The Tale of The Princess Kaguya - Blu-ray + DVD

"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was with child..." (Revelation 12:1-2)An astounding achievement, and one of Studio Ghibli's best. You could describe it as the antithesis to the Disney princess story, but that would undersell it. For the first two-thirds of this, it touches on everything from the miracle of childbirth, growing up, tradition and resistance to tradition, longing for another place. Princess Kaguya is presented with a great depth of intelligence and emotional maturity that Disney has rarely plumbed in their own heroines. I wondered where this might be headed, and then the endgame is revealed in the last half hour or so. Suffice it to say, I was not expecting such a poignant reflection on mortality. And then the specifically mentioned date of August 15 prompted me to see if there was any significance to it, and it turns out there is. August 15 is, in the Catholic calendar, the Assumption of Mary. This story was very much rooted in Japanese folk tradition, but it was nice to have that religious/spiritual connection to the West. Who knows, maybe Isao Takahata was Christian? Overall, I thought this was a beautiful story, thematically and visually, and one that will be worth watching again.

This is legitimately the best movie I have ever seen. I don't think a movie has ever moved me as much as this one. The story is beautiful and tragic. The animation is hand-drawn and often resembles traditional Japanese watercolor paintings. If you don't know already, the movie is based on one of the oldest stories in Japanese literature. If you have never seen the movie, watch it.The steelbook is entirely worth it for a movie this special. It looks very nice and comes with a booklet, as well as a documentary detailing the making of the movie.

This is a must see movie. Everything is carefully executed, especially color rendering. This is water color based, not oil color based. It has lighter, fluffy feeling and is more suited to convey dreamy atmosphere as this movie is based on Japanese literary tale. I like the ending scene in which the princess must go back to the moon. It means death, at the same time rebirth. Isao Takahata, co-founder of Studio Ghibli, is less well known than Hayao Miyazaki since his work is more for the grownups rather than for kids. His style is also different from Miyazaki’s as his is more like true to life, as shown in Grave of the Fireflies and Only Yesterday. This one is different from his previous works. He tries to show what he is after in seemingly literary fork tale. He leaves the job to you, the job to find true meaning of life.

I've seen a few reviews on the web criticizing this film for its lack of a common narrative structure. I'm a normie, and I only just very recently learned what art house actually is, along with grindhouse and the history of movie making and movie regulation and unregulated movies, and I just wanted to let other movie normies know but you don't have to take off Stars just because of the odd narrative of this film. Just look up the definition of Art House, and it can make a big difference in your ability to enjoy movies that diverge from the norms.

Amazingly beautiful animation and an incredible story that is a great way to illustrate the difficult side of being a "princess" for some that are princess obsessed.

The animation is beautiful and impressive at times. As the animator crowds know it's not easy to have your character play an instrument. Although "Snow White," did it way earlier. The story is also good and the plot goes in directions you'd never have expected. The main character is complex and feels real. She's just not interested in guys...how many films do you even know of that have the woman characters not clamming for a male lead. Really my only issue is the ending which felt wrong somehow. Why does she leave her home? I don't know. Something felt wrong about it. I guess that's not a good explanation you almost have to watch the film to understand.

A great film. Terribly sad. What the hell?

This is an extremely difficult dvd to find. Not only was it delivered promptly but it was packed very well as to not have any damage. My son loves this movie. Thank you