The Tale of The Princess Kaguya 2013

The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was such a beautiful movie made by Studio Ghibli and directed by Isao Takahata (of Grave of the Fireflies fame) based upon the famous Japanese folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. This is a movie that should truly be considered a "work of art". The classical Japanese art style, which left in sketch lines and seemed to be painted on, took a little getting used to but ended up being spectacular especially with the concluding moon parade sequence. Along with the music and singing, these elements were incredibly immersive and really helped to transport me back to 10th century Japan. The portrayal of all the characters' emotions really stood out to me from the combination of the superb voice acting/singing and vibrant and dynamic art (definitely go with the original Japanese VAs). I could really feel all the pain, suffering and emotions that Kaguya was experiencing throughout the movie. It was just all around top notch work.

The story itself was heart-wrenching (for me at least) and fueled by the emotions of Kaguya. Takahata definitely went with a more somber and emotionally distraught interpretation of this famous tale. As the viewer, you could really feel the love between Kaguya and her parents, but empathize with how they struggled to understand each other at times. At times, I felt so frustrated by Kaguya's father that I just wanted to slap the shit out of him even though he meant the best. I'm also a sucker for happy endings and I definitely got hit by the feels train at the end. That beautifully animated flying sequence when Kaguya and Sutemaru were finally reunited really had me going but then BOOM. And then came "the ending" (I don't want to spoil any of it so you'll just have to watch). I did feel that the story was a little hard to follow and unclear towards the end but this was when we were entering "artistic license" and "rampant symbolism" territory. It was pretty clear that Takahata wanted to leave some things open to the audience's own interpretation.

All in all, an excellent watch and definitely Takahata's best work since Grave of the Fireflies. I recommend watching this with the original Japanese voice actors but the English dub didn't do a bad job either. I hope that Ghibli will continue to take on more eccentric projects like this in the future. I would have definitely loved this movie even more if it had ended on a happier note, but this is how The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter goes. You don't mess with a 1000+ year old classic. Anyway, get out and watch this because you don't come across a piece of "art" like this too often.

This film comes from the Takahata side of Studio Ghibli. The two founders, Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata have very different approaches to character, world building, theme and storytelling (and I am decidedly in the Miyazaki camp). This was to be the last project that Takahata did for Studio Ghibli and to do so he returned to a story that had long held his attention, "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". He began by abandoning the realistic animation style, for which Ghibli had become famous, for for a style he created and named "sketch animation". He wanted His audience to "imagine or recall the reality deep within the drawings", rather than be distracted by a realistic art style. He wanted to have people "recollect the realities of this life by sketching ordinary human qualities with simple props". So, he depended on Osamu Tanabe to provide the "sketch" character designs and used Kazuo Oga's beautiful watercolor backgrounds. I have to confess it took a moment for me to release the one animation style in favour of the other, but the innate freedom of form and the beautiful palette soon won me over. Much of the story is told from the perspective of the Princess or Little Bamboo, as the village children had called her, and her wit and cleverness save her from the plans of others for her life. Although we are well aware of the "otherness" of Little Bamboo, the ending was too abstract for me and it lessened the resolve of the story. As is common to Takahata's films, the simplicity of nature supersedes the false promise of the city and we are left with a longing for Little Bamboo's former existence. For the beauty of the film, the flowing music, the winsome characters and the fully embodied character of the Princess, I give this film a 9 (superb) out of 10. [Animated Feature]

The element of this Takahata's film that strikes first is its ethereal and impressionist aesthetic, made with very few lines of ink and charcoal watercolored frame by frame and inspired directly by the Japanese sumi-e prints of the 14th century, which left white most of the drawing so that it was the imagination of the observer to take over and 'complete' the subject represented. An intent that is masterfully transposed also into animation, making all movements indefinite and rarefied, from the run of a character to his frowning, so that only their more abstract and instinctive perception is caught and to let the imaginationit worry about the fillers, taking advantage of the even more radical challenge of his previous "My Neighbors the Yamadas". Such a minimalist approach that one can doubt of being watching the storyboard of an unfinished film, but everything is so equally amazingly expressive and considered until the smallest details to deliver much more than its bare few ingredients. Also the directing goes from being static and invisible to very evident and hypercinetic when it simulates the filming with a irl shoulder camera in moments of maximum tension, however without ever interrupting the Stendhalian trance that sticks one to the screen. And then the story itself, which perfectly updates the original folktale of the 10th century to contemporary sensitivity, exploring the themes of depression, social anxiety, patriarchal society, trauma and nostalgia for nature (the latter being cardinal theme of all the poetics of Studio Ghibli and in particular in the works of Takahata), and which simultaneously delivers a concise and accessible overview of the Buddhist Japanese culture of the Heian period by resuming the documentary depth of "Pom Poko", the climax of a divulgative mission about the folklore of this people that the author himself carried on throughout his production. Each element of this movie almost forces those who have seen it to talk about it to those who have not seen it, raising their expectations dramatically, however, being sure that they will be satisfied. A film about one can found scientific articles on its realization techniques and that explore its fascinating and quotationist style, just to underline how much could be said about it.

A movie whose production lasted 8 years, (un-)told in the documentary "The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness", on Studio Ghibli and its three pillars: the producer Toshio Suzuki and the directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata. In reality, a testimony of the detachment between the working methods of the latter two, namely the frantic and restless stakanovism of Miyazaki against the elusive calmness and of very dilated times of Takahata, 14 years between one film and the other (Miyazaki completed four film in the meantime) and who appears only at the end of the documentary with the same surprise that one would have in front of a ghost. Detachment that defuses the initial intent to tell the production of the their respective films, "The Wind Rises" and "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya", precisely because the production of the second one is completely firm in one of the innumerable pauses by its author. Just as the plans of Toshio Suzuki is defused to publish the two movies at the same time as it happened 25 years earlier for "My Neighbor Totoro" and "Grave of the Fireflies", to seal an artistic partnership that lasted an entire life. The ghostly aura of Takahata takes his place in the documentary, told by Miyazaki and Suzuki in a mixture of affection and impatience because of his relaxed mood of total disinterest for passing time and deadlines, which is the same one can found in this film, where every scene seems to have enjoyed maniacal attention to detail and expressiveness, as if that method of seraphic and imperturbable work had been imprinted in its design.

The latest movie by Isao Takahata, a genius whose visionary sensitivity we are all orphans but that, after works of enormous value and completely different from each other - just think of the baroque density of details in the drawings of his first films such as "Grave of the Fireflies" or "Only Yesterday" (the latter that remains my favorite of his, for purely personal and irrational reasons) - has left us with this immense artistic inheritance that certifies the importance of watching all his previous works (unfortunately too few), of which indeed it is a perfect entry-point. A masterpiece that remains imprinted in the eyes, indelible.

P.S.: "The Wind Rises" - the Miyazakian equivalent of this work by Takahata for value, importance and meaning - and "The Tale of the Princess Kaguya" were respectively nominated for the Oscars 2014 and 2015 as best animated films. Those years were awarded respectively "Big Hero 6" and "Frozen"...

A decidedly different, folklore-inspired story from Studio Ghibli’s other founder, the somewhat lesser-known Isao Takahata. The Tale of Princess Kaguya depicts a divine child, mystically delivered to a pleasant little farming family in the base of a bamboo stalk, who begins growing at a rapid pace. When the same family discovers a wealth of gold and silks in another stalk, they take the windfall as a sign that the girl should be raised amongst royalty and whisk her away from their happy, humble country life to join the pompous, self-serving world of the upper class. Which, sadly, is the last thing the girl wants from life.

Driven by its storybook visuals, lush with watercolors and restraint, this film looks like nothing else in the Ghibli catalog. Sparse but expressionistic, it’s a mesmerizing alternative to the warmer, more detail-oriented portrayals of the studio’s house style. That shift is a welcome one, especially when the new methods prove their flexibility during the infrequent high-energy scenes; a real testament to the artists’ ability to adapt and excel while outside their comfort zones. In a storytelling sense, however, it falls short of Ghibli’s better films. I felt the same way about Pom Poko, another of Takahata’s directorial efforts: delightful and charming for the first hour, but then the sprawl sets in and our sense of enchantment quickly fades away.

I loved this as an artistic exercise, and was entranced by the establishing shots, but the plot didn’t have enough steam to carry its goods through two-plus hours. Takahata films just can’t seem to find the exit before overstaying their welcome.