REVIEW: ‘Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent’ Stumbles To Reach Its End

Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent, produced by EOTA and Studio Kafka, sees the mysterious Medicine Seller (Hiroshi Kamiya, The Yakuza’s Guide to Babysitting) return to the Ooku once more. But while joy should be ringing through the halls with the birth of an imperial heir, a vengeful Mononoke has begun to stalk the passageways, looking to devour more than the celebration’s joy.

There is an inherent danger in sequels, especially when they are in a series known for bold visuals and epic moments. The need to push things to bigger, grander scales can become a burden a story’s framework cannot hold, leading a narrative to collapse under its own weight. This is the fate of Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent. While it deepens the lore and world of the Ooku to previously unreached depths, it does so at the cost of structure and clarity. 

As in previous entries in the series, much of this film is formed around the new Mononoke’s efforts to stalk the halls of the Ooku, looking for its victims as the Medicine Seller seeks the key elements of its existence so he may draw his divine Blade and slay the monster.

Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III doesn’t hit the same levels as its predecessors.

Despite this setup being thoroughly familiar at this point, Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III still executes the cat-and-mouse of the monster’s hunting with enough skill to make it compelling. The moments that see the monster close in on its prey are tense, and the attacks themselves are frantic and complex, delivering a captivating payoff to each sequence, whether a victim is secured or not 

Interspersed with Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent, danger is the unraveling of a new secret at the heart of the Ooku. The mystery in this entry goes deeper than prior installments, plunging into the very heart of the place’s existence. For most of the film, this narrative exploration builds and weaves a complex tapestry of plot beats that draws the viewer in for an epic reveal. However, it tragically overreaches in its final act. 

As the divine sword is drawn and the Medicine Seller is once more transformed to defeat his newest foe, the film resorts to making the tragic error of turning the final confrontation into an underwhelming clash in the favor of a surprise reveal of “one more thing.” That there is something else to deal with beyond the initial threat ruins the film’s momentum in a number of ways.

The mystery in this installment is more intricate, but overextends itself by the end.

Not only does it completely ruin the payoff for the threat built over the previous two hours of film, but it also forces a speed run of the divine sword’s mechanism for use. The process of determining a mononoke’s form, truth, and reason to unleash the blade always takes significant effort. Here it takes less than a minute. This only adds to the damage done to Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent’s ending.

While the narrative comes apart in the end, the emotional core of the story stays strong without fail. At its heart, the film centers on mothers’ love for their children, and what they will do for them. Always a powerful concept, the film drives home the love, fear, joy, and pain this deep bond can bring as tragedy and danger threaten to swallow the Ooku whole. We see mistakes made, costs paid, and devotion rewarded as the situation spirals out of control. 

Despite the film’s struggles, its emotional core resounds strongly.

Much like the scope of its narrative, Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent’s visual presentation also lose its way at times. Even at its calmest, the art style the franchise is known for could be described as overwhelming. But here, the intricate patterns and layers of symmetric shapes and symbols at times truly run amok. There is so much color and shapes flying around at times that it is easy to truly lose one’s bearings within the hectic design of the ostentatious setting.

Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent ends up overplaying its hand in a number of key ways. By overloading both its finale and its already strained visual design, the film tries too hard to be grander than its predecessors. Despite sometimes overreaching, it still delivers an emotional tale that firmly touches the heart.

Mononoke The Movie: Chapter III – The Curse Of The Serpent is streaming now, exclusively on Netflix.

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