K digital remaster IMAX premiere screening of the animated film "Princess Mononoke" (1997, directed by Hayao Miyazaki) held in Tokyo on October 20th. Matsuda, who voiced Ashitaka, revealed an episode from his 28 years of experience, when he saw the trailer and was surprised to see his own voice in it.
Matsuda recalled that at the time, he was told to audition for a new Studio Ghibli film, and when he went to the designated location, "there was no one else there auditioning." He said that when he was told about the role of Ashitaka, he thought the protagonist's lines would be used as a sample for the audition. He didn't hear anything back, and then a trailer was shown at the cinema. Someone who saw it said, "Yoji is amazing! He's going to play the lead role in a new Ghibli film." He rushed to the cinema, heard his own voice in the trailer, and said, "I was surprised because I thought I was going to play the lead role."
When asked what "Princess Mononoke" meant to him, Matsuda said emphatically, "If it weren't for this work, I think I would have had a completely different life as an actor. It is without a doubt the work that had the biggest impact on my life and on my acting career."
Also in attendance at the stage greeting were Yuriko Ishida, who plays San, and Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki.
"Princess Mononoke" tells the story of Ashitaka, a young man cursed by a god, and San, a girl raised by an inugami, who become embroiled in a battle between humans who seek to destroy nature and the gods who protect it. Released in 1997, it grossed 19.3 billion yen, breaking the all-time box office record for a Japanese film at the time of its release. In addition to Matsuda and Ishida, voice actors included Tanaka Yuko, Kobayashi Kaoru, Mori Mitsuko, Miwa Akihiro, and Morishige Hisaya. The film will be released for a limited time in IMAX theaters nationwide from October 24th.
