‘Mononoke Chapter II – The Ashes of Rage’ Ending Explained

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The enigmatic Medicine Seller returns in ‘Mononoke’ Chapter II, once again to the ornate chambers of the Ōoku, where politics, desire, and spirits intertwine. The film shifts its lens to the power struggles among the Shōgun’s concubines, each scheming for influence and a place in the ruler’s bed.

Court Politics and Lady Fuki’s Rise

With the former head of the Ōoku dead, Botan Otomo is appointed as her successor. To curb favoritism, Botan enforces a new rule: the Shōgun’s nightly visits will rotate among the women, ensuring no one monopolizes his attention. She justifies this by claiming it will improve the chances of producing a fertile heir.

The decision enrages Lady Fuki, a proud, ambitious beauty from a humble merchant background, who had been enjoying the Shōgun’s repeated summons. Her advantage is stripped away, but fortune soon smiles on her: she becomes pregnant. If she carries a son, he could be the next heir.

But palace intrigue is merciless. Influential courtiers, fearing Fuki’s rise, pressure the Ōoku’s doctor to administer an abortive medicine to Lady Fuki.

A Mononoke Awakens

Before the plot can unfold, terror strikes. A vengeful Mononoke manifests, killing its first victims in bursts of fire. The Medicine Seller, armed with his enchanted dragon blade, begins his investigation. If you remember, he needs to know the ‘truth’ about the spirits nature to be able to subdue it.

The spirit’s fiery nature leads him to the tale of Lady Suzu, a concubine from two decades past, who is known to some as the ‘ghost of the grand chamber’. Suzu had perished in a blaze while pregnant with the Shōgun’s child. At first, the Medicine Seller suspects she was murdered to prevent her child from inheriting the crown. Both he and Lady Fuki condemn the palace’s cruel system, where women deemed “unfit” to bear heirs are forced into abortions.

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The revelation is darker still. Lady Suzu was not killed; she chose to abort her pregnancy after being warned her child would destabilize the royal family, by her own father. However, she isn’t able to live with her action. Consumed by guilt and grief, she transformed into a Mononoke, a spirit of regret, endlessly bound to the Ōoku. Her violent haunting is not mere vengeance; it is also an attempt to protect Lady Fuki from suffering the same fate.

The Medicine Seller confronts Suzu’s Mononoke, unveiling the truth behind her torment. In the process, Lady Botan’s father, the mastermind behind Fuki’s intended abortion, is also killed.

In the end, the Medicine Seller exorcises Suzu’s anguished spirit, releasing her from regret. Lady Fuki, unlike Suzu, keeps her child, breaking free from the cycle of forced loss. The Ōoku survives, scarred but changed, while the Medicine Seller departs, his duty complete until the next Mononoke stirs.

Watch the ‘Mononoke’ movies on Netflix.

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