The Tale of Princess Kaguya

The 2013 animated film, The Tale of Princess Kaguya, was based on the 10th century Japanese literary tale, The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, and is considered one of the oldest surviving monogatri (otherwise known as a fictional prose narrative), even to the point that nobody knows who wrote the original story. Detailing the events of a princess born from the moon coming down to experience life on earth as the daughter of bamboo farmers whose beauty and seeming heavenly blessings of wealth, beauty and talent, attracts multiple suitors, the story has become a popular folk tale in Japan and has been adapted several times, either being retooled to tell a new story or as just a straightforward portrayal, the latter of which has had three movies released. While two films were in live action, the 2013 film was an animated movie handled by dearly beloved animation company, Studio Ghibli, and was the one that made the most splash on a global level. In a quiet country village, an old bamboo cutter (voiced by James Caan) is stunned to find a miniature girl within a bamboo shoot, and he and his wife (voiced by Mary Steenburgen) decide to adopt her as their child. Even though she just appeared, the little girl starts to grow significantly, going from an infant to a toddler, to even a small child in the span of a few days, and while most of the other residents find this quite odd, they eventually warm to her, and she becomes a part of the community. However, when the father receives lavish gifts from the bamboo shoots including a pile of gold nuggets and expensive kimonos, he believes heaven is telling him his daughter is meant to be a princess and sets out to achieve this goal by dragging her to the capital city and teaching her to be a proper lady, forcing her to leave her friends behind in the process. Having to deal with a restrictive lifestyle that doesn’t suit her outgoing personality, the tasks this child from nature will go through may inadvertently end up pushing her away from those that love her so dearly in more than just an emotional sense. Met with glowing reviews and even a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, The Tale of Princess Kaguya may not be as rich in story, character or even themes as some of Ghibli’s other work but has a purity which comes through its emotional resonance, quaint simplistic direction and memorizing art style, which results in an overall solid film.

Even for a company like Studio Ghibli who are known for creating some very impressive films that the west also grew to appreciate for their distinct style, voice, and artistry, you can feel a specific form of dedication was given to this movie in particular. Being a passion project for director, Isao Takahata, many hurdles were jumped over in order for this picture to come together, including the chairman of Nippon TV, Seiichiro Ujiie, backing the film financially and even convincing Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki, to let Takahata make one more film for them (having previously directed movies like Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday, and Pom Poko). While it doesn’t quite reach the level as some of those past examples, you can definitely feel a distinct style from Takahata which brings a lot of likability to what is honestly a hard source material to adapt. Upon viewing the synopsis, you get a sense that it is akin to a classic fairy tale or even an instructive fable; something that exists to present an idea and a moral rather than offer a lot in terms of narrative or deep character study. Takahata seemed to be aware of this as he said that when reading the story as a child, he found it hard to sympathize with the protagonist, and therefore you can feel there’s a lot more attention put into making this story feel more emotionally resonant whilst still retaining this fable-like atmosphere. For the most part, it does this quite effectively, with Takahata’s direction really coming through strongly in how the simple, even mundane elements of the story feel down-to-earth, but also strangely engaging and never like wasted time. For what could be dull and drawn-out, it knows how to pace itself, take its time with the content it has, and present this otherwise basic story in a way that isn’t hard to follow, but still contains enough flourishes to make it dissimilar from others of its type. There’s no villainous force, no dramatic climax, no big grand theme it’s tries to explore, it’s just a simple story about a magical being learning to live on earth, and it delivers just that without resorting to cinematic cliches or even an expected outcome (the film actually doesn’t have the happiest of endings). While the script written by Takahata and Riko Sakaguchi doesn’t have the most original material or the most memorable lines, it does condense and even improve on some elements of the original tale to make it work in modern day without losing its ancient roots.

Much like what would be expected in a fairy tale, the characters are mostly defined by what they do and how they do it, rather than who they are and why they do it. This was again a big complaint of Takahata who found that despite the tale’s morose atmosphere and bittersweet (at best) conclusion, it lacked emotional engagement, and this film does make attempts to remedy that problem, and it succeeds in some areas. You can feel while watching this movie that it does stumble around trying to make these characters feel more real and sympathetic, even though it has a very specific end point that it can’t escape from and therefore, decisions don’t always feel the most relatable. The main character suffers this the most, as despite the film doing a better job at making her feel more real, likeable, and understandable with the final decision, there are moments where her emotions flip on a dime and change back just as quickly without much rhyme or reason. You partially get it given the character’s apathetic origins, but since the film does a better job at making her feel more genuine, these moments do stand out a bit. This can also be said for the parents, who are a little underwritten and don’t really showcase that strong a connection with their daughter, which is really needed for that ending to feel as impactful as it needs to. The mother doesn’t get a lot to do outside of a few small, sweet moments, and the father is so one-note and even blindly selfish in his goals that it’s hard to really sympathize with him in any form. With the film receiving an English dub when it was transferred and distributed in the west through Disney, it’s nice that for each of these Ghibli dubs, none of the actors feel out of place within this world or tone of story, never coming across as phony or hard to follow just because it’s in English. There’s an occasional odd line read due to having to match the lip movements or something that’s just going to be lost in translation, but for the most part, these movies have had good English dubs, and this film is no different. Chloë Grace Moretz is able to bring a spirited passion to the princess, but also can handle the softer moments well enough to also showcase a vulnerable maturity. James Caan and Mary Steenburgen are fine as the parents, but they don’t get a lot to work with as previously stated. The film is also packed with strange out-of-the-box casting choices that feel very random, but thankfully none are distracting. While people like Lucy Liu, James Marsden and Daniel Dae Kim feel reasonable, others like Darren Criss, Hyden Walch, George Segal, Oliver Platt, Dean Cain, Beau Bridges and John Cho are pretty odd names to see (even though, they do perfectly fine).

While this film hasn’t gotten as much attention as other Ghibli films, the one component that has made it stand out and helped draw a people to it was its beautiful unique art style that mirrored various pencil sketch work that’s popular amongst a lot of Japanese artworks throughout the ages. It was the most expensive Japanese film to date with a budget of ¥5.15 billion (or $49.3 million), it was a style that was completely different to anything that Ghibli had ever produced before, and it’s one that definitely gives this film a unique visual identity. It contains an old-fashion look that not only helps breath a timeless and out-of-time aspect to the story, but the film is smart enough to not just solely rely on it and instead decides to experiment with what it can do. Takahata wanted to do something a little less traditional with this movie, and you can feel that with how this movie has moments where the animation is presented in a more creative and even abstract fashion that matches the mood and emotions of the characters. In one of the best scenes of the movie, Kaguya runs away from her palace life and the animation actually captures her frantic and distraught emotional state through how its presented; the line work is sketchy and etched extra black with charcoal, the backdrops are formless and barely look complete, the motion is blurred and sporadic almost to a rabid degree, and the darker hues of lighting almost contrasts with the harshly white light previously displayed to form an almost saturated grey tone that looks extra atmospheric. While there aren’t too many other moments like that, there are enough that you can feel that the animators and everybody working on this film isn’t just okay with coasting on the look to draw in people, they want to do everything they can in order to stand out which is admirable. The harsh white backdrop against the simple shapes of the people and locations creates an ethereal quality that heightens the surreal atmosphere of this story and also helps cement it as unlike the more down-to-earth and even fantastical realism Ghibli films. It has the subdued nature and quirky attitudes most people are familiar with, yet there is something a little more uniquely introspective about this one. The music by Joe Hisaishi also adds to this distinct atmosphere with a piece that contains the usual notes and beats of a Ghibli film, yet also harbors hints of a bittersweet melody that comes from an instrumentation that’s akin to a child’s lullaby, it’s pretty effective.

The Tale of Princess Kaguya isn’t one of the best films from Ghibli or even from Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday are truly spectacular movies), but for a tale that is so deep in Japan’s history that it doesn’t even have a definitive author, it manages to do fairly well with what it has. It could be argued that it wasn’t able to grab audiences as well since it only made half of its budget back and didn’t even win the award for Best Animated Feature (losing to Big Hero 6), but from a visual and atmospheric level, there is a lot to be admired about this film and considering this was the last film Takahata directed before he passed away, it’s not a bad one to go out on. It’s honestly as well structure and as competently put together as the story could be, managing to outweigh some of the problems that come with the narrative and characters, and fine tune them with capable voice actors, stunning visuals, and a chill but meaningful atmosphere. Not outstanding, but still, something that could be a surprise gift for someone to treasure.