Kaguya-hime no Monagatari: A masterpiece of the animation with a deep story
In the recent days, I watched the anime movie Kaguya-Hime no Monogatari (The Tale of Princess Kaguya), probably one of the most famous movies in the anime world, however, I did not know about it until recently. I think it is an interesting movie not just because its story, but because of its animation (which, in my opinion, is such a beauty), which, added to the storyline, helps to create a masterpiece.
Kaguya-Hime no Monogatari is a 2013 Japanese animated film produced by Studio Ghibli one of the most famous and awarded animation studios in the world. Some of its more famous works are Grave of Fireflies, My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away, Ponyo, Howl's Moving Castle, The Wind Rises, Whispers of the Heart, and much more. All of the movies created by Studio Ghibli are recognized because of the quality of its animation and its well-written scripts, and The Tale of Princess Kaguya is not the exception.
Kaguya-Hime no Monogatari was awarded as the best animation film for the Critics Association of Boston, Los Angeles and Toronto, and other associations. It was also nominated by the 87th Academy Awards, but it did not win it; it was the movie Big Heroes 6 which won the prize for the Best Animated Feature.
This film is based on The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter an ancient Japanese literary tale which dates from the 10th century, which is considered the oldest extant Japanese prose narrative, and it is filled with Japanese folklore. However, the film is an adaptation, and some changes are introduced by the producers of the movie, modifying some fragments of the story, adding more characters, for instance. In the end, the core of the tale and the film are quite similar, but there are also important differences between both works.
In a few words, The Tale of Princess Kaguya presents to us the brief life in the Earth of Kaguya, a princess who was found by a bamboo cutter inside a bamboo tree. The cutter interprets her appearance as a gift of the gods, and he starts to raise the princess as his daughter, with the companionship and help of his wife; after some days, he finds inside the bamboo trees little pieces of gold and fine fabrics, then, as a consequence, the bamboo cutter understands that the gods want him to raise Kaguya as a princess, and he immediately works to give her the best things that a princess must possess according to the ancient Japanese traditions, like the good manners that royal woman must show, knowledge about how princess must look like, and a wide variety of attributes, all of that with the main purpose of getting a proposal of marriage of a man with a good position inside the Japanese society.
However, the desires of the Princess Kaguya are really far from what her father interpreters as the gods' will as she feels deeply confused about what means to be a princess and living like it. Because she was raised during her first days inside the mountains, being in frequent contact with all the nature, and being free to do whatever she wanted, the fact of moving to the city and acting like a princess make Kaguya feels often out of place; she finds really challenging to adapt to the urban society and to adopt the manners and the fate that every single Japanese Princess must follow: the marriage.
I do not want to go deeper with the synopsis of the film, I prefer you to go and watch it because it is more interesting and emotive than what I have said in the previous lines. Instead of keeping talking about its script (partly because I am sure that I will no be able to transmit through my words the masterpiece that is this movie), I would like to share my main interpretations and opinions about the characters and some of the situations that appear in this film, besides the animation.
I would sum up Kaguya's character as a human that it is not remarkably different from other humans, even considering the particularities of her birth. She develops a feeling of love for the place where she "was born", enjoying of the animals, trees, rivers mountains, and all those elements that surround her home, located in the countryside of Japan, a place she never forgets whereas is living in the city. Because of the context where she was raised, Kaguya develops some attitudes completely opposite to the way a princess must act and is constantly fighting to keep herself free, rejecting her wooers using her intelligence and, in some occasions, with little doses of good luck.
I watched this movie with my mother, and while we were assisting the film, she made some comments about Kaguya's father, pointing his obstinancy to the fate of his daughter as a princess, however, I think this attitude is well justified if we consider that he wants to fulfil what he thinks is the gods' will. In this sense, Kaguya's father represents the devotion to the gods and respect for them in the Japanese tradition; constantly looking for accomplishing the god's will even if it is opposite to his daughter desires. On the other hand, Kaguya's mother cares more than the father about her daughter feelings.
As I see it, the film focus on thinking about what makes a person worth and the marks that memories left in each person. In the movie, Kaguya faces the problem of being considered more than just a princess, a role that is closer to an ornamental figure than to a person, all that inside the ancient Japanese tradition that is portrayed in the film. To accept the marriage proposals of her wooers would turn Kaguya into an object that is appreciated by its beauty and for its uniqueness because those are the aspects that men rate higher about her. She is considered as a treasure that wakes up the ambitions of men and pushes them to try to possess her; she is considered through the eyes of those men just as a possession, and not as a human, neither as a free woman.
On the other hand, memories are what avoids Kaguya to accept her destiny as a princess. All the things that she lived in the countryside are probably the most precious and valuable things that she keeps in mind and, in part, those are the situations that build the end of the film. Before the movie concludes, Kaguya tells a speech about her feelings and what she learnt in her life in the Earth, giving and special importance to the memories that she accumulated and the fear that she feels for losing them, regretting the fact that she will not be able to remember anything about what she lived in the Earth.
To conclude, probably one of the most remarkable aspects of The Tale of Princess Kaguya is its animation which, in my opinion, is such a beauty. The film took eight years to be done, in big part because all the scenes were designed by hand and were coloured with aquarelle; the result: an incredible masterpiece of the animation, in which every drawing is a piece of art. Through these animations resources, the film is especially particular since the beginning until the end, specifically in those scenes that represent quick movements and wide scenarios. The Tale of Princess Kaguya is not the first anime film I have seen, however, it is the first one that is animated by that kind of techniques, and I think that its animation was one of the reasons why this movie has been prized and prised for the film community.
Do I recommend to watch this film? yes, I do. I think it is worth to watch a movie like this one, especially because of its animation which is, in my opinion, the best attribute of the movie, even better than the story, which is great, but not perfect in my opinion, because I felt that some situations were not well developed in the film. Finally, I consider it is important to highlight the fact that the script of the movie does not adapt the original tale in a hundred per cent; if you feel curious, after watching the movie, you can also read the original tale, which is not completely different to the film, but it has some slight differences that, as I see it, help the story.
If you have not seen this film, consider to give it an opportunity, I am almost sure that you will enjoy it. And, if you have already seen this show, please feel free to leave a comment and to share your opinions about it. I really appreciate that you took some time to read my post, thank you so much! If you want it, you can read some of my other posts.
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