Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, The Wind Rises: Just a short selection of films created by esteemed animation director Hayao Miyazaki. After releasing The Wind Rises Miyazaki announced his formal retirement from directing and filmmaking, leaving his production company Studio Ghibli to continue without him. Ghibli's first outing post-Miyazaki is The Tale of Princess Kaguya, a hand drawn Anime directed by Isao Takahata, another veteran in Anime filmmaking; the film is based on the Japanese folktale The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter. With the departure of Miyazaki till fresh in the mind of Ghibli fans, does TTOPK begin to fill the gap left by the directing heavyweight?
TTOPK begins with a bamboo cutter called Miyatsuko finding a miniature girl inside a bamboo shoot. The cutter believes her to be sent as a divine message, names her 'Princess' and raises her with his wife. The girl grows alarmingly fast and makes friends with the locals children. When Miyatsuko discovers gold and fine cloth inside other bamboo shoots, he moves the family to the capital where he attempts to raise Princess to be a noblewoman, as he believes she is destined to be. Princess, earning the name Kaguya for 'the light that radiates from her', has difficulty adapting to this life and while her rapid growth continues, she soon attracts the eyes of multiple high-born suitors…
Firstly, the utmost positive of this film is the most obvious one; the visuals are nothing short of completely breathtaking. The film is 100% hand drawn animation and you can tell with every shot. You can see the individual drawings cut with rough movements. This gives it a life of it's own; the textures are unbelievable, the colouring, shading and motion all intertwine with complete grace and it's a joy to watch. Hardcore Anime fans may hate this statement, but I saw a lot of similarities to The Snowman animation in this film. This is no bad thing however, as the rough edges and sketchy feel make this so unbelievably fun and enjoyable to watch. There is one scene where Princess/Kaguya is running from a party and the environment flashes by her in seconds. This threw me right back to the flying scene in The Snowman. I fell in love with this film visually from the very first shot.
I went to see the Japanese, English subtitled version and the voice actors were great. Aki Asakura was brilliant as Kaguya and Nobuko Miyamoto, in my opinion, stole the film as the Bamboo Cutter's Wife (yes that is her character name). Both these actresses gave brilliantly subtle, layered, memorable and emotional vocal performances that carry the film. The entire cast is well chosen, with some being a bit too exaggerated and high energy for my taste, though I know it is common in Japanese Anime to have over the top performances. Some exaggeration is used to comedic effect and I found this very entertaining, which brings me onto a surprising positive coming out of this film, the comedy:
TTOPK is a surprisingly witty film; while it is a drama with tears and screams vastly outweighing anything else, the script is outlined with some fantastic humour. The scenes where Kaguya is learning to be a lady and she is less than enthused about it are brilliant. A highlight of the film for me is a group of scenes that rely solely on comedic timing; the scenes where potential suitors are lining up and proving themselves to Kaguya for her love are downright hilarious. These scenes really lift the film from it's darker themes and help to move the story along.
The story itself has some issues. Firstly, there are more plotholes than I cared to count in this film. The most important one is a glaring one, at least to me. The film never truly answer WHY Kaguya is there in the first place. Why was she in the bamboo? Why was she growing at a rapid rate? These questions that are the sole focus at the start of the film are not really answered. The attempted 'explanation' for her being there only gave me more questions which, running the risk of spoilers, I will avoid. It feels like if you imagine someone doing something, you ask them 'why?' and they say 'just cause'. It doesn't really answer the question but apparently it justifies the film's decisions. This mentality annoys me because I personally like to understand exactly why something is happening in order to really emotionally invest in it.
There are also issues consistency-wise on a couple of occasions. Miyatsuko is the primary case here. He's the loving father to start with, then the greedy money grabber, then the strict wannabe noblemen, then suddenly loving father, then strict, then loving, then over protective, then sad loving father again. It's never gives consistent reasons for these personality changes. The story has so much in it that it does take away from the main plot, which is Kaguya missing her home and friends whilst in the capital. The film is very long; I don't recall many Animes clocking at over 2 hours and 10 minutes but this one does and it drags in places, where it often doesn't need to. There seems to be a lot of missed potential here especially with the final twist, which could have been set up a lot better, but instead it is rushed in to the final 20 minutes. Doesn't quite pull off the Miyazaki treatment, but overall it is still very enjoyable, especially in the suitor-filled middle of the film.
The music in this film is lovely. Nothing truly original but a very strong effort. It's sweeping, innocent, playful but always subtly dark and ominous. Joe Hisaishi's score gives the dialogue time to breathe and never overpowers you, except when absolutely necessary. It delivers the goods and really sells the emotional angles well; a great score.
Overall The Tale of Princess Kaguya is an very enjoyable film. There are scenes that could have been cut or used to explained plot threads a bit better and the film's length does not help. However, while a slow beginning and a rushed end do hinder the pace of the film, the visuals will completely mesmerise you and a super strong middle section will have you laughing and welling up plenty.
TTOPK is a welcome family viewing and highly recommend for fans of Studio Ghibli.
TTOPK begins with a bamboo cutter called Miyatsuko finding a miniature girl inside a bamboo shoot. The cutter believes her to be sent as a divine message, names her 'Princess' and raises her with his wife. The girl grows alarmingly fast and makes friends with the locals children. When Miyatsuko discovers gold and fine cloth inside other bamboo shoots, he moves the family to the capital where he attempts to raise Princess to be a noblewoman, as he believes she is destined to be. Princess, earning the name Kaguya for 'the light that radiates from her', has difficulty adapting to this life and while her rapid growth continues, she soon attracts the eyes of multiple high-born suitors…
Firstly, the utmost positive of this film is the most obvious one; the visuals are nothing short of completely breathtaking. The film is 100% hand drawn animation and you can tell with every shot. You can see the individual drawings cut with rough movements. This gives it a life of it's own; the textures are unbelievable, the colouring, shading and motion all intertwine with complete grace and it's a joy to watch. Hardcore Anime fans may hate this statement, but I saw a lot of similarities to The Snowman animation in this film. This is no bad thing however, as the rough edges and sketchy feel make this so unbelievably fun and enjoyable to watch. There is one scene where Princess/Kaguya is running from a party and the environment flashes by her in seconds. This threw me right back to the flying scene in The Snowman. I fell in love with this film visually from the very first shot.
I went to see the Japanese, English subtitled version and the voice actors were great. Aki Asakura was brilliant as Kaguya and Nobuko Miyamoto, in my opinion, stole the film as the Bamboo Cutter's Wife (yes that is her character name). Both these actresses gave brilliantly subtle, layered, memorable and emotional vocal performances that carry the film. The entire cast is well chosen, with some being a bit too exaggerated and high energy for my taste, though I know it is common in Japanese Anime to have over the top performances. Some exaggeration is used to comedic effect and I found this very entertaining, which brings me onto a surprising positive coming out of this film, the comedy:
TTOPK is a surprisingly witty film; while it is a drama with tears and screams vastly outweighing anything else, the script is outlined with some fantastic humour. The scenes where Kaguya is learning to be a lady and she is less than enthused about it are brilliant. A highlight of the film for me is a group of scenes that rely solely on comedic timing; the scenes where potential suitors are lining up and proving themselves to Kaguya for her love are downright hilarious. These scenes really lift the film from it's darker themes and help to move the story along.
The story itself has some issues. Firstly, there are more plotholes than I cared to count in this film. The most important one is a glaring one, at least to me. The film never truly answer WHY Kaguya is there in the first place. Why was she in the bamboo? Why was she growing at a rapid rate? These questions that are the sole focus at the start of the film are not really answered. The attempted 'explanation' for her being there only gave me more questions which, running the risk of spoilers, I will avoid. It feels like if you imagine someone doing something, you ask them 'why?' and they say 'just cause'. It doesn't really answer the question but apparently it justifies the film's decisions. This mentality annoys me because I personally like to understand exactly why something is happening in order to really emotionally invest in it.
There are also issues consistency-wise on a couple of occasions. Miyatsuko is the primary case here. He's the loving father to start with, then the greedy money grabber, then the strict wannabe noblemen, then suddenly loving father, then strict, then loving, then over protective, then sad loving father again. It's never gives consistent reasons for these personality changes. The story has so much in it that it does take away from the main plot, which is Kaguya missing her home and friends whilst in the capital. The film is very long; I don't recall many Animes clocking at over 2 hours and 10 minutes but this one does and it drags in places, where it often doesn't need to. There seems to be a lot of missed potential here especially with the final twist, which could have been set up a lot better, but instead it is rushed in to the final 20 minutes. Doesn't quite pull off the Miyazaki treatment, but overall it is still very enjoyable, especially in the suitor-filled middle of the film.
The music in this film is lovely. Nothing truly original but a very strong effort. It's sweeping, innocent, playful but always subtly dark and ominous. Joe Hisaishi's score gives the dialogue time to breathe and never overpowers you, except when absolutely necessary. It delivers the goods and really sells the emotional angles well; a great score.
Overall The Tale of Princess Kaguya is an very enjoyable film. There are scenes that could have been cut or used to explained plot threads a bit better and the film's length does not help. However, while a slow beginning and a rushed end do hinder the pace of the film, the visuals will completely mesmerise you and a super strong middle section will have you laughing and welling up plenty.
TTOPK is a welcome family viewing and highly recommend for fans of Studio Ghibli.