Kaguya-hime no Monogatari

Deep in the countryside, a man named Okina works as a bamboo cutter in a forest, chopping away at the hollow plants day after day. One day, he discovers a small baby inside a glowing shoot. He immediately takes her home, convinced that she is a princess sent to Earth as a divine blessing from heaven. Okina and his wife Ouna take it upon themselves to raise the infant as their own, watching over her as she quickly grows into an energetic young girl. Given the name Kaguya, she fits right in with the village she has come to call home, going on adventures with the other children and enjoying what youth has to offer.

But when Okina finds a large fortune of gold and treasure in the forest, Kaguya's life is completely changed. Believing this to be yet another gift from heaven, he takes it upon himself to turn his daughter into a real princess using the wealth he has just obtained, relocating the family to a mansion in the capital. As she leaves her friends behind to enter into an unwanted life of royalty, Kaguya's origins and purpose slowly come to light.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kaguya-hime Main

Asakura, Aki Japanese

Me no Warawa Supporting

Tabata, Tomoko Japanese

Sutemaru Supporting

Koura, Kengo Japanese

Ouna Supporting

Miyamoto, Nobuko Japanese

Okina Supporting

Chii, Takeo Japanese

Isonokami no Chuunagon Supporting

Kojou, Tamaki Japanese

Abe no Udaijin Supporting

Inbe no Akita Supporting

Tatekawa, Shinosuke Japanese

Sumiyaki no Roujin Supporting

Nakadai, Tatsuya Japanese

Kitanokata Supporting

Asaoka, Yukiji Japanese

Nishimura, Yoshiaki Producer

Takahata, Isao Director, Screenplay, Creator

Asari, Naoko Sound Director

Pannetier, Jean-Marc Script, ADR Director

Reviews

Dec 11, 2014

HaXXspetten

Recommended

Studio Ghibli have always been at the very forefront in the anime film industry. Their creations have been able to reach out to any and all demographics with great success for decades, and have numerous masterpieces under their belt by now. Most of these are creations of the one and only Miyazaki Hayao, however Hotaru no Haka (Grave of the Fireflies) released back in 1988, one of the most critically acclaimed Ghibli films was written and directed by the studio's co-founder Takahata Isao. But this was something that was known as a one-hit wonder, as his other works never got anywhere near the same level ... of praise and attention as his first one did. This changes now however. 25 years after Grave of the Fireflies was released, Takahata's new work titled Kaguya-hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya) hit the cinemas, and this time he once again got it right, because this movie is sincerely a true work of art.

Kaguya-hime (I'll refer to it as such henceforth) is based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a famous story from Japanese folklore. In this rendition, an elderly bamboo cutter finds a tiny human-like baby within the folds of a bamboo shoot one day, and takes it as a sign from the heavens that it is his duty to raise the mysterious child. However he and his wife quickly discover that the child is far from a normal human, as she grows at an insane speed. She goes from crawling to walking in a split second, she learns to talk in no time at all, and within months she's as big as the older children who used to play around with her. Meanwhile, the bamboo cutter finds even more miraculous gifts within the bamboo shoots in the forest such as gold, gemstones and expensive clothing. He comes to the conclusion that the task the heavens has provided him is not just about raising the child, but about turning her into an actual princess of the land.

The majority of the story then takes place in the capital and follows Kaguya's blistering journey through her youth as her foster parents are doing everything within their power to try to turn her into a real princess, although Kaguya herself is mildly enthusiastic about this idea. Now the idea of having a wild tomboy being forced to become a "proper" woman is nothing new, but I still think this story showcased one of the best renditions of that concept that I've seen in a while. Kaguya's character herself is superbly written and her reactions to everything going on around her feel very realistic and enjoyable to witness. She shows in full that she is very talented and fully capable of carrying out all the modest and appropriate ways of behaving for a noble woman, but at the same time very clearly gets the message across that despite all that she only really wants to live her life freely and play around. She's a very relatable character as a whole, and her enthusiastic spirit is perhaps the biggest reason as to why the film is so captivating throughout.

The supporting cast primarily consists of Kaguya's foster parents, her mentor, her childhood friends as well as all kinds of rich nobles that are interested in her. None of them feel needless in any way, but it's pretty clear that this story is about Kaguya herself and no one else, as the focus is always on her alone. In a way this can be considered a bad thing since the rest of the characters don't get very much in the way of depth and back story, but I personally didn't ever feel particularly bothered by that. Kaguya is really the only one that truly matters in this movie, and as far as that goal goes the movie executes it brilliantly.

What is definitely worth mentioning about this story though is the ending of it. While I obviously won't spoil any details, let's just say that the conclusion of this story is... unexpected. It is very unusual, spontaneous and just plain strange in a lot of ways. Was it bad then? Honestly I'm not entirely sure if I liked it or not, but it was definitely not what I ever thought I'd see in a Ghibli film at least. Personally though, I always appreciate when stories diverge from the norm and decide to go a little bit crazy, so regardless of which I respect it for what it did on principle. However I know from experience that whenever a movie comes along which takes a sudden unexpected turn close to its ending, there will always be heavily split opinions on it. Therefore I can guarantee that there will be a lot of people who will really dislike the climax. Just a warning.

As far as the production value goes, the soundtrack is for the most part rather ambient but it is very on-point for the atmosphere of the story. Some of the instrumental tracks in it however were very catchy and pleasing to listen to. In addition Kaguya also plays a little music on her own within the movie itself so it was quite diverse in that department. The voice acting is typical Ghibli in terms of feel and quality, which is of course always a great thing. I'd praise it more, but honestly I'm more or less expecting it from a Ghibli film at this point.

The animation however is where Kaguya-hime really goes way off what you'd ever expect to see in an anime movie released as late as 2013. The art style takes a very old school, classical approach which makes it feel hand-drawn most of the time. Sketch lines are intentionally left in, and at first it looks like the movie wasn't actually finished in its current state since common sense says it requires quite a lot more polishing. But this is the style the movie utilizes throughout on purpose. At first it takes a while to get used to, but once you do it's actually really captivating to witness. It makes the movie seem so much more atmospheric somehow, and helps beautify it as the icing on the cake. Where the animation really shines though is during the sequences of the movie which has a lot of rapid movement. When Kaguya runs throughout the mansion or the forests, or when the camera simply "flies" throughout the landscape, it looks absolutely mesmerizing. I'm not even sure how to explain it since it was so unorthodox; it's something you really have to see in person and experience for yourself.

As a whole, this is probably my 2nd favorite Ghibli film to date (after Spirited Away), so yes I honestly liked this more than Takahata's former "masterpiece". It's a bit hard to put into words exactly what it is that makes Kaguya-hime so loveable though, but I think it's a combination of the setting, Kaguya's character and the creative artwork. Case in point however is that I truly loved this movie from start to finish, despite its lengthiness. As with most (all?) Ghibli films, this one is most definitely watchable by all audiences, but in particular if you're a fan of beautiful landscapes and coming-of-age stories, then you better add Kaguya-hime to your repertoire as soon as possible. Not doing so would be seriously missing out.

Wholeheartedly recommended.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jan 17, 2017

Evil_Genius

Mixed Feelings

Preamble: english language is not my native, sorry for possible mistakes. Review can include minor spoilers.

So, after I watched this film, has wrote my thoughts, I decided to check out different reviews of other people on this film. As I expected they all are quite positive, and I think I just need to write my own, because the main thing of reviews is constructive criticism, not babbling about how it's "wonderful and nice". And this film can easily be critisized. It has a lot of flaws and weak points.

As Isao Takahata is one of my favourite anime directors and I value him even more than ... Miyazaki, I must say this is one of his weakest works. Isao Takahata, Studio Ghibli, Joe Hisaishi... An adaptation of the Japanese folk tale "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" (10th-century Japanese folktale). What to say, I had huge expectations on this film. My all time favourite creators made film on one of favourite japanese tales. Maybe that's a problem of too big expectation? No, it's not. Realization was really quite bad.

Again, the film is based on the Japanese folk tale - "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter". So this is nothing more than an adaptation of the eponymous fairy tale recorded in the X century and is considered one of the oldest of the surviving Japanese stories, and even one of the earliest precursors of science fiction overall.

This time it wasn't great direction, smart work and production. However it is interesting, dramatic, even melodramatic film, which squeezes tears from you. Or at least tries to. Atypical panache and animation, something reminding me of some Soviet old animation and multiplication of 70s and 80s.

Taketori, old man, collector of bamboo and craftsman, finds a little girl in bamboo shoots. And, considering it as a message from heaven, he brings up the girl with his wife as his own. Considering her a princess, he wanted to give her a life of luxury. Little later Taketori finds gold and expensive beautiful things and clothes in the bamboo for the 'Babmoo girl', as the village boys christen her. She will be given Kaguya name much later. But let's call her Kaguya from here. So, Kaguya is very playful girl and she is growing extremely fast. She has outstanding beauty as well.
Girl loves nature and her friends from village, she is doing good, walks and rejoices. Especially she made friends with one guy... But finally the parents arrange and carry her into the city, to the castle. Now she is a princess, the highness. Princess Kaguya. But she was not happy in the castle. Even aristocracy wanted to marry her, but she doesn't want it, she wants to be with that village boy. Briefly it's like that. Sad, but true. Nothing can replace that true nature for her, the freedom and bustle on the nature with friends. Nevertheless, she wants her parents and Taketori to be happy. So she acts as noble princess. Again, many notable people sought her hand, even king himself. Kings forced a connection with her, and something mystical happens again. Now we know that she is from the Moon. Well, well, well... So, in fact, the work is full of theatricality. And of course I don't like that. Also there are many absurd and moments of frustration that appears, there were a lot of silly moments and scenes. On the other hand, it is the vital thing, the problem of fathers and children, just built in the absolute. Good intentions leads to poor circumstances. In the end, it turns out, as always. Eh... Pretty mediocre film, to say frankly. Very uneven film, I can say even rough. I've read the story itself, of course the problem in it itself, however overall production wasn't that great, again. Pretty weak. Don't get me wrong, it still was nice experience, however much more in disappointment way. Eternal road. And even memory of this film will fade, while I have quite phenomenon memory, because it's not that brilliant. Sorry for not indexing quite clear arguments this time, it's just hard to do in this film. It's not logical problems, it's more like exaggeration and overstatement of human feelings. Those love stories are full of bullshit, we have seen tons of them. Many people living unhappy lives with unloved works and even companions. And they don't put it as huge tragedy. The film is doing just it - like it's a huge tragedy. While the truth is there are far more tragic things in life.

Music of Joe Hisaishi is good as usual, but this time not something outstanding as well.

This kinda reminded me of "The Emperor's New Clothes". Interesting, what people would say, if it was not Ghibli movie and not Takahata's work. Probably, not as they say in their reviews. Most of them. I guess so. Majority just get accustomed to high level of Ghibli and don't want to admit that they have no critical thinking or bad taste. Illusions are far sweeter.
It's a pity for me, because Isao Takahata is really one of my favourites. However it's ok, you can't do only Masterpieces. But I want to think maybe I was expected too much from this film, however I'm just maximum 'subjective objective' as I can, being logical and rational. It's really not that great film in comparing even to other Ghibli works. One of their worst films so far, unfortunately. One of the rare cases when I can say about Ghibli movie - pretty mediocre. 5/10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jan 2, 2016

awerture

Not Recommended

This Studio Ghibli motion picture is relatively well-acclaimed outside the anime world. As of now it boasts 100% rating on rotten tomatoes and it was nominated for 87th Academy Awards. Unfortunately, for all of its praise it's a surprisingly mediocre work.

The movie has some merits - it has delightful watercolor-like visual style. It's very pleasant to watch, one can simply sit and enjoy the flow of images. Animation is vivid and the art style captures the mood of the period and atmosphere of the folk tale very well. What this movie fails to capture however, is the very point it's trying to make.

Because the ... movie is adaptation of the 10th century Japanese novel (sort of novel, at least) I initially believed it's the ancient text which is to blame for anime shortcomings. I was really shocked to find out that numerous versions of the original narrative tend to have a better story than this anime offers.

The writers of the anime failed because they took their own set of what I will loosely describe as 'Ghibli values', injected it into the old narrative, clashed it with Heian period customs, played this conflict for over an hour and instead of resolving it they turned back to the slightly changed climax from the original story, completely ignoring the fact that with the liberties they took the original ending doesn't work as intended - some characters are straight-up unlikeable, when they really shouldn't be, some characters don't serve any purposeful role and main character is spineless and passive. And any potential moral is subdued by the story's inconsistencies.

The creators tried to amend the situation by explicitly telling the audience how and what it should feel and accompanied the ending with an emotional soundtrack (which is by the way not particularly memorable). These tricks don't work perfectly - for the most part the movie feels more like a series of disjointed segments (Ghibli-esque beginning -> modern social commentary -> traditional folk tale -> melodrama), in each segment aiming at a different thing, connected only by the characters and art style. And additionally all of it feels dragged out and, honestly speaking, a little boring.

This really is not a good sign for a Japanese movie when a Western viewer relates more to the millennium old original story than to its modernized retelling. Visuals, faint mood of melancholy and oriental feel are not enough to consider The Tale of the Princess Kaguya a good film - it's at most an average one.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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