The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (film)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Tale of the Princess Kaguya arrived in Japanese cinemas on the 23rd of November 2013 as the most expensive Japanese film ever made, carrying a budget of US$49.3 million. It was directed by Isao Takahata, a founding figure at Studio Ghibli, who based the film on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter, a Japanese literary tale from the 10th century. What does a centuries-old story about a girl found inside a glowing bamboo shoot have to say about feminism, freedom, and the grief of being alive? And why did it take Takahata more than fifty years from his first encounter with the source material to finally bring it to the screen?

• 2. A Lifelong Pursuit

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  Takahata first read The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter as a child, and his initial reaction was frustration. He recalled that the heroine's transformation was enigmatic and that it did not evoke empathy from him. That unresolved feeling stayed with him for decades. In 1960, while working at Toei Animation, he began preparing for a potential adaptation, but the project was abandoned before it moved forward.

  Decades passed before he picked up the tale again. After rereading it, he concluded that the story held genuine entertainment potential, provided an adaptation gave audiences a window into how Princess Kaguya actually felt. Studio Ghibli announced in 2008 that Takahata was developing a feature-length film. The following year, at the 62nd Locarno International Film Festival, he publicly confirmed his intention to direct it.

  The film's financing came in part from Nippon Television Network, whose late chairman Seiichiro Ujiie personally championed the project. Ujiie pleaded with Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki to allow Takahata to make one more film. Ujiie died on the 3rd of March 2011, but not before he had seen the script and some of the storyboards. The release was not officially confirmed by Studio Ghibli and distributor Toho until the 13th of December 2012.

• 3. Sketching Reality

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  Takahata's artistic vision for the film was rooted in a particular theory of audience experience. He wanted viewers to imagine or recall the reality deep within the drawings, rather than be drawn into a photorealistic style that might distance them from the emotion. His aim was to help audiences recollect the realities of ordinary life through simple human qualities and simple props.

  To carry that vision into the actual frames, Osamu Tanabe handled the character designs and animation, while Kazuo Oga drew the watercolor backgrounds. The result is a film that shifts registers depending on the emotional temperature of a scene. Rural life is rendered in muted colors and soft lines that suggest simplicity and joy. The capital, by contrast, uses bolder hues that convey indulgence and confinement.

  One sequence made this contrast especially legible. When Kaguya flees the palace in despair, the animation style shifts to rapid, unrestrained brushstrokes that let the visuals carry her anguish directly. Her shrinking figure against a backdrop of darkness later underscores her sense of isolation as she overhears men mocking her origins.

• 4. Feminist Readings

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  Scholar Yalcinkaya points to a dream sequence in which Kaguya breaks through a series of doors as a metaphor for the barriers imposed by family and society. The scene sits inside a film that critics have widely read as a feminist text. Kaguya's relocation to the capital is not her choice; it is her father's. His insistence that she adopt the life of a noblewoman runs directly against her wishes, and her mother's limited role in that decision highlights the absence of female agency in the household.

  The film also puts the conventions of the Heian period under scrutiny. Monji argues that Kaguya's training in court etiquette, which required her to suppress her emotions, amounts to a painful renunciation of humanity. When five noblemen attempt to court her by comparing her to mythical treasures, she turns the situation around, telling each that she will only marry the man who can bring her the specific treasure he mentioned. That move has been read as an act of female resistance inside a male-dominated hierarchy.

  Two of the suitors produce counterfeits, one abandons his quest, another offers a flower in place of the treasure, and the last dies in the attempt. Each outcome is shaped by Kaguya's conditions, not theirs. The Emperor of Japan himself tries to bring her to his palace by force, and she persuades him to leave.

• 5. Life, Loss, and the Moon

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  Kaguya eventually reveals to her parents that she was once a resident of the Moon who broke its laws, hoping to be exiled to Earth so that she could experience mortal life. When the Emperor made his advances, she silently appealed to the Moon for help. The Moon heard her, restored her memories, and promised to reclaim her at the next full moon.

  The film draws on the concept of mono no aware, the fleeting beauty of existence. The celestial procession that descends to retrieve Kaguya is depicted in bright hues and accompanied by joyful music, a deliberate contrast to the darker tones of Earth and the grief of her family. The figure leading that procession resembles a Buddha accompanied by heavenly attendants, evoking the Pure Land tradition in which practitioners believe they are guided to a realm of peace after death.

  Monji reads Kaguya's reluctant acceptance of her social duties as an allegory for the necessity of living within society's restrictions. Her attachment to Earth, expressed in the tears that fill her eyes as she looks back on her departure, affirms that earthly existence holds wonder and meaning even amid its suffering. The film frames both rural and aristocratic life as tragic in their own ways: peasants are constrained by poverty, while aristocrats are bound by rigid class expectations.

• 6. Sound and Score

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  In 2012, composer Shin-ichiro Ikebe was announced as the person who would write the film's score. By 2013, however, Joe Hisaishi had replaced Ikebe in that role. The change was notable because Hisaishi had spent his career closely associated with Hayao Miyazaki's films at Ghibli; scoring a Takahata film was the only time he did so.

  The theme song, titled "When I Remember This Life," was written and performed by Nikaido Kazumi. The music from the film's original soundtrack was released on the 20th of November 2013, three days before the film itself opened in Japanese cinemas. Joe Hisaishi later received a nomination at the 37th Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Music for his work on the film.

• 7. Release and Reception

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  The Tale of the Princess Kaguya had originally been planned for a simultaneous release in Japan alongside The Wind Rises, a film by Hayao Miyazaki. Had that schedule held, it would have marked the first time the works of both directors appeared together since My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies were released in 1988. In February 2013, distributor Toho announced the delay of Kaguya to the 23rd of November 2013, citing incomplete storyboards.

  The film debuted at first place in Japan during its opening weekend. By the 2nd of February 2014, it had earned approximately 2.3 billion yen at the Japanese box office. In North America, independent distributor GKIDS acquired the US rights on the 12th of March 2014. The English dub was produced by Studio Ghibli and Frank Marshall, with Chloe Grace Moretz voicing the title character. The film opened in select North American theaters on the 17th of October 2014.

  Critical response was exceptionally strong. The film became the first of the 2010s to receive a 100% approval rating on one major review-aggregating website. David Ehrlich of The A.V. Club gave it an A and called it the best animated movie of the year. Nicolas Rapold of The New York Times described the artwork as exquisitely drawn with both watercolor delicacy and a brisk sense of line. Carlos Aguilar, writing for IndieWire's 2018 list of the best Japanese films of the 21st century, described it as an artistic triumph that delights with exuberant handcraft where each pencil stroke comes alive on screen. In February 2014, Kinema Junpo placed the film 4th in both its Best Ten list and its Reader's Choice Awards.

  The film earned a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 87th Academy Awards, with Takahata and producer Yoshiaki Nishimura as nominees. It also screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, where Takahata received both the Art Cinema Award and the Prix SACD. It was Takahata's final film as director. He died in April 2018, five years after the film's release. The voice of the bamboo cutter, Takeo Chii, had died in June 2012, before the film was even finished, making Kaguya his final screen credit as well.