The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a fitting final film from Co-Writer and Director Isao Takahata. Based on the Japanese folklore story, “The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,” this film explores ideas of feminism, love, and greed. With stunning animation, a gripping story, and an emotionally charged music score, The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a movie not to be missed.
In the rural mountainside outside of the capital, a bamboo cutter (Takeo Chii/James Caan) and his wife (Nobuko Miyamoto/Mary Steenburgen) eke out a simple life by cutting bamboo in the nearby grove, shaping it, and selling the resulting products. One day, a bamboo stalk glows, capturing the bamboo cutter’s attention. Inside is a tiny girl that mysteriously turns into a human infant. The bamboo cutter and his wife, having no children of their own, raise the girl as their own. The local boys call her “Little Bamboo” due to how fast she grows. In less than a year, she is an adolescent. Little Bamboo (Aki Asakura/Chloë Grace Moretz) develops an especially close relationship with the eldest of the boys, Sutemaru (Kengo Kora/Darren Criss). The bamboo cutter starts finding gold and rich cloth in the bamboo stalks that he cuts. Before long, he makes a decision to build a mansion in the nearby capital, and moves his family there in an effort to give them all a better life. When Little Bamboo comes of age, she is given the formal name Princess Kaguya (“The Shining Princess”) as a result of her incredible beauty. Rich and powerful suitors start to come calling, but The Princess chafes at it all and yearns for the simple countryside life she used to have.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was one of the most expensive films made in Japan at the time of its 2013 release, with an approximate budget of $49.3 million. It is not hard to see why. The film is absolutely gorgeous. Presented in the style of a watercolor painting, one can press the pause button at any moment in the film and easily be awed by the still image presented. To then see those still images move rapidly apace is a stunning feat. This is easily the most beautiful film Studio Ghibli has produced. Certain sequences stand out in a stand out film such as the sequence where The Princess runs away from her naming feast. As she inhales despairingly the camera pulls back to reveal utter blackness swallowing a shrinking princess. Remarkable.
The film presents many of its themes plainly, with the likely intent of strengthening the attachment between the viewer and the film’s characters. In our more modern society, it’s hard not to sympathize with the relative lack of agency that The Princess and the bamboo cutter’s wife frequently have when compared to the bamboo cutter and the other men in the film. It becomes a real joy to see the strength of the bond the two women develop over the course of the film, and the steps that they each take to claim what agency they can over their own lives, usually by spending time together in a shack and garden in a small, out-of-the-way corner of their vast mansion that reminds them of their old lives.
The score was provided by Joe Hisaishi, who is normally partnered with Hayao Miyzaki. However, he lends his compositional talents to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya to tremendous positive effect. As is customary for a Hisaishi score, he relies heavily on a handful of themes that he develops over the course of the film. The first is simple, sad, and mysterious. A simple string pad gives way to an equally simple, sad, and insistent melody on the piano, built off of a pentatonic foundation to give it a sound that is both ancient and mysterious. Another is first presented in a flute as a playful, lilting melody that I think is intended to remind the listener of a songbird, and all that that implies. It was a wise choice by Hisaishi to rely heavily on traditional pentatonic melodies and harmonies—it immediately transports the viewer to the ancient past and keeps us rooted there for the duration of the film.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a gorgeous film with a story that will entertain as much as it moves the viewer. A strong music score by legendary composer Hisaishi seals the deal. The film may be approaching its twelfth anniversary at the time of this writing, but it’s never too late to watch for the first time. Or again, for that matter. It’s a fitting conclusion to the storied career of Co-Writer and Director Takahata. His final film is a magical one. The Tale of the Princess Kaguya definitely does not suck.
Directed by Isao Takahata.
Written by Isao Takahata & Riko Sakaguchi.
Starring Aki Asakura/Chloë Grace Moretz, Takeo Chii/James Caan, Nobuko Miyamoto/Mary Steenburgen, Kengo Kora/Darren Criss, etc.
10/10 = IT DEFINITELY DOES NOT SUCK
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