The Tale of the Princess Kaguya completely caught me off guard. I was second guessing the story throughout the majority of the film and it was an immense amount of fun. The story starts out with a short narration about a bamboo cutter who comes across a glowing bamboo shoot while he was working. When he cuts open the bamboo shoot he finds very small girl who he believes was destined to be a princess. His wife convinces him to take care of her and the small girl immediately transforms into a baby. The couple takes the child in and begins to raise it as there own. When the baby starts aging rapidly and the bamboo cutter finds "gifts from the gods" in some of the bamboo shoots, he decides that when the child is old enough he needs to have the her become royalty. Already the film has a crazy set up if you don't know the lore behind it.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is very heavily taken from Shinto myth (among others) of "The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter" which is a great story alone but is expertly transcribed for the film. A great story told in words isn't always the best expressed on the big screen. For example, I found that the pacing in the movie was a little slow for my taste at times. I get that the story takes place across many years, but there are a lot of unnecessary scenes. It doesn't bother me too much, however, as the animation and music is just so great. The animation in the film is very unique and fascinating to look at. The animation is beautifully hand drawn with a great variety of colors depicting gorgeous landscapes and wonderful character animations. One scene that I love in particular is one where Kaguya is very angry at the world and she just runs. The entire scene is her running and it is gorgeous. Even without any context the audience can see the struggle she is going through as the usually detailed areas and lines turn into jagged and messy scribbles the angrier she gets and the more emotional walls she breaks through.
Past this scene, however, they didn't utilize this as much as I thought they did. They did use the art style very well but there could always be a bit more. The music in the film is also great, of course. Though not the most varied of soundtracks, it sounds like what you would (stereo-typically) expect from a film rooted deep in eastern tradition and some of the tracks are very memorable.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is a slightly strange, slightly magical take on an old tale with a wonderful art style and great music.
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya is
a marvel. It also has one of the most emotionally jarring endings I've ever seen in a film.
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